Phantomhives Alternate Ending

Bitterly, Bella le Rayne wondered if all Phantomhives were heartbreakers. She remembered Madame Red and let out a snort. Yes…that was a sound theory. Closing her eyes, she tried to envision how the late Baroness lived, imagining herself falling in love and watching the man marry her own sister, envisioning being a wife and a mother only to have the two harshly pulled out of her life.

But she couldn’t.

Instead Bella could only envision a boy, his pale face set in a hard line, his navy blue tinted bangs falling in front of his eyes, one of them covered by an eye patch while the other revealed cold blue eye that stared at her emotionlessly. She saw herself, head down, dark brown waves serving as a curtain to hide the flowing stream of tears.

“It’s a wedding invitation.”

“Oh?” A smile made its way to her lips and she turned her gaze back to the mirror. “That’s great! Whose wedding is it?”

“His.”

The invitation was a slap to her face, a blow running so deep that she was surprised the carpet wasn’t already stained, dyed with her crimson blood. The breath was knocked out of her; an invisible force slowly tightening the cord around her neck as she tried to see if she understood correctly. No, she was correct, she wasn’t deaf. It was an invitation to his wedding.

She wondered whose idea was this. She wondered if perhaps his damn fiancée knew, suspected something and was now sending this invitation for mockery, taunting her, hitting her where it mattered most.

She sent her reply. She couldn’t attend the wedding.
*****
It was a cloudy autumn night and the chilly wind that drifted past Bella’s bare shoulders was a reminder that winter was fast approaching. Sighing, she wondered what it would take for the man next to her to leave her alone. Despite his persistence she didn’t find him annoying, in fact she took it with grudging