Chapter 17
Alaric’s POV
I stared at Rhea until she left the room, my eyes on her frame as she disappeared. After she left, I stood up mirror. There I stood, gazing at my reflection.
ng towards the
“This is crazy.” I muttered, raising my hands to touch my face. I was younger, much younger. The years of hardship and working hadn’t befallen me yet. I hadn’t been betrayed by all the people who left me, and Rhea hadn’t died, she was still alive.
“Boss! Boss, are you okay?!” A frantic knock came from the door, and someone burst into the room.
“Nathan…” I whispered, the face of my best friend who died two months after taking over the inheritance came into view. His shaggy red hair was still as I remembered it, his warm red–brown eyes were filled with confusion.
“Hey…” Nathan paused, and then covered his body with his hands, “Why do you look like you want to eat me? I’ve told you before, I’m not gay so take your playfulness elsewhere.” He said and I deadpanned at him.
“Why did you have to spoil the mood?” Glaring, I sat back down on the bed.
“What mood? I heard from the manager that you were attacked yesterday and was saved by some girl. She didn’t tell me the girl’s identity no matter what I asked. Was the manager ever so loyal to one person?” Nathan questioned and came to sit near me.
“Hm. It was an aphrodisiac. It seems my drink was mixed up with someone else’s drink. I didn’t drink the one with the poison.”
Last night, I had suddenly woken up in this hotel room, after I… I narrowed my eyes, what exactly happened? How did I come back to this place? And even Nathan was alive? Rhea was well… Am I hallucinating?
“What’s today’s date?”
Nathan stared at me, “Today’s February 4th. Why?”
“I’m asking for the year, Nathan. What year is it?”
“You’re acting so weird, man. It’s 2021, February 4th 2021.”
})
“2021…” I really came back in time then, I wasn’t dreaming. Which means, everything that happened back then, hasn’t happened now, I still have the chance to make everything right!
“Nathan, do you believe in someone being reborn? Like dying in the future and then coming back to the past?” I interrogated,
scrutinizing Nathan who by the way, was staring at me like I was crazy.
“Um… Alaric, I know I’ve asked you a lot in the last but do you need medical help? Like to see a therapist? I can also take you to a doctor to check your brain if there are any bolts and nuts that have been unscrewed from your brain.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes, “Forget it.” I muttered, standing up again, my body still a little weak but my mind sharper than ever.
“Drive me home.” I ordered, grabbing my jacket. Nathan opened his mouth, probably to argue, but wisely shut it. He knew better.
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Chapter 17
The ride home was silent. Nathan kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye, but I ignored him, staring out the window at the familiar city that now looked so different to me. When the car finally rolled to a stop in front of the vast, marble estate that was
the Vale family home, I exhaled slowly, feeling old instincts stir within me, bitterness, hatred, dread.
They lived here.
He lived here, and so did she… the woman who had been broken down to nothing but a shell of her for self. I stepped out of the car, Nathan following hesitantly behind me. The heavy front doors opened as I approached, and there he stood, Richard Vale, the great, celebrated CEO.
To the world, he was the perfect image of success: intelligent, powerful, and devoted. But inside this house, he was a monster.
An abusive husband. A father who treated his only son like a mistake he never wanted to acknowledge.
Richard’s sharp eyes raked over me, “You’re late.” His voice was cold, impersonal.
I met his gaze without flinching, “I heard something yesterday, father, a little mockingbird sang it to me. They said I was
supposed to die and my body would be collected this morning, I don’t think you know anything about that, do you, father?” I
questioned, my voice ice cold.
Richard stared at me for a while, then the arch of his eyebrows twitched. A habit he did when he was angry or surprised.
“Alaric, are you trying to accuse me of trying to murder you?”
I shrugged, walking past him but his voice stopped me again, “Alaric, you seem to have forgotten just who you are trying to protect for you to have spoken about me that way.”
“Ah.” I stopped, clicking my fingers, “I finally remember…” I trailed off, “The debt that you owed me throughout these years, I think it’s finally time to collect it, isn’t it?”
“A debt?”
“Mhm. Father, if I were you, from now on, I’d behave myself. After all, grandfather is already looking for someone to pass the company to and he wouldn’t like to hear another scandal surfacing on the internet after the stunt that you pulled last.”
Richard Vale was nothing but a poser, an imposter. He was an illegitimate child of my grandfather, born from a maid. He grew up in the family house and after seeing what the legitimate children had, he became greedy. He killed most of the children, and married my mother, the princess of a well known family. He cut her off from the family, used her to take control of the family and shut her out, abusing her to the extent that she couldn’t stay near humans. Now, my mother was nothing but the shadow that brought the company to how it is.
She was the intelligent person behind the success of the company, and this man was riding on her intelligence.
Two days ago, a servant in this house had released news that Richard wasn’t who he said he was, and the company received a lot of backlash, the stocks going down. But he forcefully brought out my mother and made them act like a loving couple. The maid who released the news hadn’t been found. Yet. But it’s just a matter of time before she gets found and killed by Richard.
Chapter 17
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