„Life is like a hunting dog: it stubs its fangs into the enemys’throat when they less expect this.”

„I met Audrey more than 40 years ago,” Alice Huntington started her story while she and Christine were on a bank that was deeply entering the sea, but which was also high enough to be considered dangerous in case one would have fallen off it, for he wouldn't have only sunk into the water’s depths, but also break into pieces, hardly hitting the small rocks seen at the bottom of that hilly and cliffy wall.

At their feet, bathing from the depths of the sea those rocks seen everywhere around that bank, the tormented sea was acting up, splashing around with foamy water drops, with drops of hatred and of longing, for namely off that bank Audrey Thorn fell about 40 years ago, and the witness of that falling has been a young girl, who barely turned 15.

„Her huge desire to rule the world and be the queen of everybody killed her eventually,” the old lady murmured, staring at the noisy gulls seen floating above the white waves of the sea. „And the worse enemy of her has been the love, for Audrey fell for a forbidden man, someone who wasn’t her husband.”

Christine, who was staring at a blind spot at that moment, at the sea that was stretching all over in front of her, said nothing, for even if she knew that her mother vanished somewhere long ago, she had never expected that namely the sea has been her grave eventually, for Audrey Thorn always hated the sea and namely the seawater received her into its arms and covered her body with its soft and cold cloth of water eventually.

„Yet… I don’t understand where from you know all this, Mrs. Huntington,” muttered Christine eventually, still staring at the gulls and at their fabulous flight above the foamy water.

„Because I’ve been Audrey’s friend. Yes… we’ve been friends,” said Alice, barely heard, and a painful sigh came out of her chest. „At least this is what I thought then: that we were friends. But… I understood later that I’ve been so blind having trust in your mother, who actually destroyed my life eventually, splashing my soul with mud and leaving me broken inside.”

Finally, Christine could take her glance off the gulls and stare at the old lady’s face. Thus, she saw Alice’s eyes shining because of tears. And she has been so amazed to find out, so suddenly, that her mother had had friends once. „Why?” Christine eventually managed to ask, after minutes in a row of watching in silence the playful game of a strand of hair, pulled from Alice’s bun, which was moved back and forth on her forehead by a playful gust of wind that was blowing from the sea. „How could my mother destroy your life, if…?” she suddenly shuddered. „Have ever been part of the „Red Ants?”

Alice Huntington smiled instead and her sad smile, somehow filled with sins, said a lot of things, even maybe not all true, because… „no, Mrs. Bircham. I’ve never been part of that devilish organization, even if I had the chance to enter it. Yet: life forced me to accept the hug of the sins and be part of them.”

„To be part of the… sins?” asked Christine confused. „What do you mean?”

„That I blindly trusted friendship and love. And… my rackless desire of being famous and rich made me accept a pact which I shouldn't have ever accepted.”

„A pact with my mother?”

„Yes, it’s true what you said, for… maybe you don’t know this, but I loved once so much. But… the young man who conquered my heart was poor while I was dreaming about fortune and family.”

„Something he couldn’t offer you.”

„Exactly. Yet, even so, I was more than prepared to give up on my dream to live in luxury only to have him by my side. But… it was not to be. Thus, Bardain eventually left, leaving me alone with my unfulfilled dreams.”

„Bardain? Brian Beneath’s teamster?” asked Christine in amazement, almost shouting.

Only then did the old lady look at her, smiling: „of course! Or… how do you think I’ve met Bardain? Your mother, Audrey, was the reason why I met my big love in life, for… in her desperate attempt to make Baron be by her side in everything, she took me almost always with her when she had to meet him, hoping that Baron will fall for me and, this way, she’ll have the chance to take advantage of that relationship. But life never supported her, just as it has never been by my side, for… even if I didn’t know her plans about Baron, I always accompanied her like her friend. Thus, I met Bardain. Eventually yes, we broke up, and I, because of the big pain felt in my chest, I asked your mother for a loan to start a business. But, as I had no experience in this, I could only gather more debts. And… to pay them… those debts… I became someone’s mistress.”

„Christopher Hall!”

„Exactly. But it has been your mother’s request, who, at my request to give me some time to find the money to pay my debts, she told me then: „you can pay them very easily, Alice. Be Christopher Hall’s most important person, give him a boy, and… you’ll have the whole world at your feet.”

„And you accepted,” said Christine grinning.

„I had no choice, for… I couldn’t have paid otherwise my debts. Or at least this is what I thought then, for… if I had had the mind and the wisdom I have today, I would have never accepted that shameless pact.”

„Why? Just because you failed then, it doesn’t mean you couldn’t succeed with someone else. It was only a matter of time to find the right person to put the whole world at your feet,” said Christine cunningly.

Alice smiled instead, with all her heart, and this made Mrs. Bircham stare confused at her. „And… Christine, have you ever been happy being the mistress of many?” and this questions stubbed Mrs. Bircham’s chest, deeply entering her soul, something that made her feel a bitter taste on the top of her tongue, for even if she had never regretted being someone’s mistress and she even liked to live this way, at that moment, she felt so weak, so small, and so dirty inside. „As far as I see you haven’t been happy,” Mrs. Huntington added. „And it couldn’t be different, for… being someone’s mistress doesn’t bring happiness to anyone: it didn’t make happy Helen Walker who unwillingly became Alfred Stonebridge’s mistress only because she loved him a lot. And Stonebridge not only killed Helen’s soul - but he also made Eva suffer, who also became someone’s woman without being his wife. Thus… because of our stupidity, we are just a group of unhappy mistresses, who got only deep wounds and scars on their souls and skin eventually. Yet… they’ve been left alone, for… to be honest, Mrs. Bircham - even if you got to love Luis Chesterman in the end, he preferred another woman in your place, much younger than you actually and someone who can give him something he wanted so much - an heir, something you and Marianne always denied to give him.”

„You could haven’t mentioned that gorgon in this talk,” snarled Christine, staring again at the gulls that gathered in a big group above the sea, giving it a weird color.

„Why? Per contra: I think I’ve mentioned her name just in time,” and these words made Christine stare again confused at Alice. „Do you remember that I told you at the beginning of our conversation that Audrey fell for a forbidden man?” and Christine nodded yes. „Well, that man wasn’t anybody else than Mathew Loran, Marianne Chesterman Loran’s father.”

Hearing the name of her rival, with whom she competed all her life, and more because her mother fell for a forbidden man who was actually Marianne’s father, Christine shuddered… once… and once again… feeling certain nausea, even if she didn’t know why she felt it. Eventually, she understood why: because she did a lot of things for Marianne, just to have profit, to hear eventually that they didn’t only share the same man, but also their mothers had the same love. „What’s this life?!” Christine snarled eventually, squeezing her fists till she felt pain in her palms. „The one with whom I’ve competed all my life for a man’s heart could have been my sister,” and Christine grinned again, somehow weird, for she felt confused and trampled under feet inside. „Now I agree with you: that we are not more than a group of unhappy mistresses, for… I, my mother, and even you… we’ve been all the mistresses of the men we love while those who we hated so much were their wives.”

„And… I think you’ll have one more reason to hate Marianne Chesterman Loran since now on, Mrs. Bircham. Or… maybe not only one,” and Alice looked again at the sea, which was struggling with a strange force that was coming from its depts, something with what could be compared to the old lady’s soul at that moment. „Because… beside Marianne has been your rival for an entire life, she has also been your sister, and… the one who pushed Audrey into this water, killing her eventually.”

Brought to her knees by life, with her soul in the hell’s flames that widely opened its gates inside her, Christine stared thunderstruck at Alice’s face, who wasn’t looking at her anymore. Yet, she was still there, even though they had never been friends.

***

The small room that Marianne Chesterman Loran kept closed for ages finally saw the light of the day when she dared to put the key in the lock and open it, making a deafening squeak all around the hall.

Then, barely crawling her legs, Marianne entered. But her breathing was interrupted, just as her heart barely beat in her chest. And… it wasn’t the first time she felt that for… she felt that anxiety so many times in the past while being just a child and when she heard, almost every day, the fearest discords between her parents. And all those arguments had a start and a final point - Audrey Thorn, because, as Alice told Christine, Mathew Loran made Audrey his mistress and, because he fell for her so badly in the end, he got to forget that he had a wife and a daughter waiting for him home, a child that loved him so much even though he had rarely time for her.

And… remembering that huge love she felt for her father, actually her first big love, Marianne’s eyes filled with tears and she finally dared to get closer to the table on which a lot of small portraits were seen, and she took a portrait of her father in her hand eventually where he beautifully smiled and was so handsome, even if that picture has been taken more than 40 years ago.

Eventually, when she felt that bitter tears are bathing her cheeks, Marianne approached an armchair and sat on it, still holding that small oval portrait in her hand, a foto of her father smiling so kindly… a smile she fell for still being a child and which she kept in her heart for an entire life.

„Daddy…,” murmured Marianne eventually. „I miss you so much,” and she held the portrait to her chest, staring with longing in front as if she saw her father at that moment.

And her state of mind wasn’t random, for, after Mrs. Huntington’s visit and her harsh words told by her, Marianne felt that the storm and the pain turned back into her soul, a pain she wanted to be forgotten, but which was so stubborn to cling to her like a leech. Actually, it wasn’t something that weird, for it was closely related to the big secret Alice mentioned, for that secret was about a crime committed by Marianne Chesterman Loran when she barely turned 15, the day she finished the reign of Audrey Thorn and also stopped the line of huge sufferance of her mother, who got to cry a lot and every day, knowing that her husband spends his days in the arms of another woman.

That day, on the fatal day when Audrey Thorn died drowned, Marianne witnessed another shocking event: her mother tried to kill herself after another fight with her husband. Marianne instead didn’t ever find out the real reason for that fight, for if she had found out that her father told her mother that he has a child with his mistress, a child he wanted to recognize in front of society and of law, Marianne would have gotten rid of Christine too. Thus, the one who paid for all her sins has been only Audrey, who Marianne decoyed on that bank to push her later into the water.

And… to decoy her there, Marianne took advantage that her father was out of town with business and she wrote a letter to Audrey in his name, a letter where he was confessing to his mistress that he must go for a while because the things with his wife got worse and even if he wanted to leave that town with her, knowing her married, he didn’t dare to ask her to follow him. Yet: he would have loved to see her for at least one more time before leaving, in the same place they loved to see each time they decided to have some time together.

Thus, even if Marianne had no idea if they had such a place or where it could be, she found it, following Audrey, who, right after receiving the letter, gathered a few things in a hurry and left the house, convinced to follow her beloved man, for being so in love with Mathew, she forgot about everything she once wished. That’s why she didn’t take her teamster with her. She only told him that she must see someone important and that she’ll take only a small Victoria carriage and a horse. And… it has been the last time when someone who knew Audrey saw her alive.

And… once arrived on that bank bathed by the seawater, Audrey descended from the driving box and approached the steed edge of the abyss that was opening in front of her and on whose bottom the water was fighting with the rocks. And… being alone there, she decided to wait, thinking that Mathew probably had something to do and that he’ll come later. That’s why she didn’t bother at all to look at who came when she heard a carriage approaching the place, for that place was known only by the two of them. And… it has probably been Audrey’s biggest mistake for she believed too much in herself and love.

Only when she felt footsteps approaching her, did she turn toward that person, wide-opening her arms to receive her lover to her chest. Instead of love, she tightly hugged her death, for Marianne, controlled by a fit of mad anger, seeing the „intruder” smiling so happy when her mother almost died that day, suddenly pushed Audrey, with all the force she was capable of that moment. And, because Audrey was so close to the abyss edge, even if she was so afraid of heights, she lost balance and fell, being soon swallowed by the sea.

Marianne instead wasn’t alone there… Mrs. Huntington was also there, frozen, half away from her and staring at the sea which killed eventually her friendship with Audrey Thorn, washing her honor thus, for she got to blame Audrey for everything that happened to her in that life and especially for her big mistake of being someone’s mistress.

That’s why she probably didn’t even try to warn Audrey about the big danger that was approaching her, in the form of a crazy teenager: just because the hatred covered her eyes, probably, with a thick peel. Yet… she had regretted too much her moment of weakness later, just as she got to regret the fact that she helped Marianne to save herself that day.

Actually, Mrs. Huntington got to that place by chance, for she went that day to Audrey’s house to tell her that she’ll finally give birth to a child of Lord Hall. But, once arrived on Bircham’s property, she saw Audrey leaving in a hurry and another carriage following her. This amazed her a lot and she decided to find out the great mystery behind all this. But… she shuddered with all her body when she witnessed that unexpected crime… unwillingly.

Yet, at the moment the young Marianne fell to the ground, madly shouting and punching her chest and head, blaming herself for what she did, Alice approached her in a hurry and tightly grabbed her by the wrists, hissing her through her teeth: „never ever talk about this, Marianne or you’ll also get to be prey to the same worms that will finally Devore Audrey’s body. That’s why… keep your mouth shut and never remember what happened today.”

After that, she left the girl inconsolably crying, lying on the ground, and she approached Audrey’s carriage in a hurry, to check what she left behind: thus, she found the letter written by Marianne and the small luggage Audrey took with her. Then, she grabbed them and threw everything that could be used as evidence into the water, into the same water that swallowed their master. And when all this was done, she forced Marianne to stand up, the two unhooked the horse, slapped its back to run away and, the two of them pushed Audrey’s carriage toward the edge of the abyss, letting it fall eventually into the sea. Then, they got into Marianne’s carriage and Alice pulled the reins. But before that, she told her teamster, a man about 40 that was frozen, sitting on the ground, and staring at the sea after witnessing such a monstrous scene, to keep his mouth shut and take her carriage on Lord Hall’s property, without saying a word to anyone about what happened that day.

And the poor man never said a word: part because of the fear of not being also punished for that crime, for he knew very well the big influence Lord Hall had, and partly because he received a lot of money from Alice, who actually has been generous enough for his silence.

Yet, the fact that Alice and Marianne came back home together that day amazed a lot of people, for they all knew the hatred Marianne felt for the young „companion” of her grandfather.

Even so, even if they experienced together that painful event, Marianne and Alice had never talked about this, just as they never became friends. Per contra: they always tried to stay away from the other, and this was not because they were afraid of the other, but because none of them wanted to recall that day.

Actually, they didn’t have to bear each other for long because, 7 months later, Alice gave birth to a dead boy, and the doctor told her that it was probably because of the big stress suffered by her. And even if the doctor was right, Alice never said a word about what made her shudder all those 7 months. She preferred to be forgotten by her old Lord and live her life in a big shadow.

Yet… it seems that not only the two of them knew what eventually happened to Audrey: Marianne’s mother, Estelle Hall Loran, found out about that terrible event one night when Marianne had one of her usual crises and, among mumbles and crazy words, she told her mother that she killed someone. Thus Estelle, who already found out that her rival was missing, put two and two together and understood who her daughter actually got rid of. That’s why, she decided that if she wants Marianne to forget everything and especially to stop having those famous crises she had in the last 5 years after Audrey’s missing, she had to force her to marry Luis, who she gave the control of a big mine which he always wanted, but he couldn’t have because Christopher Hall always denied him the right to buy it.

Thus, Estelle bought her daughter’s „happiness,” without knowing that, in fact, she was willingly throwing her into a new hell, one which she had to live for an entire life, suffering because of the same curse Estelle suffered in her marriage. Thus, mother and daughter shared the same destiny, sharing the same man with another woman. The cruel difference consisted only in the fact that Marianne shared her husband with her sister, even if none of them knew about this.