Not the OG commenter, but from what I've read, the key points are (SPOILERS):
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- FL (Paula) and ML (Vincent) start getting closer to each other. She reads him books, they eat sweets together, they walk through forests, and all that jazz.
- ML's friend comes into the picture named Ethan. He has a brother called Lucas, and a half-brother called James who is the head of their family.
- Lucas is the person behind the letters with the gold ink and he starts becoming curious about FL. Ethan is also curious about FL (not romantically) because he thinks she could help integrate ML back into society.
- Ethan threatens ML that if he doesn't pull his shit together, he's going to publicize the fact that he's blind. Ethan also promises that he's going to reward FL if she helps him out. She does, ML gets out of his shell, and as part of her reward, she asks Ethan to be her accomplice.
- In comes ML's finance called Violet. She's the person who's been sending letters every 2 days. She doesn't know about ML's blindness, only that he's been injured.
- Long story short, Violet/Ethan/ML/Lucas were all childhood buds and they had a lot of memories together. Their families decided on the engagement, but ML doesn't seem to be romantically involved with Violet (not the same case with Violet, she likes ML and wants to stay by his side).
- Violet and FL become close (one of those female friendship subplots). FL encourages Violet to be more assertive with ML and Violet in return prettifies FL (one of those dress/makeup sequences). Violet then decides to stay in the mansion, and all 4 childhood buds hang out with each other, they throw a party together and dance with their counterparts (Violet/ML & FL/Lucas).
- There are 3 important FLxML scenes. One is where they go out to a white flower field that Lucas shows them and they run together. Another is when (post-party), they dance by the fountain. Apparently, Violet saw them in the act and later tells FL to not get any ideas about falling in love with ML. FL obliges because she likes Violet, as she was one of the first people to say she's pretty.) And the third one is where she lies to him about her appearance and describes her pretty sister Alicia instead (this will be relevant later).
- Another long story short, but turns out (and bear with me on this), James (the step-brother of Ethan/Lucas) murdered their father to secure the position. Lucas witnessed this, and so, James decides to kill Lucas. But, his plot fails and ML is blinded instead. Lucas feels guilty as a result and decides to give his eyes to ML (he confesses this to FL but then, seeing her reaction, he chalks it up as a joke)
- In a later scene, Violet's father barges in and chastizes her for wanting to stay with blind ML. Turns out, James let out the secret that ML is blind. ML calls off his engagement and Violet is taken away. Ethan also leaves to hash things out with James.
- Lucas confesses to Fl and asks her to run away with him but FL is shell-shocked and Lucas doesn't get an answer. FL decides to put off talking with Lucas about his confession and decides to tend to ML instead, cue in a later scene, Lucas is assassinated right in front of FL (yikes) and the prime suspect is James (the half-brother to Ethan/Lucas, the same person who blinded ML)
- ML tells FL that since she's a witness (in the same flower field where they ran together before), James will be after her next so he decides to send her away to a family villa, promising that he'll come back for her. Isabella (the head maid?) is tasked with the objective.
- Turns out, the head butler had arbitrarily decided by himself (don't know where this plot point suddenly came from, the dude had absolutely no significant role in the story) that he'd kill FL because she was messing with ML's head? But Isabella thinks FL was a positive influence on ML so she decides to do her a solid and tells her the assassin's are after her mid-way on the carriage.
- FL gets out and runs away, meets Ethan. Ethan tells her that she was like a secret garden to him/ML/Lucas/Violet and she should technically die, but he doesn't kill her. Instead, he sends her off to a remote village to live her life, advising her to never contact the ML.
- FL's money gets stolen so she decides to go back to her abusive father/sister. Turns out dad is dead (booze/getting frozen in the street) and her sister, Alicia, is barely getting by (the same one who was super pretty). The two starve away for 5 years (yes, there's actually a timelapse to this already slow story).
- News comes in that there are 2 sus people hiring pretty servants for a noble family. They approach the sister and hire her. Alicia is also pretty eager, and FL wants to keep her safe so they go together to this noble house and work for a woman called Joely (I'm probs miswriting her name).
- There's also this side character called Johney who has a crush on Alicia and is using FL as a way of getting it on with her (don't see his importance yet).
- FL is given the task of caring for Joely's nephew called Robert (a 5 year-old piece of shit who calls FL a fool and is spoiled to the core).
- One day, while caring for the kid, Vincent comes in and he can see (turns out he has Lucas's eyes). He doesn't recognize FL (surprise surprise).
- FL wants to leave but Alicia is attracted to ML and decides to stay. On one occasion, ML is caught staring at Alicia (probs because of when FL gave him, her sister's description).
This was where I stopped (around chap 70 of 170ish)
Who is Joely? What's her relationship with ML? What has ML been up to these 5 years? What happened with Ethan/Violet? What's Johney/Alicia/Robbert's significance to the plot? What is up with James? How did the eye replacement work out? I have no answers for any of these questions LOL
All I know is that I'm dropping it~ Have fun ya'll!
I read the novel, its quite good. Realistic plot, well written character and perfectly paced. Im only midway through the novel but I love it so far