Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 52: Introspection

Chapter 52: Introspection

ALEXA

Boredom, anger, and frustration. Alexa kept on insisting that she’d die soon from any or the combination of those factors.

Supposedly staying at St. Cecilia’s Retreat Facility, Alexa couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone as she hid in one of their clan’s hotels. Stuck like a mouse in hiding, all Alexa could do was waste her time staring at the ceiling.

She could have and should have been in the middle of planning her next moves, but Jasper fucked up all of her plans. It wasn’t like she expected him to succeed, but she didn’t expect him to fuck up so badly and implicate her in the process.

Alexa knew about the Orwell’s internal investigation. In fact, the moment she got wind of it, she immediately left for the Retreat Facility, citing the need for self-introspection.

Who else didn’t know that Jasper’s biggest expense was Alexa and everything she liked? So when they trace the money trail, it’ll end up with her.

Not really a problem. It was the guy’s fault for indulging her. But not all of the funds went to mere luxury goods.

Alexa bit her nails, remembering how Jasper took care of the payment for the Factory arsonist. With Jasper’s one brain cell, there was a probability of it not being a clean transaction.

Dammit! I should’ve just done it myself!

If she had, it would’ve succeeded, just like everything she’d planned against Eliana before.

Calm down, Alexa. It’s just a minor setback. It’s still the same Eliana, so there’s nothing to worry about.

She practically groomed this Eliana, painstakingly molding her to be the doormat that she wanted.

If anyone asked Alexa about her reasons for being this fixated on Eliana, she wouldn’t be able to admit the real one.

When she was younger, the excuse was that she felt left out as the new kid. And frankly, she really did feel that way. These rich kids were so close and elusive that fitting in their perfect little world was impossible. They had everything she didn’t, and Eliana was at the center.

So she did what all deranged children would do: she stole them. Except for a few people who wouldn’t budge, Alexa’s cry for fairness won everyone else.

And it annoyed her greatly because Elaina acted like it was nothing. She only ever reacted to her taking that stupid hamster. But for everything else, she acted like she was some immovable Saint.

And Alexa despised her for that.

So when her mother kept on telling her how important it was for Eliana not to have a good foothold in the clan, Alexa felt validated.

She didn’t give a damn why her mother was adamant about it. What she cared about was how far they were willing to support her.

She couldn’t count on that useless father of hers. He never really sided with anyone, like he just didn’t care. On the rare occasions that he does, he lets Eliana influence him. That was a massive blow to Alexa, who couldn’t get much of a reaction from her father.

But at least he didn’t tell her no, nor did he really care about what she was doing. Fine then.

Then she got older and realized why her mother was insistent. Eliana was fucking skilled. She was good at everything, so between the two of them, it was apparent who the successor would be. But then Aldrin was born, someone who would actually carry the name, Thornhill, unlike both Eliana and Alexa, who would end up married off with a different surname.

This should have secured their future, but much to their frustration, Aldrin was as incompetent as he was shy. Not that Alexa was good, but she convinced herself that she was only inferior to Eliana because she had seven years of pampering, seven ahead of her, who only received such treatment much later in life.

So they had planned to marry off Eliana as soon as possible. And they found Jasper for that.

When Alexa saw that Eliana treated Jasper like some proper partner, Alexa got into thinking. She ignored the need to have Eliana married off as soon as possible. She first wanted to take her man. Maybe this one would budge because Lucian just wouldn’t.

That Lucian, Alexa’s first crush.

She had never seen a boy so perfect and so ideal that when she first saw him as a child, she immediately went up to touch him, only to be coldly pushed to the ground.

She only wanted to touch and couldn’t see why she couldn’t when her cousin held his hand the entire day. That day, she learned of extreme jealousy.

So she wanted to take this Jasper, who seemed very easy, and the gifts wouldn’t hurt either.

Alexa enjoyed the feeling of superiority for a long time. And the feeling of trampling on Eliana’s love life felt even better. For a time, she even pitied Eliana because she never ended up with Lucian, so by default, Alexa never lost to her in that department.

None of them owned Lucian.

So what in the 18 levels of hell was Eliana now doing with Lucian?!

Eliana Selene Sinclair? Utter bullshit.

It should’ve been her. And then she got stuck with this loser Jasper, who got them caught like that.

She planned for Elaina to see them, but she did not plan for them to come with a fucking camera phone out and ready to record.

But that was okay because eventually, she managed to convince everyone that they were the real deal and that Eliana’s engagement with Jasper hurt her deeply. She didn’t say anything because she understood the concept of duties.

Because of this, she’s gone into hiding because she’s already got a tarnished reputation, a cheater in everybody’s minds. Now, she’ll also be marked as selfish if she ignores that detained idiot.

Alexa actually felt a headache coming, and it didn’t help that she couldn’t attend to her damaged skin. She didn’t spend so much time and money looking this good, only to ruin it with stress over Jasper and Eliana.

Focus!

In reality, Alexa had been playing with the concept of going after Lucian, but she knew it wouldn’t be that easy with that wretched bitch still there. She’s like poison to Lucian, contaminating him when they’re together. So she needs to get rid of her first, and what better way to do that than by talking to Nicholas Bernard?

That tasteless person who only cared about getting Eliana, as if there’s something good about her. Alexa did feel miffed about discovering his obsession with that rag, but right now, she couldn’t care less.

And Mom also kept on reminding me to stay the fuck away from that psycho, so it’s good that he likes Eliana instead. And if he can get her Lucian, then all the better.

Then she’ll have everything she should’ve had as a legitimate Thornhill.

Alexa was momentarily lost in her delusions until she realized their new financial problem.

The clan had money and could live well off it for generations. However, they were unable to increase their wealth in accordance with their expenditures.

Mom even tightened her spending, unlike before, picking only several relatives. And that had scared Alexa. Since she was incapable of making money, she needed to ensure that she could get her hands on cash cows.

And those cows were raised and owned by Eliana and her family. It’s really always her.

That bitch has always been the root of all her problems.