Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 570: Long - / announcement

"Mama, none of this is your fault either. You two are crying, and now I feel like crying too," Rosey said, pursing her lips as she wiped tears off her face. "Hell, I hate crying because it takes away my voice! But you two are making me cry now."

Belle reached out with one hand and pulled her daughter into the embrace. They were still hugging when Rohan suddenly barged into the room in a hurry.

"What—" he began to say, ready to demand who the hell was making his wife cry, as he could feel her emotions through their bond, but he stopped at the sight before him: Belle hugging their two children, who were both crying.

Rohan hadn’t expected this, but even without being told, he knew what must have brought it about. Wordlessly, he walked toward them and wrapped his arms around all of them.

"Will you all stop crying now?" he said quietly.

"Tell Mama to stop first," Rosey muttered hoarsely against her mother’s shoulder.

Belle, choking on her sobs, replied, "Tell Finn to stop and tell him that nobody blames him."

It took a while to calm the boy, but when he finally stopped crying, he went to sit by the window with his sister, who tried to cheer him up, while their parents stood together talking in low voices.

"Where is Angel?" Belle asked her husband.

"He locked himself in one of the rooms. He said he needed to be alone for some moments, but I don’t think he truly meant it. We should go to him," Rohan said as he took her hand and intertwined their fingers.

"Isn’t he happy about the marriage, Rohan?" she asked as they made their way to see their elder son.

"I don’t know, Isa. Since the time he came back home, I can’t read his heart, nor anything about his feelings. He has grown stronger than when he was a boy, and no powers can invade his thoughts or emotions anymore. I can’t tell what he feels," Rohan said with a sigh of frustration. He had known Angel was strong since the day he took himself to the land of the dead to save his mother.

Now that he was an adult, he had the power to hide what he didn’t want anyone to see about him. The worst part was that not even the powers of Rohan’s vision ball could see what had changed him in that academy.

"I shouldn’t have forced goodness into him. I should have let him grow into what he was meant to be and allowed him to become what he wanted," Belle said softly. "Oh heavens, do you think he regrets marrying Elle?" she asked worriedly as they reached the door to the room.

Rohan looked down at his wife, who always felt it was her fault that Angel had grown into someone who fought parts of himself.

"You know it’s not your fault, love. Our son has grown enough to choose who he wants to be. When the right time comes, he will figure it out," he said gently.

With that, Rohan knocked on the door and said, "Max, open the door. Your mother is here to see you."

It didn’t even take a second for the door to be unlocked. Max let them in, his eyes immediately falling on his mother’s red, swollen eyes. He narrowed his gaze.

"Have you been crying, Mama?" he asked.

Belle shook her head. "No. How are you feeling?" she asked, touching his arm. She felt him stiffen at the question.

How was he feeling? Max thought. Hell, he was terrified. Instead of hiding that feeling like he had been doing since arriving home, he let it out to his mother, who he could see had been crying as well.

"I am scared," he admitted.

"Of what, Angel?" Belle asked.

Angel turned his back to her and walked toward the window.

"Of everything. Especially of being a husband. I don’t know a thing about it, Mama. I am not even ready to marry, or to ever marry. I..." He paused, then continued. "I acted in that church without thinking at all, but now that I think of it, what if I hurt Elle in the marriage?" He turned troubled eyes toward his mother.

To be honest, though he was an adult, he had never really courted a woman or been in any sort of relationship. The only female friend he had was Abby, and being friends was different from having a wife. How does one treat a wife or take care of her? How do you live with a partner for life?

His father walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"There is nothing hard about being a husband, Max. I also used to think I was never a family man and would never marry. But look at me, I married your mother, and I realized it wasn’t half as bad as I once thought, as long as you both understand each other. You two are adults, and the most important thing is understanding. Give it a try, and you might realize it isn’t as hard as you fear."

Despite his father’s words, Max couldn’t help the feeling growing inside him. He didn’t want to hurt Elle in any way, and he didn’t think he was the kind of man she needed in her life now. He didn’t even trust himself with himself; he was threading through a very thin line between knowing who he was and not knowing at all. He had been lost for a while now, so lost that it had begun to ruin things inside his mind and his heart.

Elle, she was a very lovely, innocent young woman who knew nothing about the world or the darkness living inside him. How could he have married her? How could he have bound her life to his when he barely understood his own?

If only that bastard Eryx had been good enough and had stayed. She would have lived happily ever after, untouched by this mess (himself), and he could have gone about saving lives to replace those he had ruined unintentionally. He could have been left to battle with his silent wars alone, fighting them until he won and finally became normal. Simple. Clean.

But it seemed nothing was ever simple in life, and him marrying her was just another way to complicate things.

With Elle, how was he going to travel back and forth to make amends for the past? With Elle... how was Abby—

He stopped himself there. He didn’t want to even think about that part yet, because it only made him more tangled inside himself than he already was.

"I will kill that Eryx," Max gritted out furiously, only to realize he had spoken the words aloud.

"Don’t worry, I have sent men after him. You don’t have to do a thing, Max. Let me handle that bastard," his father said calmly.

Belle didn’t say anything because she hated how Eryx had embarrassed her best friend and her children in front of hundreds of guests. Whatever happened to him, he brought it on himself. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

She stepped forward and hugged Angel just as she had hugged Finn.

"I hope you won’t blame your brother for this. He only believed he was trying to help. And I hope you also realize that married life isn’t so terrible if you marry the right person. You and Elle are not strangers."

We have become, Mama, Angel thought. And that was another problem altogether. They had both grown up and were no longer kids, not that he remembered himself ever being a kid with how fast his growth had been. But still, he was a full man now, and she was a woman, and he hadn’t even finished doing everything on his list yet, everything he had planned to accomplish, before being married.

But then, despite everything he thought and believed, he still didn’t regret marrying Red. Not even once. He was only afraid for her, afraid of what his life might pull her into.

But since he had made her his now, it was only right that he get himself together and truly be present for her this time around, not half-there and not running.

His parents made it sound easy, almost deceptively so, and he felt the terror rising inside him calm slightly, loosening its grip on his chest. It was nothing impossible; they could get to know each other again, properly this time, not as children but as two people who had grown. He had already dropped the idea of going away from his family after learning about the other demon race, knowing now that leaving was no longer an option, or even a desire.

"Mama, I won’t blame Finn, but he needs to be talked to about the people he takes as his friends," Max said after a while, feeling calmer and more at ease.

Belle pulled away from the embrace and said, "I know, but could you talk to him without making it sound like it’s his fault? He’s already blaming himself enough."

Max nodded, raising his hand to wipe at his mother’s cheeks. "Enough crying, Mama. I won’t scold him or blame him," he promised, leaning down to kiss her forehead and bringing a smile he always liked to see back on her face.

"Papa, I... I need to talk with you about where I will live with Elle. She can’t live in Velmere, and I don’t think Mirehaven is the best place to stay right now with the scandal. Enny and Aryen could move back to Velmere, and Elle... Elle and I can find a place with a suitable atmosphere for her." He still found it strange associating himself with Elle, when until the marriage he had believed he was coming here to forget her.

"Leave that to me, son. I will find a place for you two that’s not too far from Velmere," Rohan said, patting the boy’s hard shoulder.

"Thank you, Papa," Max said, mustering a smile he wished didn’t show that he was still a bit nervous. He now had a wife. He was now a husband. It felt unreal...

~~~

Hey guys, I honestly don’t even know where to begin at this point. As you all know, I have been sick, but that wasn’t the only reason why I haven’t been able to give new Chapters recently.

Actually, ever since I started Angel’s story, I have been receiving mixed responses. Some readers genuinely believe that I am glorifying grooming and that I am disgusting for doing so, when quite honestly, that was never my intention at all. If it had only been comments in the comment section, it would have been something I could ignore, because I know what I intended when I wrote the story.

But it didn’t stop there. Some people went as far as coming into my DMs on social media to call me sick and disgusting. Not only that, the book was reported, and according to Webnovel rules, topics like that are not accepted and books can get banned from the app. However, I later received a message from Webnovel asking me to fix and remove anything that made it look like I was glorifying grooming.

To be honest, guys, I was suddenly overwhelmed by everything. I didn’t even know where to begin removing or changing things, especially when I never believed that was what I had written in the first place. I completely lost the story, and out of frustration, I made the decision to delete the ten Chapters I had already written ahead of time and planned to upload. That is something I deeply regret now.

Being reported and asked to edit and fix something I didn’t even realize I had written was extremely demotivating. At this point, I am lost and don’t know where to start again.

Because of all this, I am writing to announce that the book will be on hiatus until I can figure out how to rewrite or adjust things in a way that does not make it seem like I am glorifying grooming. My deepest apologies to those of you who truly enjoyed the story until certain people ruined the experience for me. Please know that I do plan to return to it and give it a proper ending once my mind has had time to recharge. For now, however, I’ve decided to put my energy into another project before this situation completely kills my love for writing.

I hope you all understand and

forgive me for putting a pause on things for now. And just so you know, I hate incomplete books when I am a reader because they make me feel cheated. That is why I never leave my books unfinished to start another one, until now. My therapist actually encouraged me to do this.

Again, I truly hope you understand.