THE HEIR'S UNWANTED BRIDE

CHAPTER 6- THE FALL

CELESTE'S POV

My hands hit the railing, and then there was nothing under my feet.

I was falling but my mind could not even catch up with what was happening. One second I was standing there. The next, the whole world turned upside down while the garden lights below me spun in circles.

Without thinking I reached out and caught hold of something, the edge of an old piece of wood from the garden frame.

The rough edge tore my palm, while my body reacted to it. For one second, I was just hanging there in the air with my legs dangling freely.

Hold... Please hold.

The wood held..then it broke, leaving me to fall to the hedges. The branches broke below me, one after another while leaves and dirt filled my mouth. The bushes were not soft but it was better than landing on the hard ground, which was probably the reason I was still alive.

For sometime I lay down there, thinking I was dead, until my body began to hurt while my back rested against the branches. I didn't feel anything was broken or so I thought, so I quietly stayed down there in the dirt; but then I gasped and it felt so painful in such a way I couldn't explain it. The second time even felt more hurtful.

When I moved my fingers and toes, I found out both of them responded, but the moment I tried to move my ankle, I felt such a pain that I can't describe. Blood was flowing from my palms, where the woods had sliced it open which added to my discomfort.

Suddenly, a sound from the balcony reached my ears.

It was not really a scream. It was smaller than that…broken, like something had cracked inside her.I lifted my head slowly and looked up.

Vivienne stood at the railing with both hands pressed over her mouth.Her eyes were so wide that I could see them even from three floors below, even in the darkness.She did not move or call down to ask if I was okay.She just stood there, frozen like a statue, staring down as though she could not believe what her own hands had done.

"Celeste."

Her voice was barely a whisper, but it drifted through the quiet night.

"Celeste... I..."

Then she stopped.She swallowed whatever she had been about to say, pressing her hands harder against her mouth.

I understood something at that moment. She really had not thought it would go this far.

Unfortunately...It had. My sister had pushed me off the balcony.

I lay there thinking about that instead of the pain because thinking about the pain only made everything worse.

Then, slowly, Vivienne stepped back from the railing, one step at a time and instead of coming downstairs to check on me; she turned around, and slammed the balcony door.She was running away from what she had done.

Somewhere near the house, voices began to rise. Maybe it was the staff coming outside to see what the noise was; but they were still too far away.None of them were close enough to help me yet.

Then I heard footsteps; fast ones.Someone running across the grass with shoes not made for running and almost slid across the gravel.

My heart jumped,for one terrible second, I thought it might be Margaret coming to finish the job before I could tell anyone what had happened. To my amazement it wasn't magreth, rather a man dropped beside me in the broken hedges so hard that I heard his knees hit the ground.

It was Damien,but his face was nothing like the one I had seen at dinner.Back there, he was so calm,cold and completely in control. As though nothing in the world could shake him but this was not that man.

His hands hovered over me, moving from my shoulder to my side, then to my ankle, afraid to touch me the wrong way.

"Don't move," he said. His voice was not calm either.

"Celeste. Look at me. Don't move." I looked at him.

With the garden light falling across the side of his face, I saw it clearly.The cold mask from dinner was gone.What remained was fear. Real fear, the kind no one could fake.His hand trembled slightly when it finally rested against my cheek.

"Celeste," he whispered again. "Say something."

"I'm okay," I said, though I was not sure that was true. "I... I think I'm okay."

He did not believe me, I could see it in his eyes.

"You fell three floors," he said,with His voice cracking.

"Do not tell me you're okay."

"I caught the garden frame," I whispered.

"It slowed me down."

"I saw it happen," he said.

"I was at the study window. I saw the whole thing." I was still.

"You... saw?"

"Every second.” His jaw tightened, his eyes never left mine.

"I saw her hands on you, I saw you hit the railing, I saw you go over." His voice broke.

"And I couldn't get down here fast enough." He had not come because he heard the noise. Instead he saw it happen, had seen Vivienne's hands around my neck and seen me fall and all he could do was run.

"Does it hurt to breathe?" he asked.

"A little."

"Your ribs?"

"Maybe."

"Don't move them," he said.

"Stay still until the doctor gets here."

"I'm not going anywhere."

The words came out weaker than I intended. Almost like a joke.Something shifted in his expression.For a moment, it looked as though he wanted to smile, but he couldn't.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke. I lay there staring at him. Three hours ago, he had been a stranger asking my father for my hand across a dinner table as though he were negotiating a business deal. Now his hand shook against my face as though I truly mattered to him. None of it made sense, nothing about tonight made sense.

Behind him, the entire house was lit up, a door slammed open and Voices drifted closer across the lawn.He never looked away from me.

"Mr. Chen!" One of the gardeners came running with a flashlight.

"Is she... what happened?" Damien did not even turn toward him.

"Get a car." His voice was flat and quiet. But it carried the kind of authority no one questioned.

"Now get Dr. Reyes on the phone before we reach the gate."

"Yes, sir" The man ran and another staff member hurried over and froze when he saw me lying in the hedges.

"Should we carry her, sir? We can get a stretcher from…"

"No one touches her but me." Damien's voice left no room for argument.

"Bring blankets…Move" Both men took off running. Another voice echoed from the house.

"Celeste? Celeste, is that you down there?" I knew that voice, it was my father. I closed my eyes, I did not have the strength to answer him.

"Stay with me." Damien's voice softened.

"Don't close your eyes, look at me." I opened them again. He was still there, still kneeling beside me in the broken hedges. He was holding my face and breathing too fast.Nothing like the composed man I had met at dinner only three hours earlier. His hand was still shaking. I could feel the small tremble against my cheek. He was trying to hide it but couldn't.

"Damien," I whispered.His eyes darkened.

"Who did this?" It was not a question.