"You and I weren't much different when I was a child I was always under huge pressure... from one side, my mother asked a lot out of me because she didn't want me to stay in the house for longer... it's only later that I came to know that it was for my own sake... I initially believed that she hated me."

"..." Fayette listened attentively.

"Even before I turned ten, I was already betrothed, my wife was going to be Francesca Anglesey the daughter of the house of a royal duke, one of the most beautiful and famous girls of the UK back then."

'I can recognise that name... indeed, she was his only wife.'

"My sister... Christine, she was three years younger than me... we had a very close relationship because the same was expected from both of us, we didn't have any friends, we weren't allowed to... and the ones that we were allowed to befriend would usually just provide lip service, trying to appease to my father in their parent's behest... just like me before when she turned ten, she was betrothed... the boy's name was Albert Hamilton, he was the most famous and renowned after me and the royal princes, we were originally intended to be betrothed to the Royal family, but my father rejected... even from then, his intentions were clear, I just couldn't see it."

Fayette obviously knows what he's talking about, she was the heir of house Blanchet, it's not a noble family, but it's a family with a lot of wealth and enterprises that stood at the peak of France for centuries, a branch of the Arnault family, her fate wasn't much different than his sister.

"We grew closer and closer until our feelings became apparent, we both wanted to flee that house, we both didn't want to marry... Albert and Francesca came to the house often and the four of us were rather good 'friends' but my sister and I only had one another in our eyes. Francesca was obviously infatuated with me, and so was Albert with Christine... our parent's alliances seemed to become stronger and stronger, to the point my father tried to keep me together with Francesca at all times while in the back, he took over the royal family's shady businesses with the Anglesey family, with time I grew some feelings for Francesca as she was really a sweet girl with the best intentions, but it couldn't compare to what I felt for my sister... this obviously made my sister upset as she saw me spend more time with Francesca more often... in order to spite me, she started spending more time with Albert and less time with me, but I could see the poison of her gaze whenever she saw me with Francesca."

"..." She didn't expect the life of two little kids to be so dramatic.

"At that time we were no longer little kids... we already had some notion of 'romance' and 'jealousy' and when I saw the two of them getting closer, I couldn't take it... one day we fought, hard, we even hit each other, I was always stronger but Christine was more intelligent, that however, didn't mean that she was weak... our father trained the two of us as if we were soldiers instead of kids... we fought harshly, she told me that she didn't like watching me together with Francesca, I told her the same... the fists suddenly turned into caresses, and then into kisses... and... well, you know the rest... we did it."

"... you did it with your sister when she was thirteen..." She sighed, what a mess.

"We were just kids Faye..." He scratched his head with a certain degree of shame.

"But you didn't stop... did you...?"

"..."

"Vale."

"No, we didn't... but we also weren't stupid, we knew that we did something that she shouldn't have but... we weren't willing to just stop, so we took our precautions, all kind of precautions, and continued..."

"..."

"From that moment on, I and my sister started to work and study even harder on ourselves, now we truly wanted to leave that place, only by leaving that place would we be together, the distance between us, Albert and Francesca eventually grew... and we were no longer the good friends that we once were... Albert hated me, Francesca hated Christine... they knew something was going on, but they didn't dare measure the deepness."

"However, in the end, it was all for nothing... we reached adulthood and despite our best achievements and ever-increasing fame, we were still subjected to house Wagner's rules... worse, mother discovered our relationship and pushed the marriages to take place quicker, she didn't want to go along with Magnus' plans... but she also didn't want to see us together doing those disgusting things, we were scolded, slapped and separated, my sister moved out of the house to live directly in Albert's family's mansion. I was moved to Francesca's family's mansion... and the marriages took place, first I married Francesca when I reached my 18th years... then Christine married Albert even sooner when she was 17th... they couldn't wait even a little more"

"..." Fayette thought it's kind of sad, as of now she doesn't like either Christine or Francesca, but if she had to choose, then it would be Francesca, perhaps her bias acting.

"Needless to say, our relationship continued secretly... we never stopped it, but it only grew more toxic... more possessive, into something wretched that shouldn't have happened... my relationship with Francesca didn't start badly, but it stagnated over time... she realised that I was cheating on her and that it was that Christine, it was too much of a coincidence that we would always be together in some key places, Francesca wasn't stupid and neither was Albert... the four of us were just enemies fighting in the background... keeping a pretentious visage to the front... and yes, we were found once doing it in a hotel in Germany after my sister successfully gave birth to Albert's son, if it really was..." It was never proven, he smirked right at the end with endless poison, that's why he would never forget the exhilaration that he felt when he finally plunged a knife right in Albert's corpse... yes, his corpse, sadly... he hadn't been the one to kill him.

"Do you think it was yours?"

"I don't know... it might have been, Christine never told me... she always said it was Albert's, the point is that after she achieved that, she really had no more reason to stay in that mansion, she accomplished what was expected of her, so we bought a house in Germany and moved there, yes... I technically moved there only going back to Britain every so often... I really... did Francesca wrong greatly... Christine might have achieved her goal, but Francesca didn't, it was much later that I knew she was taking the pill, she didn't want to get pregnant because she knew I would just go away after that, such a bastard I was..." even self-mockery is not enough to express how much he hates himself for this... not for going about with that relationship with his sister, but due to how much he wronged Francesca, perhaps, he could have done it a better way.

"..." Fayette really felt some pity for Francesca, she could place herself in the latter's shoes... after all, it's the same situation that's currently happening with Vera, just that it hasn't reached that extent.

"We spent a lot of time there and were eventually found out, Magnus somehow managed to hide my sister's expression from the picture and some mansion's maid passed as the woman in question, but Francesca knew better... and that's when things started to deteriorate, for the worse..."

"... and?"

"And that's the end of it, I answered your question so let's go and sleep."

"You can't possibly leave me like this!? you haven't told me about your mother yet! and what happened to Francesca! you have to tell me!" She shook him over and over, but Valentine's eyes were already closed within the darkness.

*Snore*

"Bastard!"

Fayette shook him over and over, but the bastard would keep pretending he was sleeping no matter how hard she squeezed him down there... it seems the game is finished.

...

Valentine's thoughts were marred with memories.

'What happened to Francesca? She's probably in the heavens... far away from me, as far as she can possibly be... the way it has to be... she fell in love with the wrong individual, a piece of shit that never treated her well or valued her, hell is really the right place for me, even without anger, even without killing a single soul, I'm still just a piece of shit with some good skills...'