Revenge of the Duchess

Chapter 1

But her body wouldn't obey. She could hardly lift a finger towards Luke to give him a well-deserved slap. The stress of discovering Luke's fidelity, the fall, and her illness had sapped all the strength from her once powerful body. Annabeth could only weakly glare at her husband. He hadn't even come once during her ten hour long labor, only coming when the baby had been delivered to see the gender.

The midwife lowered Annabeth's daughter to her side. Although one of Luke's people, the midwife had some pity in her heart for the wife of Count Luke. Every other servant in the mansion was hired by Luke, and they knew of the stale relationship between the Count and his wife. They treated Annabeth with cold indifference.

Annabeth turned her head towards her darling daughter, with her still wet blonde hair plastered to her head. Her daughter was an angel to her, a small beam of light. And like an angel, her daughter soon flew into the sky, leaving nothing but a cold shell of body. The newborn had been born too early, impacted by Annabeth's fall and long-term illness during the pregnancy.

Annabeth's heart broke when she realized she could not hold her baby in her arms. And she never would again after the midwife removed the baby's body from the room. Luke turned his back onto her and exited as well.

Left alone, Annabeth felt a fever crawl upon her. She was bleeding from giving birth still, but no one checked in on her. Except Lady Kelli slipped into the room.

"Oh, no, no need for you to get up to receive me," her cousin said sarcastically.

Had it all been a lie? Annabeth wondered. Her cousin had the sweetest face and disposition, but now Kelli's face held nothing but triumphant contempt for her cousin and benefactor.

"So sorry to hear about your child, my dear Annabeth." Kelli cooed. "But don't worry, you'll follow her soon."

Annabeth wanted to scream and yell. What did Kelli mean?

"You're going to die soon, so I have no problem letting you know." Her brown eyes were alight with a deadly, fanatic excitement. "Have you been wondering why you've been sick these past months? Luke and I have been poisoning your tea every night. And you never suspected a thing!" Kelli squealed.

Damn. Damn it all. Every day when Annabeth worked in her office, Luke or Kelli would bring in a cup of tea on the pretense that the workaholic Annabeth should take a break. She should have known it was suspicious that Luke had never done such a thing in their first two years of marriage. Gods, how stupid had she been?

"It's a slow poison," Kelli exclaimed. "I wanted your death to be as slow as possible."

Why? Annabeth thought. She had given Kelli all her support. What had Annabeth done to her cousin for all of this?

"All my life, I have been compared to you, you know that, Annabeth? My father was born two years younger than yours, and because of that your father became a Baron while my father had start from scratch. You had everything, and I had nothing! Nothing!"

That wasn't not true! Annabeth wanted to scream. Kelli's father was a hard worker, but his wife was an extravagant spender. Whenever her uncle made money, her aunt and cousin would spend it all until nothing was left. Even now, Kelli was decked in an elegant jewels and a dress that showed off her big bosom. The dress was pure white, ironic for the demon Annabeth felt Kelli was. Annabeth felt even sicker the longer she looked at Kelli's dress. It was a wedding dress, Annabeth realized.

"But you know what's funny, lovely Annabeth? When you got engaged to Luke, I was already with him. Oh yes, I was. In fact, I encouraged your little engagement." Kelli said. "Because now, I finally have something to give to you. I could give you my man in exchange for a little patience and the jewels you gave me. But I could take him back at any time."

Annabeth felt the poison slowly work through her body. Her body was getting colder by the second.

"And now I will," Kelli said happily. "After your death, your company will be given to Luke, and he will marry me. With all the wealth, Luke might even be made a Duke. So you're not needed in this world, my dear cousin. Have a nice afterlife!" Kelli said sarcastically.

Annabeth's anger reached her limit. Was that it? Was her life going to end like this? All her life she had tried to please others, please her family, please her husband. When had she ever lived for herself?

Tears of bitterness fell down her pale face. Kelli placed a pillow over Annabeth's face, but Annabeth couldn't even turn her head to avoid her fate. As the last of Annabeth's life slipped away, she cursed and swore revenge on those who had harmed her.

Unbeknownst to Kelli, the simple pearl necklace Annabeth wore underneath her nightgown glowed with an inexplicable light. 

Three days later, the twenty-six year old Annabeth and her daughter was laid to rest. Everyone who was there swore they had never seen a prettier corpse or a more sorrowful husband. The funeral was as befitting for a Countess. But after the funeral, any servants who could be sympathetic to the former Countess were fired from the Castellan mansion.

There were rumors after Count Luke quickly courted another wife, one who was the cousin of the former Countess. But the new couple explained that Luke had sought marriage from the Chase family, and since the first bride of the Chase family had passed away, it was only his duty to take on another bride from the grieving Chase family and to heal her sadness.

Annabeth's grave soon lay forgotten and untended except for the visits from her blood-related family and strangely, one other man.

The man, dressed in all black, lay a single blue rose on top of Annabeth's grave. May you find happiness in your next life, the dark-haired man prayed.

That night, the blue rose took root in Annabeth's grave, feeding on her grief and anger her spirit exuded.

"My lady? Annabeth! Master, Mistress, come look! Lady Annabeth is awake?"

Footsteps rushed to her bedroom.

Annabeth blinked open her eyes. Was that all a dream? It had been such a realistic dream, living through three years of her life as a wife of the Castellan family.

Her grey eyes landed on a red velvet canopy above her. Hold on. Her bedroom at the Castellan mansion was white silk, not red velvet. This was her childhood and family bedroom.

"Oh, Annabeth!"

Baron Frederick Chase and the Baroness, her stepmother came into view, peering anxiously at their eldest daughter. To them, she had been sick for a week after contracting the plaque.

Annabeth's memories of this event were vivid. The death plague that had gone around the country was vicious, taking many people's lives, both commoners and nobles alike. It was found that the disease was spread by insufficient sewage systems and poor city planning. It was after this plague that Annabeth had built her successful company on, redeveloping the cities.

But this event was four years ago from when Annabeth had passed away.

She had gone back in time.

A/N: Hi all! Those familiar with my work on Fanfiction.net will have already read this story. But a guest reviewer encouraged me to share on Wattpad so here I am! I'll probably rework a little of this story compared to Fanfiction.net, just to go over some grammar and spelling mistakes. 

Since this story is already finished, I will be uploading a chapter once a day. Since this is my first upload, I will upload five chapters today. If you liked it, I will upload my other PJO fanfics. Enjoy!