My voice was a raw, scratchy whisper, thick with fury and disbelief because
this better be some kind of joke or dream.
“Alice,” I repeated. “Where… where did you get those? They don’t belong to
you.”
I could recognize them from anywhere and it’s crazy because I want nothing. to do with the man who gave them to me, but they are also one of the few
things that I value the most in my life.
I’m not sure if Astor remembers giving these particular gifts to me, but they will always hold sentimental value for me, and I would never give them to
anybody.
Alice’s eyes, usually so quick to well with those fake, innocent tears, hardened slightly, a calculating spark deep within them. A slow, infuriating
smile spread across her lips.
“These?” She purred, her fingers delicately caressing the smooth
moonstones at her throat, as if deliberately savouring my agony. “Mother and
Father gave them to me. A belated birthday gift, they said. They know how much I adore unique jewelry.”
The lie hung in the air, heavy and poisonous, twisting the knife deeper into my already shredded heart.
My parents? The same ones who had never given me a gift that wasn’t practical, never a single piece of jewelry that wasn’t an old hand–me–down? The parents who watched me struggle, watched me hurt, and always,
always, sided with her?
Of course, they would intentionally help her cover up her theft instead of standing by me.
Chapter 23
Before I could even grasp her wicked audacity, Mother stepped forward, her face a rigid mask of righteous anger.
“Faith! How dare you accuse your sister of such a thing? These exquisite
pieces were gifts from us, chosen specially for Alice. To imply she stole them, or that they were ever yours, is a vile slander! What is wrong with you?”
Funny enough I hadn’t even mentioned anything about stealing and she was already there.
Just like always, I was the bad guy. The jealous sister strikes again.
Her words flowed through me so sharply. Every past slight, every cold shoulder, every unfair comparison, every moment of feeling less than,
exploded within me. The breath I couldn’t take earlier now felt like a
suffocating stone pressing behind my eyes.
They hadn’t just given my gifts to Alice, and they were actively erasing my very memories, my worth, my entire existence. They were mocking my pain,
legitimizing her betrayal, laughing in my face.
I can’t believe I was happy to find out that my room wasn’t touched when I
came back here, but the only reason I didn’t notice that some of my things
were missing is that I didn’t check properly.
I was overcome by a certain sense of anger that I can’t explain.
My vision flashed a searing, blinding red. The silent, hurting girl I had been, the one who tried to reason, tried to understand, tried to be good… she
vanished. In her place was a woman scorned.
I saw Alice’s smirking face, the stolen jewels glinting, and something inside
me snapped.
My hand flew out, not a conscious thought, but a primal instinct, a scream
made physical. The sharp, satisfying crack of my palm against her cheek
echoed in the sudden, stunned silence of the room, like a gunshot.
+25 Points
There’s a moment in time where everything just stops working when you do something that you don’t normally do, and that’s exactly what happened.
The first emotion I thought I would feel was regret but instead I felt like a huge burden was just lifted off my shoulders.
Alice’s head whipped violently to the side, her eyes wide with disbelieving shock, a vivid red mark blooming instantly on her pale skin. She gasped in
pure disbelief.
I don’t blame her because I was just as shocked that I was capable of something like that.
Alice has always been able to gaslight me or manipulate me into feeling like I’m stupid and incompetent, but this time it was different.
Before anyone could even react, before Mother could scream, the living room door, already ajar from Alice’s earlier dramatic entrance, crashed open again with a resounding, furious thud.
Three figures stood in the doorway, their expressions shifting from concern to utter, absolute shock at the scene before them.
It was Astor who entered first followed closely by my father the ever–stoic arrogant bastard and then Chase whose ugly easygoing face was now contorted with outrage, a snarl pulling at his lips.
Chase, seeing Alice clutching her reddened cheek his immediately locked
eyes with me.
“You b***h! What the hell did you just do to her?” His voice was laced with poison, possessed. He started to move forward, his fists clenching, ready to tear me limb from limb.
I don’t understand the loyalty that he feels for Alice, but I fear his hate for me may ruin his life.
But Astor quickly blocked his path. His and shot out, grasping Chase’s arm, his grip like fron
Astor’s eyes, usually warm, looked were now cold, dangerous, burning with en unspoken threat.
“Chase!” He roared, his voice resonating with an alpha’s undeniable authority, cracking like thunder. “That is enough! You will show respect to your Luna, and I hope I heard you wrong the first time, because if I truly heard you calling my mate a b****, then you and I are going to have some serious problems.”
He then turned his gaze to me, his golden eyes sweeping over my trembling, enraged form, then to Alice’s tear–filled, shocked face, and finally resting on the vivid red imprint blossoming on her cheek.
The air crackled with unspoken questions, with a suffocating tension.
I wanted to scream into the air that this is all his fault because everything that I happen to do has him written all over it. Maybe if I hadn’t engaged him as soon as we met, then he and Alice could have been endgame.
“Faith,” he said, his voice surprisingly calm despite the storm in his eyes, a strange quiet amidst the chaos.
He slowly released Chase, who still glared at me, seething with impotent rage. “What happened here?”
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