The Duke's Masked Wife



"I have always thought of you as my little sister. No amount of feuds between us could ever change the fact that we have the same father. I stopped caring for you as a sister when you would go out of your way to make my life hell. Did you really think you could come here, call me sister, and I would release you? Do I seem so desperate for a family in your eyes?" Alessandra asked.

"Do you have any idea what it takes for me to come here and practically beg you to release my mother? You of all people?!" Kate exclaimed, frustrated that this was where life brought her to. To need to ask Alessandra for help so she could have her mother back. It was already bad enough that Alessandra stole her life as Duchess.

"I know how much it must have taken you to come here," Alessandra said as she was well aware of Kate's pride. "Your love for your mother is the only thing greater than your pride to bring you here. Unfortunately, your travel here was all for nothing. I have no intention to help you simply because you request it, Kate. I am not going to carry on letting you be spoiled. Letting you get what you want when you ask for it."

"Is it not enough that you have everything while mother and I were left to suffer? It is time that you stop acting like a saint. There was a point in our lives when you rubbed that you had father's favor in my face-"

"At what point was that because I remember being unhappy with him thinking of me as his prized daughter? Parading me around like a doll. Never once did I boast about it or rub it in your face. If anything, I never wanted you to face the pressure of it, but you wanted to get all of his attention and I would have done anything to let you have it since you desired it so much. You and I were good for a few years until your jealousy grew," Alessandra said.

It would be hard for anyone in their lives now to believe, but there was a point in time when she and Kate acted like sisters. Katrina sometimes pull them apart, but since they only had each other in their home, they would find each other and play. That stopped when Kate desperately wanted their father's attention and Katrina got into her head. 

"You and your mother ruined the chance of us being good sisters. I did nothing to you. Even now when I could make your life hell, more than you have experienced with Simon, I have left you alone. I did not comment on your wound which I could be enjoying right now. You need to realise that I have never done something to you first. It was never my fault that father wanted a favorite, but you grew up placing blame on me," said Alessandra, but she felt like she was wasting her breath on Kate who would never understand her words.

"I am sorry for the way I treated you in the past. For what happened with your face and everything else that hurt you," Kate apologised. With this, she hoped Simon would stop bothering her about Alessandra and Alessandra would move on, letting her mother go.

"And everything else that hurt me?" Alessandra released a dry laugh. "We both know that you are not being sincere Kate. I am not looking for an apology from you at this point. I would have welcomed one when the incident happened or right after when you used father's disinterest in me to toy-"

Kate angrily approached the gate. "Why do you keep placing the blame solely on me for what happened to your face? You ruined it further after me!"

"I can always admit to the fact that seeing my own sister be so angry with me that she would attack me and the frustration of having my worth surround my looks made me finish what you started. It is because you like to forget what you did that I must remind you of your part. If we were not found in time, you would have thrown the lantern on me. To let me burn," Alessandra replied, thinking back to the look Kate gave her when she stood over her with the lantern.

"What was wrong with you for you to hate your sister so much to think of burning me? It has to be more than jealousy," Alessandra said as she failed to understand how Kate had so many deadly thoughts at such a young age. She saw the nasty tricks young ladies pulled now, but they were merely children when Kate attacked her. "Perhaps, there has always been something wrong with your mind. That is why you could never understand why you were-"

"There is nothing wrong with my mind!" Kate yelled, angered by those words coming from Alessandra. It was already hard to follow her mother's words and believe that there was nothing wrong despite the fact she kept seeing Simon from time to time. She didn't need Alessandra to be the one person to believe something was wrong with her mind. "I am begging you to please release my mother. We shall go far away for you to never see us. That should make you happy."

Alessandra wished Kate would pay better attention to what she was saying. "I am very happy even with the two of you living in the same town so why should I just let you leave? After everything, you cannot just come begging me and expect I would let you leave. If you are not aware, your mother has hurt other people."

"You do not understand. Your husband has twisted the truth. My mother was once a victim. Taken advantage of by men," Kate's eyes filled with tears as she spoke. "She has suffered enough. I will make sure she never returns and live a quiet life with her."

"She was once a victim who turned around and hurt others. It was wrong for men to use her and create the person she is now, but for me, she is a cruel woman. I cannot ignore the things she has done to me in my youth and suddenly hug her to comfort her for all that she endured. It is not only me she has hurt. She left the children of those men she stole from with nothing. As disgusting as their fathers were, the children did not deserve it," said Alessandra.

Kate felt lost since Alessandra was not going to accept her offer. She could not deal with the aftermath of Simon alone or take care of a household on her own.  Kate was not ready to be on her own. It was already hard to leave home and show her face. She was only outside to get her mother and then leave as they planned.

Alessandra suddenly had a solution to end this once and for all. So the court wouldn't have to keep digging around and the truth would be revealed. "I will have Edgar release your mother on one condition. Go to the court and tell the truth about what happened to my face. Tell them about my time living with all of you. Confess to everything and I will have Edgar release her from our dungeon." 

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