Chapter 312

Lady Melissa's conclusions were wrong though, as Lady Charlotte seemed to focus on something, her eyes darting across the room, desperately trying to find out where the bullets were coming from.

Lady Melissa had approached the woman, coming closer to her to tell the woman to evacuate, however, at that moment, Lady Melissa heard another gunshot, as this time, the bullet had come from the right, as her eyes darted slowly, wondering where the bullet was going to go before she realized.

There was a chandelier on top of her, as Lady Melissa immediately pulled Lady Charlotte into a hug, hoping that this way, the other Lady wouldn't get injured, or at least not severely injured, she owed at least this much to Duke Gaston. 

Meanwhile, Duke Gaston had just come back from escorting the Lady into safety, as his eyes landed upon the scene that was playing in front of him, as his mind raced, he knew that he couldn't save the both of them.

Duke Gaston ran and ran, he ran the fastest than he ever could, hoping that by some chance, by some miracle, he'd manage to get there in time.

Lady Melissa had been closing her eyes as she continued hugging Lady Charlotte. 'I guess this is how I die.' Lady Melissa thought, a sad smile on her face, at least this way, she'd die a hero for once.

However, just as the chandelier was about to hit Lady Melissa's body, there was a thud, as Lady Melissa slowly opened her eyes, confused on why she was still perfectly fine before she noticed that someone was protecting her.

Duke Gaston was there, he was using his shoulders and hands to prevent the chandelier from hitting Lady Melissa or Lady Charlotte, as her eyes darted across to the blood on his shoulders, noticing that the thud sound earlier must've been from the chandelier falling onto his shoulders, before he held the chandelier up, waiting for Lady Melissa and Lady Charlotte to safely get out of it.

Lady Charlotte immediately made a dash for it, as she ran and ran, whilst Lady Melissa soon followed afterwards, sharing a look with Duke Gaston, the both of them nodding their heads at each other.

Lady Melissa needed to find Duke Alphonso, if there was anyone that had the power and intelligence she desperately needed right now, it would be none other than Duke Alphonso, and she knew for a fact that he'd be here tonight.

Lady Melissa desperately looked through each one of the rooms in the Trafford estate, as there was a lot of chaos from the nobles, whilst the maids and servants kept their calm composure (if Lady Melissa were to guess, it was probably because incidents like these happened more than she'd like to believe so).

Lady Melissa thought that Duke Alphonso was in one of the rooms since she had heard one of the nobles say how he had left to go into one of the rooms to change his attire as he had accidentally spilt some water on it.

Lady Melissa's eyes couldn't believe what she was seeing, right in front of her, was Duke Alphonso, calmly drinking some champagne on his glass as he let out a smile seeing Lady Melissa.

Immediately, Lady Melissa knew that something was wrong, something was just- wrong, the look on his face, how he reacted seeing her, as her heart sank to her chest, as the realization settled in.

Duke Alphonso was a part of this, and most likely, he was the one pulling all the strings, all this time, everything that had happened with her and Lady Camilia was because of him, all the nightmares and all the torment and anguish she had gone through was because of him.

Lady Melissa's heart was pounding out of her chest, as she couldn't bring herself to bring up the fact that she had been betrayed once more.

Duke Alphonso knew that Lady Melissa knew about his identity, the look in her eyes was enough to tell him so.

"Why….why did you do all this?"

Lady Melissa asked, her voice sounding desperate as she desperately tried to hold back the tears that were forming in her eyes, as Duke Alphonso slowly and slowly approached her, Lady Melissa flinching when the man was about to touch her, as she averted her gaze from him.

"Tch".

Duke Alphonso said, as he noticed how Lady Melissa flinched under his touch, as he realized that she was…afraid of him, yet there was no need for her to be afraid of him, at least not in his eyes.

"I did this because I love you, Melissa, all these days and weeks I spent preparing this for you. Now with those pesky mosquitos out of the way, I finally have you all for myself. So, what do you say Melissa?"

Duke Alphonso asked as he extended his hand out to her, whilst Lady Melissa was filled with uncertainty, she knew that if she rejected she'd be dead in a second, but she knew that if she lied Duke Alphonso would be able to easily see through her.

Hence, why Lady Melissa made a third option, she was simply going to just try and somehow survive this, or at least she hoped so. She didn't have any time at all to think of a plan, so she was just going to improve this entire thing.

"So…you terrorized me with Lady Camilia just out of love? Why would you even do that in the first place? Why do you even like me? And what do you mean by saying that you had finally got rid of the two pesky mosquitoes?"

Lady Melissa asked, hoping that her questions would temporarily distract Duke Alphonso, and buy her some time, even if it was only for a little.

"Fine, I'll play along with this game of yours."

Duke Alphonso said as he let out a sigh, taking another glass of champagne.

"I didn't order Lady Camilia to terrorize you like that, and I apologize for her acting that way, it was never my intention for that, you can rest long assured since she's been exterminated permanently."

Duke Alphonso said, as Lady Melissa's eyes widened, she was correct, he was the one who was truly behind all of this.