Four Failed Engagements

Cassandra ignored the sobbing that soon echoed inside the living room as she brought her shopping bags to her room and arranged all the clothes for her.

It certainly wasn't the first time when she saw something and didn't help anyone. Helping them would change everything.

It would have devastating effects on the cycle of life.

Cassandra thought about an incident from the past when she had helped a kitten and saved it from the running car. True, the kitten didn't die.

But on her way home, she had seen the same car in another accident but that time, it had hit a woman—a pregnant woman. The police had said that the car's brake was broken. The driver couldn't control the car and accidentally hit the woman.

Cassandra couldn't help but wonder if it was because of the kitten. If she had not saved the kitten, then the car would have hit it and then a tree nearby. In her vision, the car didn't even catch the fire and she saw the driver stagger out of his vehicle, wounded but not dead.

She learned that changing the fates of animals could also change the fates of other people. Thus, she stopped doing it. Or at least, she learned to ignore the visions and stopped involving herself in other people's business. Of course, there were still instances where she would warn people. Just like how she had warned Almera all those years ago.

Just like how she warned her grandfather about a car accident that would have killed him just after her fourth engagement was announced. At that time, her grandfather survived, and the accident didn't happen. However, the consequences that followed were brutal.

Cassandra thought about her brother who used that car with his fiance. Cassandra didn't see it coming. The visions were unpredictable like that. They wouldn't show her what she wanted to see. Her vision wasn't able to save Selene, Carmichael's first love.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft knocking.

"Come in." She sat on her bed. The shopping bags were all around her.

"Young Miss, the Old Master wanted you to visit his study."

"Is he alone?" she asked without looking at the maid.

"Master Penry is with the Old Master."

Penry La Roche, the man who raised her spoiled cousin Almera!

She wondered what that man was doing there.

"Alright, I will be there." She stood and walked toward her grandfather's office located on the opposite side of her room. It was in the east part of the mansion, where the sun directly hit and the view of the Zealandia Sea was pretty good.

Contrary to her room that had only the view of a small forest, her grandfather's office was in the perfect location to have a morning coffee with a soft breeze coming from the nearby sea.

While most people loved that view, Cassandra thought it wasn't as beautiful as everyone said. The warm air coming from the sea would make her feel sticky. She didn't like it.

"She is already twenty-four! I am telling you, Father… we need to beg other families to take her, we need a new engagement. Women of her age already have kids, father. Are you not concerned about this matter?"

Cassandra stopped in her tracks when she heard her uncle's booming voice. Another engagement? A fifth engagement?

"Penry, I already said no to this even before she arrived in Zealandia. I don't want my granddaughter running away and living in morgues! Stop forcing this engagement on my granddaughter and take care of the divorce of your only daughter instead!"

"Father —"

"Enough!" Cadell La Roche's voice boomed. "I received a few invitations from families. I already declined everything. The only reason why I agreed to the previous engagement was because of your insistence. Right now, it is not the time for that."

"You are spoiling her too much. This is why she had been the subject of the rumors since her arrival yesterday. Not even twenty-four hours and people are already talking about her manners and failed engagements! She had become the laughingstock of Zealandia! The La Roche Family is already the laughing stock since she left… two years ago. Now… everyone is looking at us as if we are jokers!"

Cassandra stood there flabbergasted, her hand was in the air as she attempted to knock on the wooden door but failed as she listened to the conversation. Almost immediately, memories of the engagements and the horror that the family endured because of her appeared in her mind.

Her first engagement was with her long-distant cousin. He was gay. She saw it from one of her visions. The man only wanted to marry her to have a secure future. After all, the people in Zealandia weren't as accepting as the ones outside.

The second engagement was with a man named Philip. He was handsome and rich but he loved to tie women and make them bleed. The moment Cassandra saw her future, dying in the man's hands, she immediately told her grandfather to rescind the engagement.

The third one was a person who wanted her family's money. The choice was obvious there. Cassandra wouldn't let anyone use her for their own gain. Especially not men.

Then… the fourth one. The man who tried to kill her grandfather by sabotaging his car. Cassandra hadn't seen it coming.

She only found out about it right after Selene's death. Cassandra's face turned dark as she recalled Seith Daniels' smug smirk just before she killed him. She could still recall the man's horrified scream when she burned him with her elemental fire.

The darkness in her face disappeared, and it was replaced by what could be called as sinister. Aside from her, no one knew about what she did. Everyone assumed that Seith just ran away and left Zealandia because the La Roche Family found out about his evilness.

What they didn't know was the fact that the man, or at least, what was left of him was still in Zealandia, buried in her backyard.

To be fair, his ashes made her roses very beautiful that very next spring.