MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Chapter 166: Last chance at redemption

Rose looked around her small room in the knights' quarters. It was very plain and simple, with just a small bed, table and chair. Not at all like the beautiful rooms she used to have in the castle's main wing. She sighed sadly, resting one hand on her pregnant belly. This was no place for a lady of nobility to live.

Just then, there was a soft knock at the door. "Enter," Rose called out.

A young vampire maid named Sophie entered the room. She curtsied respectfully to Rose. "You summoned me, my lady?"

Rose nodded. "Yes, Sophie. I need you to run an errand for me into the village. I require some fresh fruits, bread, and fabrics for making baby clothes."

Sophie's eyes went wide. "B-But my lady, didn't the head maid inform you? Lady Gladys has ordered that none of the staff are to take orders from you any longer. You've been...stripped of your authority."

Rose's eyes flashed with anger. "That bitter old hag dares to undermine me? I'll show her who still holds the real power in this household!"

Before Rose could say another word, the door burst open and Gladys stormed inside, her face contorted with rage.

"Just what do you think you're playing at, Rosaline?" Gladys snarled, glaring at her daughter. "Ignoring my direct orders and forcing the staff to defy me?"

Sophie shrank back in fear, but Rose met her mother's gaze steadily. "This is an outrage, mother! Banishing me to these pathetic servants' quarters like some common wretch. I am a lady of the noble Shelly bloodline, and I demand to be treated with respect!"

Gladys's cold laughter filled the room. "Respect? You spurned any respect long ago when you betrayed your family and brought shame to our name. Did you think I would simply let you flout my authority and give orders as if nothing has changed?"

"I am your daughter, the lady of this castle!" Rose shot back defiantly. "You have no right to strip me of my titles and status!"

Moving with startling quickness, Gladys backhanded Rose sharply across the face. "You foolish, arrogant child! I have every right, as head of this household. Your selfish actions forfeited any claim you had to nobility or status."

Rose's cheek burned fiercely from the blow, but she refused to back down. Her eyes blazed with defiance as she straightened up to her full height.

"You decrepit relic! Just wait until Damien hears how you've treated me. He will make you pay dearly for this insult!"

An icy smile curved Gladys's lips. "Ah yes, your ill-begotten princely pet. You place far too much faith in whatever power he may wield, my treacherous daughter. But by all means, run along and plead for his protection. We shall see how highly he values you when he joins the Council."

Rose's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you raving about, mother?"

Gladys laughed cruelly. "Of course you wouldn't know, banished down here in the filthy depths. The prince is to be granted a seat among the most powerful vampires in the realm. And with that privilege comes...certain expectations."

She looked pointedly at Rose's pregnant belly. "He will need to contribute fresh blood to replenishing our dwindling numbers. Whether through siring pure-blooded heirs..." Her gaze became a pointed leer, "...or through more archaic rites of turning."

Realization dawned in Rose's widened eyes as she subconsciously shielded her stomach. "You...you vile monster! You can't be serious?"

"Oh, but I am deadly serious, my traitorous girl," Gladys hissed, taking a menacing step forward. "Your prince will either put that seed to use restocking the Shelly coffers, or he'll resort to defiling innocent humans - turning them into foul beasts to glut his own hunger for power. His choice."

Rose felt her throat constrict with a mixture of fury and revulsion. Was this what her life had been reduced to? A glorified broodmare, subjected to her mother's depraved whims along with whatever torments the Council demanded?

"I'll die before allowing that to happen," she grated out through gritted teeth.

"Such fire!" Gladys mocked. "Always the defiant shrew, even when stripped of your unearned status. Take heed, girl - those blind to their duty oft meet unfortunate ends."

Terror gripped Rose as the weight of the threat hit home. Her hand flew protectively to her belly, cradling her unborn child. She knew her mother was more than capable of monstrous cruelty.

Before she could respond, Gladys's attention snapped to the cowering maid in the corner.

"You! Serving wretch!" she barked, making Sophie flinch. "Consider this your first and final warning. If you are caught obeying any orders from this treacherous wretch again, I'll have your wretched head mounted on a pike! Now get out of my sight!"

Sophie bobbed a terrified curtsy and fled the room, the door slamming shut behind her. Rose was left alone with her seething mother, dread coiling like a leaden weight in her belly.

"You see, Rosaline?" Gladys sneered. "Your pathetic delusions of grandeur hold no sway here. Not anymore. You are nothing. Less than nothing. A footnote in the Shelly history books - the treacherous disgrace who drove the final nail into our family's coffin."

Tears of anguished humiliation burned at the corners of Rose's eyes, but she blinked them back fiercely. She would not, could not show such weakness before this vile harpy who had torn away every last shred of her dignity.

"Your venom and cruelty may strip away my standing, mother," she said, her voice tight with barely restrained emotion. "But it cannot touch my spirit. My fire will never be extinguished, no matter how you try to grind me beneath your heel."

A muscle twitched in Gladys's jaw, her eyes glittering with pure loathing for her defiant daughter.

"We shall see about that," she bit out in a voice as cold and grating as nails on slate. "I gave you a single chance at redemption, and you spat in my face as usual. Very well, have it your way."

Whirling on her heel, Gladys stalked towards the door, each step ricocheting through the small chamber like the beating of a funerary drum. She paused in the doorway, one hand on the frame as she threw one last venomous look over her shoulder.

"From this day forth, you are well and truly alone, Rosaline. Abandoned by your prince, forsaken by your clan, left to rot among the rodents and riffraff. Pray your demon spawns inherits some lick of dignity...because it shall have no guidance from its shamed mother on how to carry itself with honor."

And with that, she swept from the room, the door slamming shut behind her with a resonant boom that shook the very stones. Rose stood frozen, stunned into speechless anguish by the relentless onslaught of her mother's hateful diatribe.

Alone. She was utterly alone now, with no allies, no path for redemption or regaining her standing. The reality of it crashed over her like a suffocating wave, stealing the breath from her lungs.

Rose's legs trembled beneath her, and she stumbled over to the narrow bed, collapsing onto the thin mattress in a boneless heap. A choked sob tore free from her constricted chest as the first rogue tear traced a burning path down her cheek.

She was banished. Exiled from her rightful place, her noble titles and ancestry spat upon and ground into the dirt. All she had left was her life growing within her womb - her one last bastion of purpose in this cruel, unforgiving world.

As sobs wracked her body, Rose curled into herself, cocooning her bulging belly protectively. Gladys's dire threats played on a sickening loop in her mind, each vile insinuation slicing into her like a razor's caress.

Her child, the sole remaining spark of hope and light in her shattered life, was a target now. A pawn to be used and exploited in whatever depraved schemes Gladys and the Council saw fit to enact. If they decided her womb was more valuable as a factory for replenishing the ranks...

A violent shudder ran through Rose at the thought. She would sooner claw out her own womb than allow her child to be used as breeding stock for those monsters. The mere thought of her innocent babe being subjugated to such depravity made Rose's stomach roil with equal parts rage and revulsion.

But what choice did she truly have?