The melancholic chords of the cello vibrated through the floorboards of the music room, a heavy, weeping sound that seemed to mimic the gray mood hanging over the estate.
Noelle’s fingers moved across the strings with practiced precision, but her mind was entirely elsewhere.
Through the arched glass window, she watched the sunlit patch of lawn by the ancient family tree.
Her mother, Lucy, was laying out a checkered blanket, her laughter carrying faintly across the distance as Lolleta chased a blue butterfly through the tall grass stumbling with her chubby little legs.
It was a picture of a healthy family picnic.
Lucy had knocked on Noelle’s door an hour ago, gently coaxing her to join them in the fresh autumn air for picnic together and play with the little Lolleta.
Noelle had wanted to.
She had craved the warmth of her mother’s embrace and the innocent, bright energy of her little niece.
But she had forced a cold, polite refusal instead, not because she wanted to, but because Lloyd, her oldest brother, had cornered her in the corridor earlier that morning.
His hand had clamped around her wrist, his voice a low, threatening venom that explicitly forbade her from leaving her quarters today.
*”Stay inside, Noelle.
Family gatherings are for those who add value, not burdens and you shouldn’t play with demons.
That child of Harry’s, she is the devil’s incarnate and I would hate to have you close to her evil energy….listen to me because I only want what’s best for you.”*
Now Noelle, she was seated all alone in the vast, empty room.
The silence that followed the fading cello notes felt heavier, wrapping around her chest until she could barely breathe.
Her loneliness morphed into a deep, suffocating depression.
It felt as though the high stone walls of the McGuire estate were slowly closing in, cramping down on her fragile world until she was entirely crushed.
Sighing, Noelle let her bow rest against the music stand.
Her hands lifted, and with fluid, quiet movements, she began making a series of rapid hand gestures—using the sign language to communicate with her personal maid standing near the door.
*I am tired.
Please clear the room and excuse me.
I am going to take a nap.*
The maid bowed respectfully, stepping forward to tend to the instrument.
Noelle stood up, wiping a stray, unshed tear from her cheek, and cast one final, longing glance out the window toward the courtyard wishing to be part of the picnic.
But just as she raised her eyes towards the giddy child, Lolleta.
Her heart instantly stopped.
The blood in her veins turned to absolute ice, surprised.
Down in the yard, casting a long, jagged shadow across the gravel path, stood Lloyd.
He wasn’t moving.
He stood perfectly still, his hands tucked into his coat pockets, looking toward the family tree.
Noelle shot up from her bench instinctively, her breath caught violently in her throat.
Every nerve ending in her body screamed in recognition.
She knew that look.
She knew that dark, calculating, and utterly repulsive gaze from Lloyd because it was the exact same look Lloyd had targeted ‘her’ with before his cruelty had thoroughly broken her spirit.
It was the gaze of a monster assessing a possession, a predator eyeing his vulnerable prey.
And for the first time in her life, the paralyzing fear that usually kept Noelle submissive vanished, replaced by a sudden, white-hot spark of protective fury.
She couldn’t let it happen again especially not to Lolleta.
She could not sit idly by in her self-pity while history repeated itself.
Lolleta was pure, innocent, and completely unaware of the monsters hiding within her own bloodline.
More than anything, Noelle thought of Harry.
Harry, her dearest older brother, who had endured his own private hell, who had fought tooth and nail against the Mayfairs and the world just to keep his daughter safe.
If something could happen to Lolleta while he was away, it would kill him.
And not to mention that Harry had always tried to protect Noelle when he was there.
Now, it was her turn.
It was her turn to return the favour and protect his only child, her only niece…
Lolleta.
Noelle gripped the edge of the window sill, her knuckles turning white as she kept her eyes glued on Lloyd’s silhouette.
She had to do something.
She had to become the shield Harry needed at home, even if it meant stepping directly into the path of the brother she feared the most.
Lolleta would not experience the hell Noelle went through—not while Noelle still drew breath and she will make sure of it.
“Don’t even think about it.”
The cold, authoritarian voice cut through the quiet of the music room like a blade, shattering the silence behind Noelle.
She froze instantly, a sharp gasp catching violently in her throat as a wave of pure, instinctual terror paralyzed her limbs.
Slowly, she turned.
And standing in the doorway was her father, Gerald McGuire.
The true master of the estate, and the man she feared above all others.
“Don’t even think about helping her Noelle…not now and definitely not ever,” Gerald said, his voice level, devoid of any paternal warmth as his heavy footsteps crossed the threshold.
“–because who is helping ‘you’?”
Noelle’s chest began to heave rapidly as panic took hold.
She took a frantic step backward, her back pressing against the cold glass of the window pane, her eyes wide with a fright that made her entire frame tremble.
“Let Lloyd be,” Gerald continued, his gaze drifting momentarily toward the window, looking down at the innocent child playing by the ancient tree with her grandmother Lucy.
He paused, stepping into the dim light of the room, his eyes locking onto Noelle with a chilling, clinical detachment.
“A child who used to laugh and chatter away until our ears bled… suddenly grew mute. It was the demon’s possession taking hold of you, wasn’t it?…. But you are my daughter Noelle, and I will grant you mercy because you were only the victim of a possession. But do you see that little demon over there?” He tilted his head toward Lolleta.
“That is a pure demon, tainted by the blasphemous rituals of the Mayfairs using your brother’s blood. They have truly bewitched Harry, and he is entirely beyond saving, along with his daughter alike. So don’t turn you back against ‘god’ by helping her.”
Gerald took another step closer, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly calm register.
“And you… you can still be saved.”
Noelle shook her head aggressively, tears of sheer panic finally spilling over her lashes.
She struggled, her throat working furiously, desperately trying to force out even the tiniest sound, a scream, a whisper—anything to break the silence—but nothing came.
She took another desperate step backward, but there was nowhere left to run; her back was firmly pinned against the window sill.
Gerald slowly approached her.
As he walked, his hands moved deliberately to his waist, loosening his heavy leather belt with a sickening, rhythmic click, before unzipping his pants.
In that horrific, frozen second, the fog of the past cleared, and a devastating realization crashed over Noelle’s mind.
For a moment, she had forgotten.
She had forgotten the root of the rot in this house.
The sole reason why Lloyd treated her with such cruelty, the reason he felt entitled to dismantle her spirit and enforce her isolation, was because this very man—their father—had allowed it.
No–..
that’s not the case…In fact Lloyd hadn’t just been allowed.
From the very beginning, Gerald had started it.
The generational hell of the McGuire estate didn’t belong to the shadows; it came directly from the man standing right in front of her.
Her very own father….and she was not the first.
Her very own older sister had suffered the very same fate….until it led her to her death.
And now–…now she was next.
But she would never let Lolleta suffer from these men’s cruelty.
******
QUICK HINT: Gerald and Lucy have three children from their marriage, Kristen McGuire (The deceased eldest daughter), Lloyd and Noelle.
But as for Malfoy and Harry?…Mhm you can take a guess yourselves.
ABOUT THE MAYFAIRS & THE McGUIRES: The McGuire family is a generational family of religion that oversees the national cathedrals.
The high position gets passed down as a legacy to keep the McGuire name afloat in the religion realm and maintain the high status under the support of the royal family.
The Mayfairs stem from the royal family’s heredity, hence their power rivals that of a monarch (But that’s a story for another day).
And with the feud between the Mayfairs and the Royal family, the McGuires sided with the royal family since their ideals and goals aligned against the Mayfairs.
Harry and the rest of the kids have no business with the political feud but their vendetta stemmed from something else entirely, something that had to do with Harry & Andrew’s childhood friendship and with the involvement of their grandfather, William Mayfair.