Chapter 11
Chapter – 11
A unusually earnest plea caught Louisa Messena off guard during his advance.
He seemed desperate for her approval in that moment.
Listeners might mistake it for true longing.
Yet his motive remained singular and calculated.
Lowering her defenses would secure his position, open paths back to the capital, and fuel vengeance for his slain father.
Observing Romeo’s features hardened by hatred toward Tybalt, certainty gripped her.
Those were the traits of her familiar leading man.
Vengeful gaze matching the novel’s artwork.
Memory had nearly slipped away.
This purchased captive would rise as a merciless ruler, executing every relative upon claiming power.
Further atrocities awaited.
Traffickers who delivered him after his exile, buyers such as Rudy and Louisa herself.
He consigned them to flames, erasing every trace.
Emptiness followed his rampage, only mended later by the leading lady’s grace.
Her stunning appearance and gentle support.
Elena Burbage carried that role.
Adopted into the Burbage Marquis lineage, she hunted for him across a decade’s absence, embodying fragile purity.
Their paths diverged by a year and a half in the tale’s timeline, delaying any concern.
Destiny bound them regardless.
Original plot or her altered reality.
Leo Pierre benefited immensely.
Burbage power solidified his reign, while Elena shielded his fractured spirit.
Initially, he spurned her advances.
Someone worthy awaited a noble like her, perhaps fresher and more vibrant than his battle-scarred self; he’d step aside.
Decades amid filth and brutality armored him against tenderness.
Elena persisted undeterred, her vibrant sweetness drawing him in time.
Thus, his ploy rang utterly hollow.
Time pressed for the finale bow.
“Head out there if you’re bowing with the cast.”
Louisa snapped, rising from the wooden box.
Leo flashed a knowing smirk.
Predictable, as always.
He had pierced her secrets.
Contact repelled her deeply.
Emboldened, he escalated touches.
She avoided handling her acquisitions physically for that precise aversion.
Shin Sung-hyun scarred that boundary forever.
His repeated violations tainted intimacy.
For her former self, Shin Grim, every brush meant brutality.
Bruises, filth, degradation etched permanent wounds.
Yet she embodied Louisa Messena now.
Empire’s premier antagonist.
No lingering torment from a spiteful sibling’s schemes.
Theater beckoned unbound, stardom in spectacles, even baser pursuits.
Freedom defined her.
“Juliet, show yourself!”
“Mercutio, flash that grin our way!”
Adoration roared from beyond the wings.
Spectators danced to her whims, sobbing as Juliet perished.
Over-the-top flair had unlocked their souls.
Her fingers buzzed alive.
Fingertips prickled as she halted en route to spotlight.
Remembered his prior probing.
Why dodge the scripted lip-lock with clever staging?
She pivoted sharply.
Golden irises gleamed through fabric folds.
“You wondered about skipping the real one before.”
Dissatisfaction laced his directorial quibbles.
Eyes dropped to his palm instinctively.
Louisa seized his jawline.
Shock widened his stare upward.
Initial touch in this realm.
Filthy bastard spawn.
Shin Sung-hyun’s sneer reverberated sharply.
He often pinned her that way, save once when she struck his throat.
Secret sessions at a nearby ring honed her edge.
Feints masked her range, then a crisp jab connected.
Crack.
Silence gripped Leo.
She lunged forward, smashing lips to his.
Warmth yielded messily under pressure.
Yanking drapery aside unleashed frenzy.
Thunderous approval surged.
Bliss ignited her veins.
Echoes of first countering Shin Sung-hyun physically.
Payback’s thrill.
Madam’s reprimand dragged sleepless hours.
Not from pain.
Pure ecstasy.
Jubilation overwhelmed.
She withdrew, noting Leo’s features twisted in mortification.
Brows knotted, expression warped sourly.
Laughter bubbled free.
“Explains dodging that kiss, property. You broadcast every feeling like a novice.”
Villainy sharpened her grin without regret.
Spotlight crowned her flawless.
Smile widened radiant.
Applause cascaded endlessly.
No exits marred the throng; rapture held all.
Leo’s anticipated scowl froze instead.
Flustered traces emerged.
Awestruck by unforeseen splendor.
Abruptly, his arm snaked her midsection.
Hips ground insistent as he closed in.
Breaths mingled near.
Up close, Leo Pierre’s golden slits sharpened serpentine.
“Idiot owner. That hardly qualified.”
Hushed words preceded his claim.
Lips sealed firm.
Tongue invaded parting resistance.
Instinct urged recoil, yet eyelids fluttered shut.
Insane fool.
Self-awareness faltered amid the storm.
Arnaud Diencée occupied a second-tier perch.
Two hundred below erupted in unified fervor.
No doubts lingered.
Triumph guaranteed their split, Count.
Lady Louisa never bluffed.
Success shone undeniable.
From height, he tracked waves of emotion rippling groundward.
Sniffles marked tragic beats; necks stretched taut for clashes.
Ebullience dominated.
Curiosity seekers ensnared by forbidden romance.
Script review yielded mild surprise.
Unexpected polish elevated cliches.
Noble whimsy dominated, he figured.
Tragic crushes fueled debutante reveries.
Her confessed yearning stirred odd echoes.
Happiness befitting Juliet for Paris Count.
Pulse quickened uncomfortably.
Echoing that boyish flutter at first sight.
Ten-year-old Arnaud Diencée, upstart scorned as gutter spawn, eyed the celestial debutante.
Over years, cynicism painted her soulless.
Ambition alone propelled her.
Gems, finery, paramours glittered her orbit.
Love’s fantasy jarred from such a figure.
Absurdity aside, viability intrigued.
Theater acquisition demanded returns.
Villainess theatrics packed houses regardless.
Empathy flickered faintly.
Childish heart beneath her facade.
Even he softened toward romance lately.
Awareness dawned: her men served as baubles, untouched truly.
Accessories akin to trinkets.
Nine-year-old Louisa Messena’s isolation pierced through saline memory.
Excuses forgivable then.
Business thrived unthreatened.
So he reasoned.
Deeper layers unveiled beyond pages.
Innocent duo morphed rebels shattering elder tyranny.
Feud symbolized generational breach, not mere barrier.
Juliet blazed fiercest: venomous barbs fused pristine fury.
Parental scorn and worldly bile erupted raw.
Folly struck him for doubting her channeling youthful passion.
Insight crystallized mid-performance.
Juliet’s devotion stemmed from purest rebellion.
Romeo embodied maximal affront to cursed Capulets.
Any Montague rivaled Paris’s allure insufficiently.
Revelation electrified inexplicably.
Rejection incarnate onstage.
Exhilaration coursed unbidden.
Profits sweetened the victory.
Louisa Messena revealed anew.
First flame recast glorious.
Spot on.
Wise investment, beauty.
“Bound us profitably from the start.”
No longer.
Stellar run nullified holdout grounds.
Freedom granted willingly.
Arnaud pocketed his lens, intent on rising.
Halted by Juliet’s emergence amid uproar.
Curtain call unveiled unscripted union.
Roars peaked.
Stunned rigidity seized him.
Lurching to edge, gaze locked.
Fresh separation yielded instantly.
Vicelike railing grip betrayed fury.
Oblivion gripped briefly.
Louisa Messena embodied chaos incarnate.
Villainess unbound.
Dissolution? Unthinkable.
Binding her essential, debts mounting for extravagance.
Addressing attendant Alfredo:
“Tally Lady Louisa’s expenditures. Draft repayment ledger now.”
“Pardon?”
“Further.”
Desire blazed toward disheveled pair below.
“Boost theater funding. Triple prior sums. Debt service demands infrastructure.”
