Emline slamd the door of her room, sinking to the floor as she hugged her knees. A scream tore through her throat, and sobs threatened to overwhelm her frail figure. All she could see in her mind’s eye was the vision of Matteo and Alia, standing side by side, with him holding onto her waist with love in his eyes.
How could everything have gone to shit in such a short ti? Not only had that skank Alia gotten Matteo’s love, but she had sohow managed to beco a Hawthorne heiress at the sa ti too!
She was effectively as powerful as Emline now― no, Alia was actually more powerful, since she was older. Not to ntion she looked just like her missing Aunt Elaine, who was Horace Hawthorne’s favorite child.
Emline howled into her hands as though she was nothing more than a wounded animal. Her fingers scratched her cheeks. No, no, no! Alia had everything now!
A knock ca at the door.
"Leave !" Emline scread, her voice hoarse.
She hadn’t even realized she had scread so much. The last thing she wanted was to see another person unless that person was delivering Alia Kentwood’s bloodied body to her doorstep like a cat delivering a dead small bird to its owner.
"Emline? Emline, open up. It’s , Kelsie," Kelsie’s voice echoed from the other end pleadingly. "Please? I’m worried about you."
Emline paused, breathing heavily through her nose. That’s right, she thought to herself. She wasn’t completely alone in the world. She still had her best friend. She got up shakily and wiped her face clean with her palms, before slowly opening the door.
Kelsie barreled in, engulfing her in a hug. "Emline! Are you okay? Oh no― what happened to your face?" she asked worriedly, holding onto Emline’s cheeks like they were priceless jewels, caressing them tenderly with her fingers.
Emline’s lower lip wobbled, and a dam broke inside her.
She bawled loudly, uncaring of how ugly she looked as tears and snot stread down her face. Unknown to her, Kelsie’s face had twisted with disgust, but she kept her arms wrapped around Emline, rubbing comforting circles around her back.
"It’s okay... calm down... "
"I can’t!" Emline wailed. "She has Matteo! And now she has Grandpa too!"
"You also have your grandfather," Kelsie said. "Her becoming part of your family doesn’t an your grandfather loves you any less. You’re still his first granddaughter!"
"No, Kelsie, he doesn’t love anymore!" Emline sniffled. "You saw how he shielded Alia in front of everyone while scolding ! He already favored her even before he knew she was his granddaughter, all because she looked like Aunt Elaine. Now that she’s in the house, I won’t have a place inside it anymore!"
"No, no, that’s ridiculous," Kelsie declared, holding Emline’s shoulders firmly so she could speak so sense into her friend.
She needed Emline to be angry and vengeful, not this sad pathetic crying wreck.
"Emline, you’ve been the Hawthorne heiress since you were born. You’ve been trained for this all your life. This is your birthright," she said, her eyes glowing with pride. "No one suits this more than you. Do you believe that Alia Kentwood, from so backwater part of the country can possibly rub shoulders with our circle of people? She’d stick her foot in her mouth and offend everyone in a split second!"
"But she’s now a Hawthorne! They wouldn’t dare to do anything to her! That bitch has my grandfather wrapped around her little finger!" Emline pointed out.
Kelsie sighed. It was a pity that Emline was so prone to stupidity. Luckily, she had Kelsie to help her with her many inadequacies.
"She had only been a Hawthorne for a few hours," Kelsie said dismissively. "You have years of experience on her. Your parents will definitely support you over her. All you have to do is to prove to everyone that you’re the real deal, that you’re the better heiress, and everyone else will co flocking back to you."
"Really?" Emline blinked hopefully.
"Of course! It’ll be easy too. Her reputation is so stained within our circles, even Matteo’s support can’t wash it clean."
At the ntion of Matteo’s na, Emline let out a little sob. The fairytale wedding she had been planning since she was a girl had vanished into a puff of smoke. But she couldn’t deny that Kelsie’s words had done a great deal in cheering her up.
"You’re right, Kelsie. Thanks for the talk," Emline said. "I feel a lot better now."
"Good," Kelsie smirked victoriously. "Now, how about we start brainstorming about ways to ruin her?"
A wicked glint entered Emline’s eyes. "Oh, I’d love nothing better."
***
anwhile, Alia, Matteo, and Ronan were back at Ronan’s apartnt. Matteo would want nothing more than to spirit Alia back to his apartnt, but all her belongings were still at Ronan’s place.
More importantly, her father was still there, and he looked none too happy about Matteo’s presence in his daughter’s life. In fact, he seed to have stronger feelings about Matteo’s return than he did about his daughter suddenly becoming part of the Hawthorne family!
"Dad, did you already know who Mom was before you married her?" Alia asked suspiciously, crossing her arms as she glared at her father. He was all too calm about the announcent.
The three other n, sensing that it was a conversation ant for only the two of them, hastily made their way to another room to ’pack’.
Her father pretended to stare at the chessboard, where he had been playing chess with Dimitri. But Alia continued to glare, and eventually, he looked up and gave her a sheepish smile.
"Well, yes. However, I did not know who she was when we were dating. Only when things started getting serious, that she finally spilled the beans."
He tapped on his chin. "Co to think of it, I must have been blind to miss the signs. She was always wearing funny outfits as though she was trying to disguise herself. There was once she even pretended to be a janitor!"
As he spoke about his wife, he couldn’t help the nostalgic smile that blood on his lips.
"Dad, seriously?" Alia had more questions than answers. "But why... if Mom belonged to such a grand family... and if Horace― I an, Grandfather loved her so much, why did they let her die?"
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