Chapter 7 Aimee's Flower

[Aimee] Living here gave me the piece of mind that I failed to have in the past eighteen years. Here, I didn’t have to worry about my father getting angry all of a sudden or be wary of my two-faced stepmother. In fact, this place felt more like home. I started to look forward to the future. Even though I had no idea why Ares would allow me to live in his castle, he didn’t want to talk about it, and I didn’t linger on the question either. If living in the Hale family for eighteen years had taught me one thing, it was that if others refused to reveal the answer, asking for it persistently would only irritate them and make them hate me more. Suddenly, a knock came from the door. Thinking it was Mrs. Cynthia, I darted to the door. “Cyn– Huh? Ares?” Ares was standing by the door with his hand still up when I opened the door. Probably because he didn’t expect the door to open so fast, he raised his brows, looking surprised. Then, he looked down and stared at my bare feet. Embarrassed, I scrunched my toes and said softly, “I was too nervous.” Ares hummed a reply before bringing me to the bed, sitting me down, and doing something that astonished me. He bent over and started to help me put on my shoes. “Even if you’re nervous, you should know how to take care of yourself.” I forgot to respond for a moment. All I could feel was my face burning and my heart pounding. Ares was gentle and kind. He was nothing like the cold and emotionless man that others spoke of. After Ares helped me with my shoes, he went to the balcony and looked at the flowers I was tending. He even stroked the petals gently. He had touched the most special plant of them all, the one with the red petals and a green bud. More importantly, when he stroked the petal, the flower closed on itself. The little motion surprised Ares. “Aimee, how did it do that?” I covered my mouth as I chuckled at the fact Ares had never seen a Rory’s Kiss before. “It’s called a Rory’s Kiss. When you touch the petals, they will close up like this. It will return to normal after a while.” Suddenly, I thought of another trait of the plant and bolted up. However, I couldn’t stop Ares in time. He had touched the leaf. In an instant, his finger started bleeding from being pricked by a serrated leaf. “No! You shouldn’t touch that!” I quickly took a handkerchief to bandage his finger. “Its petals are shy, but its leaves are sharp. It’s my fault for not telling you beforehand.” Ares didn’t speak, so I assumed he was embarrassed for getting his finger cut by a leaf. After I bandaged his finger, I looked up and met his deep, dark gaze. “Ares, what’s wrong?” Ares shook his head and reached out to stroke my hair. “I’m fine. It’s not your fault. I didn’t expect you to know so much about plants.” I chuckled shyly. “I don’t know a lot, but because I spend a lot of time alone, I tend to distract myself with planets to kill time. They might not be able to speak, but when you water them and give them fertilizers, they will react.” I could go on forever about the things I was good at. It was only after I had been talking for a while, telling Ares all about the traits of the plants I had on the balcony, that I realized I had been the one talking the entire time while Ares had been quiet from the start. Did he not like it? “Aimee, you’re a knowledgeable girl. Can I have this Rory’s Kiss?” I was surprised by his request, but I happily held the pot of Rory’s Kiss and gave it to him. “Here, you can have it.” “Thank you.” Ares looked handsome when he smiled. He might be the best-looking werewolf I had ever seen. After Ares left, I looked at the empty spot on the balcony, wondering what the next plant would be. The balcony had limited space. If only… Then, I thought of the abandoned greenhouse and how I could plant a lot of flowers there. However, it was just an impulsive thought. The castle belonged to Ares, and he had been great to me. I couldn’t possibly ask for more. To my surprise, Ares offered for me to take charge of the greenhouse and plant some flowers there. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it. My eyes widened in disbelief, and it made him laugh. “Aimee, do you know you look like a certain animal when you react like that?” I instantly thought of the bulging frog, which was ugly. “You look like a little deer, a little deer lost in the forest.” Knowing that I wasn’t a frog but a little deer lifted my mood. Without a care of how a deer could get lost in the forest, I dragged Ares to the abandoned greenhouse. As soon as the butler unlocked and opened the door, the humid and warm air gushed out and assaulted my nose. What followed was the smell of plants and soil. I took a deep breath of it. Oh, I loved the smell of nature. The butler then instructed the gardener to remove all the withered planets. Soon, the greenhouse was spaced out, leaving only some yellowish grasses behind. Excited, I started to plan the future of the greenhouse. Thinking about what kind of plants I wanted in which corner and how I would arrange them was a delightful thing to do. The long-time gardener praised me. “Lady Aimee, you’re amazing. I have never thought of such arrangements. I believe it will be beautiful when the flowers bloom.” “Uncle Morian, I’m not that amazing. I just know a thing or two.” I even gestured with my fingers to emphasize that I only knew so much. As Ares wasn’t used to the stuffiness in the greenhouse, he left, leaving me in there planning the arrangement. I could imagine how beautiful it would be when the flowers bloomed. [Ares] Even though we were a door apart, I could hear Aimee’s laughter from time to time. What an innocent girl she was. However, it was because of her innocence that I strongly believed what happened when I met her that day was purely an accident. I heard she ran out because she was forced to marry Alger, the heir to the duke, and it made me wonder how she spent that night. If it weren’t a full moon night, Moonlit Pines wasn’t a safe place to be. She held many secrets with her, and to find out the answers, I must wait until the next full moon night. It was a couple more days until the next full moon. I may look forward to it, but if it wasn’t as I expected, using her to prove my thoughts might hurt her. For the first time in my life, I had a dilemma, but I didn’t dwell on it for long. “Aimee, if you were me, what would you choose?”