Chapter 103 - Triggering Buried Ghosts

Throwing a glance in Persephone's direction, Emma sighed. Why must she compromise on her dream wedding? She had been waiting for this day for almost eight years and when the day finally came, she was asked to compromise. 

Just how fair it was? 

However, she didn't hold the power to say anything or refuse the decision made by her father and father-in-law.

Things had always been happening according to the will of the men in their family!

And she, a mere woman, held no power to change any of the decisions taken by her father. 

How badly she craved to break all these traditions. 

"Though I don't want to appear nosy, I still have to ask out of concern for my daughter's big day," Emily said with slight hesitation. Still, everyone knew she was surely going to speak nonsense matching her personality."Everyone knows that you(Don Marino) wanted Persephone to get married first and this is the sole reason why Salvatore and Emmaline had to wait for extra years to hold their wedding. Won't you think people will talk now that Emma is getting married ahead of Persephone?"

Truth be told, Emily's concern was not in vain. For people like her who cared a lot about saving their face, she couldn't let people talk about what had happened at Persephone and Nico's weddings. And if Salvatore truly married first, wouldn't it prove their doubts right? 

"Who dares?" Don Marino asked in his usual monotonous voice, they still couldn't help but tremble under the sharp glint present in his eyes. These past days he had been more worried than the time his daughter was kidnapped, yet his authority was unchallenged. 

And the reason why he was more than worried was a matter to be talked about...but it was scheduled for later. 

As for what happened a week ago...was something he, Don Marino, didn't prefer to talk about. 

Richard gulped in place of his wife. Did his wife not know what consequences she might have to face if she insisted on jumping on the lion's tail? 

Or perhaps, he should let her face it once.

Only by facing the harshest of the punishment, she would learn why people feared Don Marino. 

Before anyone could say anything, Nico spoke up, "Emily, I don't think you have anything to worry about mine and Persephone's wedding. We will hold our wedding when it will be the right time to hold it." 

"And when that would be?" Ginevra ended up asking. She couldn't understand why her brother was hell-bent on marrying a woman who didn't even prefer to stay in his presence. 

"Whenever Persephone thinks," Nico naturally replied, glancing at her softly. 

"Can we not hold it at all?" Persephone muttered under her own breath but no one heard what she said. 

How sad! 

"You are still marrying her?" Emily couldn't understand when those words escaped her mouth. But it was too late to take them back. 

This time Persephone looked at her with furrowed brows. Could this woman not see it was her who didn't want to marry this man at all! 

He might look chic and polished but she had no interest or whatsoever in him. She couldn't imagine herself sleeping with one such refined and sophisticated young man. 

It takes a certain… to seduce her. 

But certain what? 

Furrowing her brows, she forced her brain to think what she was about to say? 

The word was on the tip of her tongue initially but now she couldn't even think about it. 

Why did it feel like the word that she was about to say was very familiar to her? 

Unconsciously, she clutched her locket in her hand. 

"Are you alright, Percy?" Nico's voice brought her out of trance. 

Looking at him in confusion, she nodded her head. "Yeah, why are you asking?"

She realized that her voice had suddenly turned hoarse. Just what was wrong with her body these days?!

"You are crying," Sophia gently said. Her brows were scrunched up in confusion and...perhaps pain too. Since when did this half-sister of hers start caring for her? 

And what did she say? She was crying? 

Touching her face, she felt that indeed her face was wet. 

Looking at her wet fingertips, she frowned. 

Why was she crying just now? 

Sophia couldn't be lying right?

Even if she was, what did those tears mean?!

"Excuse me" Without looking at anyone, she stood up and left for her room. 

….

Earlier, when Emily was once again saying something about the arrangement of the upcoming wedding, they heard Persephone sobbing suddenly. 

Everyone was shocked to see the girl who was just peacefully eating her breakfast breaking out in ugly and loud cries. Her cries were heart-wrenching. 

"Percy?!" Nico called her name. "What happened?"

But only if she would listen to him at this time. 

She was lost in another world. 

"What happened to her?" Carina immediately stood up from her chair and came to caress Persephone's face. "What happened, my sweet child?" Her heart was hurting painfully while listening to her ugly cries. Unconsciously, tears started forming in her eyes too. Hugging her daughter's trembling body, she whispered words of soothing but only if it would work on her. 

She might not have given birth to her but she never loved Persephone less than Sophia or Salvatore. She admitted that she wasn't as close to Lucien as she was to other kids, she still wasn't one to blame. Lucien sure respected him as she was his elder but she was nothing to him. He was aloof but Percy had accepted her as a mother when she came to this family along with Sophia and Salvatore. 

Even though Persephone was keeping her at arm's length these days, it still didn't diminish an ounce of love she had for her, if not increased her motherly instincts. 

"Sis?" Sophia was trying to make her older sister stop crying but the latter was sobbing hard and ugly. She admitted that she was not a very fine sister. She was not a bad person. She genuinely loved her older sister. 

Even Salvatore was seen with furrowed brows. Persephone was his sister too. How could he see her crying?!

It was only when Nico gestured them to take a step back and held Persephone's shoulder to shake her twice while loudly calling out her name, she had come back from whichever world she had gone to. 

"Are you alright, Percy?" Nico asked in concern when he noticed that she had suddenly stopped crying. She was looking at him as if he had offended nine of her future generations. In short, she found him annoying. 

He would rather see her annoyed at him than crying like that. 

"Yeah, why are you asking?" She asked him next. 

"You are crying." It was Sofia who said the following words. 

But judging from Persephone's expressions, it appeared that she didn't believe her. 

Touching her face, when she felt that indeed her face was wet, she frowned at her tears. 

Before they could say or do anything, she had left the dining room. 

… 

"Emily?" Carina called her when she saw her husband leaving after Persephone left the dining room. "Whatever happened today, I hope it won't happen again." 

Dumbfounded, Emily looked at her. "What do you mean?"

She had never believed that one day soft-spoken and kind Carina would talk to her like this. 

Lifting her chin, Carina said," Have you not seen what just happened? Your words triggered my daughter's buried ghosts once again. Can you, for the fact that you are a woman too, try to understand the horror the girl would have gone through?"

Even a fool could understand the horrors a kidnapped girl might face but Emily, a daughter of a daughter herself, refuses to acknowledge. Was she too cold-hearted to care about anyone else other than her? 

"Are you trying to say that I caused her to cry like that?" Emily asked as if she couldn't believe what she just heard. It was not her fault that Persephone had grown emotionally unstable. 

"Did you not?" Carina questioned her. 

It wasn't only Emily but Genevra and Emma too who were in disbelief hearing the woman's tone. She was Carina Marino for god's sake. The woman, whose voice couldn't be heard from a distance of two meters. She would always talk so softly and so submissively that none of them were able to believe that this woman was capable of speaking in such a strict and harsh tone. 

However, Sophia was not as surprised as them. Her mother had raised two fire-cracker daughters who would show their real selves when provoked. 

"Carina, are you perhaps trying to be Penelope?" Emily's tone was rather mocking."Don't you think you are copying her too much? Persephone is her daughter, it seems you have forgotten." 

Penelope. The name which was the cause of many people's horror. 

This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l. c o m (remove spaces). If you're not reading 'The Villain ' on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It's very heartbreaking to see pirates profiting from my hard work.. Please support the original author,(tanu_sam).