“Burn those who burned me!” Chapter 90

***Graceland’s POV:***

Olivia’s eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets at that comment.

Noah then walked towards us, fury in his eyes.

*“That’s enough! No one thinks the Rochesters are poor! As for purchasing clothes, you could have asked Graceland, you chose to-”*

*“What have you done to earn new clothes? Are you saying you’re too good to wear Livie’s hand-me-downs? Olivia is still adjusting to you being here, I don’t want her to feel we love you more than her?”*

Noah’s eyes widen at my response. Those were just SOME of the responses I received the few times I asked for new clothing. After a while, I got the picture and stopped asking altogether.

Calvin walked into the foyer just as Noah was about to answer. When he saw me, his eyes widen. Much different than this morning huh.

*“Graceland, you look nice. I trust you have everything.”*

*“I do.”*

He didn’t say anything else. Sharon shot him a glare, confused that he didn’t say much else. Guess he didn’t tell her about our little chat. Just then, Zelma walked into the foyer, her eyes wide open.

*“Sir, Ma’am. The Christiansens are here.”*

My face instantly lit up. Calvin and Sharon looked at each other and began to walk towards the vestibule.

*“Their representatives are here, please escort th-”*

*“No sir. It’s the actual Christiansens. Lord and Lady Christiansen themselves.”*

A small smirk came across my lips as I watched everyone’s faces begin to ashen. Sharon suddenly spoke up.

*“Are you telling me Theodore and Marla Christiansen are HERE?”*

*“Yes ma’am.”*

Calvin barked at Zelma.

*“Well let them in! Come, everyone to the grand room!”*

Everyone turned slowly and in confusion as they made their way to the grand room. As I followed, I could hear Sharon whispering to Calvin.

*“Why would they come here personally?”*

*“How would I know!”*

Squirming are we? The whole scene was absolutely hilarious.

A few moments later, Zelma announced the arrival of Lord and Lady Christiansen along with their bodyguards. I had to give it to my in-laws; they certainly knew how to make an entrance.

As Marla and Theo walked in, their faces began scanning the room…looking for me. As Calvin and Sharon walked up to them displaying their fakest smiles, Marla finally laid her eyes on me. Her face softened as we finally connected.

*“L-Lord Christiansen, Lady Christiansen! What a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to the Rochester estate. Please, allow me to introduce you both to my family.”*

Like foot soldiers, my three brothers, Olivia, and Jonathan all made their way to Marla and Theo.

*“This is my wife, Sharon Rochester.”*

Sharon bowed slightly, a huge smile on her face.

*“It’s a pleasure to meet you both, thank you for coming to our home.”*

*“Next, these are our lovely children. My sons Noah, Cole, and Brian.”*

All three bowed and extended greetings. The Christiansens said nothing.

*“And this is our beautiful daughter Olivia and her fiancé Jonathan Brooks.”*

Olivia smiled brightly.

*“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”*

Followed by Jonathan.

*“It’s such an honor to meet you both.”*

Marla and Theo continued to stand in silence, clearly making Calvin and Sharon nervous.

*“U-Ugh, please. Have a seat while we prepare some tea. Zelma! Prep-”*

Theo held his hand up stopping Calvin mis-sentence.

*“That won’t be necessary Rochester. We don’t plan on staying here for very long.”*

His voice came out like a general’s voice, commanding and powerful. Finally, Marla spoke.

*“You’ll forgive us for our confusion but if this daughter is marrying the Brooks boy, when do you plan on introducing us to the one marrying our son?”*

Marla’s voice was like silky ice. Calvin and Sharon’s eyes widen nervously as they looked around the room for me. It was sad really, even when it was supposed to be all about me they made it about their other children. Forgetting me was second nature for them.

As everyone’s eyes turned to me, Sharon’s expression grew annoyed.

*“Well, don’t just stand there! Come and meet your new mother and father in-law!”*

She barked at me like I was one of the servants instead of her daughter. Even in front of royalty she couldn’t hide her disdain. Marla shot her a glare, luckily for Sharon she missed it, Calvin however did not. He immediately became nervous, smiling a little too brightly.

As I walked towards Marla and Theo, Sharon began to speak her voice flat. A far cry from the enthusiasm they had introducing their other children.

*“This is our daughter Graceland. We hope that you show patience with her. We only got her back seven years ago, so she hasn’t had the adequate amount of training as our other children have had.”*

Marla looked at Sharon with a look of disgust causing her to shudder slightly. Calvin then spoke up.

*“Uh, what my wife means is Graceland may not be as poised and graceful as our Livie, but she will most certainly serve well as servant and caretaker.”*

Theo and Marla shot death glares at Calvin. In all honesty, they were doing an immaculate job at ruining themselves all on their own.

Marla spoke first.

*“Such prideful introductions for your sons and other daughter. Yet this is how you introduce the daughter you’re allowing to marry my son?”*

The color began to drain from Calvin’s face. Sharon began to explain,

*“T-That’s not it! Madam, I’m not sure if you were aware, but Graceland was taken from us when she was a-”*

*“Oh, we are aware. Did you think we wouldn’t investigate the family of the woman we chose to marry our son?”*

*“O-Of course.”*

Theo spoke next.

*“Did the two of you truly think we requested your daughter’s hand for our son just to make her a servant?”*

Calvin and Sharon’s eyes shot up in fear, this hadn’t gone the way they thought it would. Noah then tried to intervene.

*“Lord and Lady Christiansen, please forgive my parents if you felt they misspoke. What they meant to say-”*

*“You’re the brother correct? Not the father or head of household?”*

Theo glared at Noah causing him to back away while everyone else stood in silence. Finally, Marla smiled brightly at me, walking past Sharon and Calvin with her arms extended she embraced me tightly.

*“Hello daughter.”*

As I embraced her back, I caught a glance of Sharon, her face was ashen, and her eyes were red with fury!

Speaking loud enough for only me to hear, Marla smiled.

*“We’ll be out of here soon; we just want to verify something first.”*

I squinted my eyes slightly as I was a little confused, but I nodded in agreement. I didn’t know what their overall plan was, but I trusted them completely. Marla walked back over to Theo.

*“Well, we’ll be leaving soon, so, if you could show us where you had ‘our daughter’ sleeping. We’d like to get a general idea of what her tastes are.”*

It was something about the way Marla said, ‘our daughter’. I found my eyes betraying me as they began to water. Calvin and Sharon eyes widen as the final drops of color that remained in their faces began to disappear.

Calvin scrambled to figure out how to answer. Marla then spoke,

*“You didn’t have her living in a closet did you?”*

Everyone’s face began to fall. Suddenly, Marla began to laugh hysterically, an eeriness to her laughter making it that much more frightening.

*“We’re only kidding. Surly a family as prominent as yours wouldn’t have treated your own daughter in such a manner.”*

Guild began to spread across Calvin and Noah’s face while Sharon’s expression was blank. Marla then looked at her watch.

*“We’ll be taking our leave now. We’ll inform you all when the wedding takes place.”*

Turning to face me, Marla extended her hand to me.

*“Come daughter, let’s go home.”*

I smiled passionately as I grabbed her hand. Theo then ordered the guards to grab my violin and suitcase. We didn’t even say goodbye as we existed the estate.

Thus came an end to my life in that hellish house.