Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 144: Past

Chapter 144: Past

ELIANA

It wasn’t every day that one would encounter someone wanting to murder you in broad daylight actively.

More than that, it’s not every day that someone would attempt to harm your unborn child.

But today, I just experienced both.

I would’ve understood Alexa’s desire to gut me, but her eyes particularly zeroed in on my belly, and I felt absolute terror.

It wasn’t fear for my life but for someone else’s.

My calm exterior was a facade to show the world that I could protect myself and our little family. It was so that people watching videos from these paparazzi would have it in their minds not to mess with us again.

But beneath all that, I wanted to crumble in fear that had I been delayed a second later or if I looked elsewhere, I would’ve gone back to the emergency room for something earth-shattering.

Any doubts I had about the reality of my pregnancy were squashed after Alexa attempted that stunt.

And when Lucian turned to me with a face as pale as snow, I realized he probably felt the same way.

What was crazy about all this was that I planned to be humane. When we prepared to counter Alexa’s absurd plans, we weren’t looking to incarcerate her like some sociopath. Well, not just yet.

But not anymore.

That was my bottom line. And she just touched it.

Originally, our sting operation involved cops who would charge her with attempting to breach our security and bribing employees.

But it turned out to be attempted murder. She’d say aggravated assault, but watch me use every penny I have to incarcerate her with two counts of attempted murder.

Alexa kept screaming bloody murder all the way into the police station, and as someone caught red-handed, she was pretty much guilty enough to be cuffed and wrapped with a straitjacket after attempting to claw someone’s eye out.

But I guess that was better than the awkward car ride I had to endure after sitting next to Lucian, Lara, and Nicholas in one vehicle.

Talk about uncanny and downright crazy.

Lara, for the most part, had been a regular fixture. She was the type who could act like a ghost for as long as possible, but the moment you mention her name, she’s right in front of you.

Then there was Nicholas, the weirdest addition in the bunch.

After the Thornhill Patriarch was hospitalized, Nicholas set a formal appointment to provide us with critical information.

Lucian initially refused to agree, but I figured this was important when he mentioned Uncle Alexander.

However, when we arrived at the meeting place that had been checked for everything, even air pollution, I was greeted by an adult with a different hairstyle.

"Uh? Is that supposed to be a disguise?" I had to ask after looking at Nicholas, who didn’t really need to go this far.

"Nope. Not a disguise, but more of a memory." He had a soft smile as if he were remembering past memories.

"Maybe it would be best to reintroduce myself. I’m Nicholas now, but you probably would know me better as Daniel."

"?"

I tilted my head, trying to think about the many Daniels I know of, and I wasn’t sure which one was this guy.

"Might be a bit hard to associate me with the Daniel from before because I was far too scrawny. Just some skin and bones that could fly away at any moment."

"Maybe you’d remember the guy you had to keep on rescuing from inside locker rooms?"

There were many such cases, but this one particular kid was placed there so many times because he didn’t give up by transferring schools right away.

"Wait, what? Then how did you turn into a Bernard?"

"Long story short, I was misplaced at birth and was found pretty late, so I suddenly left without saying anything."

He made it sound easy, as if years of hardship could be explained in one line. But if this guy were Daniel from our school, then he wouldn’t have it easy. It was bad enough that I thought Alexa was ’passable.’

Yeah. That bad.

But that doesn’t explain what he did after colluding with the Thornhills and worming his way into SCC. Just because he was a childhood friend doesn’t erase the things he did.

"Why didn’t you just introduce yourself like a normal person? What were you even thinking when you decided to collude with them, really?"

It was exasperating because she felt like doing good deeds bit her back in the ass. Should she have lived like a demon back then?

"My mistake. I wasn’t thinking clearly as I was hurrying. I thought you needed to be rescued from Jasper and had no idea that Lucian asked first."

"You say that like asking her first would’ve gotten you anywhere." Lucian finally spoke; his tone had an air of indifference, but knowing how he stewed over this for days almost got me choking.

"Doing just that got you somewhere, right?" Nicholas shrugged, and Lucian was back at it again, folks!

"I suggest you guys duke it out another time. We don’t have the luxury of time."

Both guys looked unsatisfied but decided to stop anyway.

"What exactly did you find that warranted such a call?"

"A few things, but mainly, your aunt probably had a lot to do with that accident. It happened after I spoke to the Chairman."

"You spoke to the Patriarch before his accident?"

Nicholas came as we were trying to retrieve footage from the Chairman’s private study. He says he has an idea of how this happened.

"But why tell us now?" I had to ask because this was frankly a bit disconcerting. This attitude of turning around to help us after all that wasn’t that easy to accept.

"Because I clearly made an error in my approach. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to be hated."

I wasn’t sure about forgiving someone just like that, especially since this whole thing wasn’t even done yet. I don’t plan to string people along just to get the necessary information.

"I’m not sure about forgiving you outright. And I don’t want to just say it for the sake of being done with it. Because I’m not yet even sure about the extent of your involvement in all this."

"But, I haven’t reached the point of hating you. That’s a feeling that I don’t like holding on to. Maybe, another time, we could rehash this and see what could be done, but right now isn’t the right time for me to be thinking about this."

"Thank you. And I know. I’m not expecting to be forgiven right away. But, if that Lara could come out into the light, then maybe I could, too. Someday."

Of all the triggers, it had to be Lara?

"Anyway, since we don’t have much time. You ought to know what I told the chairman before this accident."

Oh, so he was still planning on telling us?

"When your uncle disappeared, I had him followed. Only to see how he looked for his first love."

"And as he was trying to apologize, the tail heard him confess that he left her to marry Ingrid to keep this woman safe. She would only stop if your uncle agreed to marry her and take responsibility for the child he abandoned."

"It was apparently from a night several years ago. But since he couldn’t remember, he could only focus on the threat against his lover. The problem was when he took the next year’s executive check-up."

"Your uncle was found to be infertile."

Oh shit.

No wonder that monster felt off.