Brianna was very happy to hear that Henry had successfully arranged everything necessary for them to be alone.
She noticed that there were no armed men around the pond, and she knew that this was Henry's doing. Brianna ran into her room and brushed her hair. She wanted him to think she was beautiful. Unconsciously, of course. She believed that if she showed a little vanity, she would reward him for helping her escape that fate. And although she found him beautiful and attractive, she hadn't yet experienced the love that her mother had told her she would feel in her dream.
But she knew that she could feel things for that man that she had never believed were really possible, far from her imagination. Henry awakened dreams and desires in her. He awoke hope in her. Hope of having something that she could take with her forever. Something that no one could ever steal from her. Henry could be the answer she had been waiting for. Henry could be her option.
She left as soon as she saw the car that Dester was using drive past the house, towards the large gate. She went to the pond, and her anxiety only increased when she realized that Henry wasn't there yet. She decided to sit down and think about her situation. Perhaps it would take a payment to help Henry make up his mind to help her. She had a lot of money in the bank and was determined to give away her entire fortune to get rid of that fate.
Brianna felt a hand on her shoulder and was startled. But relief came quickly when she turned back and saw the blue eyes of her dreams. They were so beautiful as a whole. He smiled as if he could read her thoughts, and sat down next to her.
"Waiting for someone?" He asked jokingly.
"My whole life."
Henry stared at her, as she seemed to concentrate on the lake.
"I talked to Dester about you."
"Did you tell him we met? That I told you about the abuse?" Brianna wasn't really worried about that possibility. She was resigned. She knew that her fate was sealed and that there was nothing she could do to escape it. That's why Henry couldn't read the expression on her face.
"I wouldn't do something like that, ever... He told me himself before, I also asked around, and his story was confirmed."
"And you're going to help me?"
"I don't know anymore. You don't seem to be anxious to get rid of your imprisonment."
Brianna turned to him.
"I won't allow myself to get my hopes up. People get hurt when they have hopes and expectations."
"Dester told me about your wedding. He has a lot of expectations. He thinks you're going to make a happy family, full of children with dirty noses running around the mansion."
"I won't have his children if fate pushes me to stay with him." Brianna said and went back to staring at the lake, but her mind was far away. She saw a child. A girl, with green eyes, but with all the physical characteristics that resembled... Henry. On a cobbled street, barefoot and smiling happily. She couldn't touch her, but she knew she was her daughter.
The desire to see Henry again was too great, and she feared her predicted fate. So, before she took her own life, she was going to live out the desire that was in her heart. That was the decision she made as soon as he sat down next to her. He would be her intense adventure before the end. But she wouldn't try to seduce him. She would let him make the first move. He would be the only and last pleasure in her life. There was no point in filling her mind with visions and pushing her towards Dester. He was just the man who made her have no reason to live anymore. She was in his hands, and she wouldn't live with someone like him. She preferred death. So she wouldn't mind if Henry didn't want to help her escape.
"How will you prevent a pregnancy? He won't let anything harmful into the mansion. From what I know of him, he's probably already prepared a menu of foods and medicines that you won't even see, so that your fertility will increase. And I don't think, from what I've heard, that you'll have the option of refusing him in bed."
"It doesn't matter how I stop him getting pregnant, he's worse than my grandfather. I won't be the one to give him children to raise with the contempt he has for women."
"Is it a spell?"
Brianna laughed and looked at him.
"Yes. I'm very good with spells."
"I realized."
"How did you figure it out?"
"You cast your spell on me as soon as you looked me in the eye for the first time. I couldn't stop thinking about you."
"Exaggerated! You met me this morning."
"As I understand it, it was like that with Dester too."
Brianna laughed heartily.
"It was the other way around with him. He met me months before my grandfather introduced us. And I didn't feel anything for him when I saw him. But you... You awakened something in me. And I already knew I was going to meet you. Your eyes haunted me in my dreams."
"Are you saying that you already loved me when we met?"
"No. I didn't say anything about love."
Henry looked at her thoughtfully.
"I had a proposal to make to you..."
"Really?"
"You're fragile. You look like someone who's given up on life... I don't know how to act."
"Make your proposal. I was curious."
"If you answer me truthfully, I'll tell you what I was willing to propose to you."
"I'll be honest."
"What do you intend to do in order not to beget Dester's children?"
"First, I thought about castrating him... But he would beat me, and kill me very slowly after that. So I decided that a painless death would be better."
"How would you kill him? Have you seen his size?"
"I would never wish a painless death on Dester."
Henry stared at her in surprise.
"Are you... Are you thinking of killing yourself?"
"Decided, actually."
"I won't let you do that."
"There's only one way to stop me."
"By getting you out of here..." Henry added.