A Dangerous Attraction

PART ONE • THE WINTER SEASON

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Isabelle Baudelaire's point of view

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THE LOVERS OF JUNE WAS THE TITLE of the most famous fantasy-romance series of books in the Dieulafoy Kingdom, which was written by a mysterious person called Florea Athanasian. No one knows who this person is; if it's a noble or a commoner. Or even a Royal.

They only know that this author is talented and was able to make all the readers in the Kingdom fall in love with his story.

Regarding the book itself, it was about a Queen and King from different Kingdoms who were destined to be enemies but were also childhood sweethearts. In the story, they were known as the Moon Queen and the Sun King. Natural opposite forces to each other, which caused lots of complications to their relationship overall.

The book series was huge, containing 9 books in total, and was supposed to end in the 10th volume. However, right when the 9th book was released, they announced that the last one was being written, which made all the avid fans wait anxiously for it. Until two years passed, and when the date set for the last book release came, it was suddenly canceled.

For some unknown reason, they announced that the author had decided not to publish the last book. News that caused a commotion even between the Royalty and Nobility of the Kingdom. But nothing could be done about it, after all, no one knew the identity of the writer.

Well, that's what's going around the entire Kingdom. Everybody has been talking about this nonstop. I genuinely feel bad for all the readers, but there was nothing I could do.

Oh, who am I?

Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. How unladylike. I'm Isabelle Delannoy Baudelaire, the only daughter and youngest child of Duke Florentin Baudelaire with his only wife, late Duchess Adelaide’s Delannoy-Baudelaire, ruler of the southern region of the Kingdom, and I also have the title of Countess.

As much as my middle brother has the title of Marquis, and our eldest sibling will inherit the title of Duke from our dad. Since he’s the firstborn.

Yes, I am the writer of The Lovers of June. Florea Athanasian is the pen-name I came up with. I began writing the series when I was around 14 years old, and now I'm 22.

No, I did not decide to just let my book series be unfinished like this. My dad made me stop writing. But that's a very complicated situation.

I began to have a passion for reading when I was four years old, and at five I was already able to write. My mom was still alive at that time, but she died when I was 10, because of an incurable disease called the Lahovary Thorns. A terrifying sickness that causes the victim's blood to get thicker and thicker until it's like cement inside their veins, and it ends up causing their death.

It's a fast death, though. My mother was dead within a week after the disease began to show its first signs, which is growing thorns in the person's skin. Horrible, isn't it?

I know. I still have nightmares with the image of my mother slowly dying in her bed, with those disgusting thorns growing all over her body until we couldn’t even touch her or both of us would be harmed. Completely hopeless.

When I lost her, I struggled to find a way to release all the feelings I was bottling up inside of me, and so, I began writing stories. But I only brainstormed the ideas for The Lovers of June after I dreamed of it when I was 13 years old. And I fell in love with it.

Then, I talked with my brothers. Adrien, who's 5 years older than me, and Mathis, who's 3 years older than me; and showed them the drafts of the story. They loved it, and Adrien suggested that I should publish it.

However, because our society is kind of against intelligent women writing books, or doing anything smart whatsoever, I asked Adrien to publish it for me as if it was him. He accepted but asked me to choose a pen-name for him because he wouldn't be able to publish it as himself, once he'll be the next Duke of our house. And that's how all of it began.

My brothers talked about the book everywhere and it began spreading. As people began loving the story, they began talking about it. Now everyone knows the books, although they have no idea it was written by me.

Or by a member of House Baudelaire. Not even our father knows about it. At least, he didn’t knew.

And they are all unaware especially because I'm not loved in high society. They all badmouth me for not being like the other nobles. After all, I'm not the most extroverted Lady in the Kingdom, neither am I polite, or superficial like all of them.

I'm quite straightforward, always on my own. Opposite them, I do not need saving, because my mom insisted that I learned martial arts and weaponry fighting when I was a baby. And maybe the fact that I bring a book to every social gathering I'm forced to go, may have made them gossip about me even more.

Of course, except the balls I have to interact with noble for work and political reasons.

But it's not like I don't appreciate dancing, talking, cooking, outdoor activities, or anything like that. Because I do! It's just that I lean more towards the fact that I hate their superficial and fake companies so much that I prefer to be with the characters of books than around them.

What's wrong with that? If they had more likable and honest personalities, they would see my extroverted side more often. While that does not happen, I'll just keep that side of me for my family.

Besides, being a wallflower in those superficial social gatherings is awesome. Do you know why? I can hear all the gossip unnoticed, and I love gossip.

Me and my siblings gossip all the time when we are together.

They are different from me because they know how to deal with those superficial nobles in a way I could never, neither do I wanted to. Which makes them popular and desirable to the Ladies. Be the nobles or commoners.

Although Mathis leans more towards the player type, while Adrien is more of a gentleman.

Back to my beloved book series; my dad never knew I was the writer, or that my brother helped me out with publishing the books in secret. He's a conservative person, but he's an awesome father, so don't judge him blindly for that. Yes, it's frustrating, but I understand where is he coming from.

My dad was a lover of books. He learned to love books with my mother, and he even gave her a gigantic library as their wedding gift. But after she died, he just... never touched a book again, unless it was related to politics, economy, history, and boring things like that.

I don't blame him. Everybody copes with grief differently. While my way was writing, dad's way was never touching a fiction book again, as much as he loved them, because it reminded him of my mom.

And being a conservative person, he didn't like the idea of his only daughter being a writer of fiction novels. He lost his mind when he learned it was me, because he found the draft of the last book in my chambers, and he not only yelled at me but at my brother as well. My dad's a clever guy, so, he knew both Adrien and Mathis had helped me out with this and encouraged me.

Believe me, it got worse than that. He got so incredibly pissed, that he burned all of my writing tools. Oh, he also threatened Adrien and Mathis saying that if they dared to help me out again, with writing, he would take away their titles, and riches, and wouldn't make Adrien his heir anymore.

I had never seen my serene dad like that. It was scary. Never had I thought about how it would hurt him if he knew what I was doing. And I also never thought it would remind him so much of my mom.

It made me feel terrible. Like shit.

But yeah, of course, it could get worse. Dad made sure it would get worse.

He told me that he would only allow me to write again if I got married to someone of noble rank and who was part of one of the high-rank noble Houses. It was an expected threat, once he's on my toes talking about marriage since I had my first period when I was 14 years old, the year I began writing my book series. But it was still a nightmare-argument coming to life all over again, after I managed to avoid it for as long as I could.

My brothers were scared because of our dad's reaction, for both me and him. His health wasn't the best since our mom died, so we've been trying to be careful. And my brothers knew of my dream of keep writing and my distaste for the marriage matter.

It was a bomb between us and dad. Especially between me and him, after all, my brothers may have been mildly affected, but all the damage was directed to me. I was the series’ mysterious writer, not them.

For two months we stopped talking to each other, until I began to feel like trash, and decided to concede his wishes. If I hadn’t, being proud full the way he is, he would never come to me even if he was going through the worst type of torture possible. But in my way, of course. After all, I have no desire of falling in love, especially not with a noble.