The Duke's Masked Wife

"If not Kate, I would have married you. It's a shame where you ended up. You would have made an excellent actress. I can see myself going to plays to watch you but it is better to have you here all to myself. Perhaps I will keep you until you bore me. You are like a pet I can use to get away from the outside world. My mother would have loved you," Simon said, looking back on his childhood.

"She always spoke of wanting a daughter. You are the perfect daughter to listen to her. Should we pretend to be siblings?" Simon asked, looking down at Bella with excitement. "We can speak about how cruel our mother was. How she would punish us if we did not answer her questions right or if we missed a step in our dance lessons. How we both wanted to crush her throat and watch the life leave her body."

"Father might have taken a liking to you and you would have felt suffocated. While I killed our mother, you would be the one to kill him. We would make quite the duo in killing our parents and then ruining this town after. You would all understand me if you knew what I endured. Behind my parent's smiles were two evil people who endlessly tortured their child when he messed up. I can still feel the wood she once beat me with for not being as smart as she wanted," Simon touched his arm.

Bella didn't care to understand Simon. He could tell her about his sad childhood over and over again but it would not justify the things he did now. Simon had no right to punish others for what his parents did. His parents were already dead so he should move on. There was so much Bella wanted to scream at Simon but to keep herself alive, she kept her mouth shut and pretended to feel sorry for him.

"Do you know what upsets me the most? When people complain about their parents over the smallest things. They have nothing to complain about like I do. I went to sleep with my arms sore from the bruises my mother made from hitting me each time I messed up reciting what she wanted me to tell the guest so I seemed smart and they could show me off. Your problems are nothing compared to mine," said Simon.

It was irritating to hear others complain about their parents not buying them a toy or a dress when there were others facing abuse.

Simon stooped down to Bella's level and taunted her by putting the torch close to her as if he wanted to burn her.  "My parents forced me to be perfect and it worked. No one could ever predict what I am thinking because all they see is a warm smile from a Marquess who keeps out of trouble. Unfortunately, I am my parent's child as I have fallen in love with seeing others put on a show.  I can't help it if my punishments are a bit more severe. There are so many young ladies in town to use, so why keep them alive?"

Simon stood up and placed the torch over Bella. "Since you are so well-behaved, I will let you have some light tonight. No need to thank me. I will introduce you to my bribe soon. If she gets jealous you are here, I might have to get rid of you. Then again, it would be fun to watch the two of you compete for my love. Maybe I should give you another chance to see if you are rid of your flaws. If you are better than Kate, I will switch your places. No, we can't do that," Simon realized why this plan would fail. "You're supposed to be acting like my sister."

Bella felt her hope disappear after Simon changed his mind. If she was able to get out of this place and walk around his home even if she was being watched by the servants who bring her food, she would be able to plot a better escape.

"You look disappointed," Simon smiled. "I like that. As another treat, how about I ask around about how your mother is doing? The poor woman fainted the last time I sent out a body.  Do you truly believe people can die from missing someone too much? We should test it out.'"

'Last time he said she didn't care about me,' Bella thought. She knew that was a lie but she believed what Simon said about her mother fainting. She needed to get out of there soon before her mother harmed herself.

"I wish I could stay with you longer but there is a wedding I need to prepare for. Did you picture yourself getting married?  I can buy you a wedding dress so you can walk around here to play pretend. Heaven knows you will never have the real thing. Unless I find some man I detest and bring him down here to wed you. There is a man named Kyle who I wouldn't mind getting rid of. I have much to think of," Simon said, giving Bella one last look before making his way out of the room. Lila's body was finally starting to get to him.

Bella quietly listened to Simon climbing up the ladder to leave the room. She listened closely for the click after he locked the door he used to come inside. Bella remained seated for a few minutes as there were a few times Simon would come back right away to see what she was doing the moment he left.

Bella had waited long enough and moved away from the corner she sat in each time Simon visited her. She scrunched up her nose to block out the horrible smell of Lila's body that she could taste on her tongue from how strong it had gotten thanks to the closed-up room. She tried not to vomit to make the small space she had a mess.

Bella pulled away at the wood on the walls. She used to pick at it out of boredom until one day she accidentally lifted a piece of it off the wall. She continued to try removing the wood carefully so Simon would not notice. Bella had to stop each time Simon brought in a new victim as Bella did not trust anyone but herself.

The other girls were too loud and would no doubt accidentally give away what she was doing to save themselves. Two people would make this work but Bella would not take the risk.

Bella sat in this corner each time Simon or a servant came inside to hide if there was anything off about the wall.

"Come on," she quickly pulled all the board she had pulled away at for numerous weeks. Bella carefully placed them on the floor to not damage them and took a deep breath when she found the hole she created. She had a hard task of figuring out where to put the dirt from her hole but she managed to hide it for now all over the room.

Her fingers ached from digging into the dirt behind the walls with only her fingers and a spoon she slipped away but she continued to make a hole the perfect size for her to slip through so there wouldn't be too much dirt for her to have to hide in the room. It didn't matter where it would take her as long as she could get out of this room.

Bella took the spoon from where she hid it in the hole and started to dig once more. "I am getting out of here alive," she said as motivation to ignore the pain and focus on digging.