Page 80 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

“You tell me.”

Isabella could feel it coming. The pent-up rage in her sister. The anger she had been consumed with these past few days building and readying to explode because she wanted to let her feelings known.

“It’s you, Isabella. That is what is wrong.”

“Me? What have I done?”

“Of course you do not know!”

“How can I know if you do not tell me?”

“You wish to know?” Louisa demanded. “You really wish to -- I am through being there for you, Isabella,” she cried. “I have tried. The Lord knows that I have but… but... but I just cannot do it anymore. I am sorry.”

Isabella leaned back, more confused than anything. “Being there for me? Louisa, what on earth are you talking about?”

“You and His Grace!” Louisa cried. “This… this façade that you have thrown up and just expect me to go along with. Time and time again, that is all I do. And I am sick to death of it, Isabella. Sick!”

“You’re jealous?”

“I am not jealous!”

“I do not know what else it could be,” Isabella said. “And where I do not expect you to be happy for me, Louisa, I do expect you to treat me with some common decency.”

“And why should I? When all you do is lie.”

“When have I lied?”

She scoffed. “I do not believe for a second that His Grace has changed the way you claim – or that you have, for that matter! For weeks you told me what a monster he is, and now what? He’s suddenly an angel borne from heaven and --”

“I never said that!”

“It’s all a lie,” she continued hotly. Furiously! “I have tried to work out why you are lying. I have thought about it for days and days, Isabella. And I cannot think of a single reason, save for the fact that you are scared.”

Isabella laughed, because she could not help herself. “Scared of what?”

“Of being hurt,” she said, the anger fading, taken now by sadness. “Worse than that, admitting for a change that you are – that this perfect marriage is not what you have told us and then having to face the fact.”

“Louisa…” Isabella had no idea what to say, or what to make of her sister’s outburst. “I –"

"And do you know what the worst part is?” Louisa sniveled, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “It will not last – it cannot last! For a few weeks, maybe. Even a few months. And all the while you will rub it in my face and force it down my throat because youloveknowing that you have what I never will.”

“Louisa --”

“But then it will change,” she spoke over Isabella, her voice turning thick. “It cannot last, you know that. The Duke might be kind and caring now, but that is not who he is. I know it because you have told me countless times! He will change, he will hurtyou, and then I am expected to be there for you when all the while I knew this to be coming because even a blind man can see the truth.”

Isabella scoffed as she attempted to rear up and shoot down Louisa’s arguments. “I am having a hard time understanding what exactly it is that you are upset about? Is it that I am happy? That my happiness will not last? Or that you are doomed to die alone and for some reason this is all my fault?”

Her chin was wobbling furiously. “I am angry because ever since we were little girls, your whims and fancies have been my burden. When you are upset, who do you think it is that comforts you? When you do not get your way, who is it that has always been there to help? Me!”

“Oh, I am so sorry to have burdened you with the chaos of being my sister,” Isabella said sarcastically.

Louisa shook her head, eyes now welling with tears. “You wish for me to be happy for you? You wish for me to dance for joy because for once you and the Duke are not fighting? And then what? When he hurts you, when he pushes you away, when he turns back into who he has always been? When you come to me in tears as you always do...” Her face dropped, her chin shook, tears streamed down her cheeks. “I do not think I will have the energy for it, Isabella.”

“And here I was, thinking that as mysisteryou would support me. No matter what the cause.”

“You cannot have it both ways. You cannot expect me to be over the moon for this --” She shook her head in Isabella’s direction. “And then curse the man’s name when he hurts you. And all the while, as you filter between love and madness, I am left to wonder if I willeverexperience what you have. Even if it’s only for a moment.” Her lips curled and she shook her head again. “I am happy for you, Isabella. But that does not mean that I do not have the right to be furious. Furious because I know that he is going to hurt you, even if you refuse to admit it. Furious because… because I hate to see you hurt, and every time that I do, it kills me. It truly does.” And with that, she turned around and lay back down.

Isabella was speechless.

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