The Alpha Prince's Abused Mate Chapter 50

ALANA

“Ambassadress, Luna Minerva wants to talk with you,” the royal guard informed me after knocking on the door.

“Let her in,” I said without looking up from the stacks of papers on the table.

I am trying to find a way to minimize the expenses in the mansion so we could build more schools for the children.

Minerva entered the room with a big smile on her face.

“Alana, my sweet little child.” She hugged me and even kissed my head. “I missed you so much.”

I just sat there frozen in awkwardness. My heart is squirming in unease while she kisses me. “Take a seat. Why are you here?”

My stepmother took my hand and gave me another one of those creepy smiles she had. “Alana, why are you so cold to me? Did you already forget about how I loved you then? I am sorry if you mistook my discipline for cruelty. I know you are so young then to understand that your dad and I have just a different way of showing how we love you so much.”

Love? They love me? No matter how little my limited experience and knowledge can explore, I can never interpret the whipping and the imprisoning as a form of loving.

Pulling my hand from her and clenching them together under the table, I challenged myself to look into the eyes of the woman who used to spit on my face while saying how useless I am. “Why are you here, Minerva?”

“Mommy. From now on, call me mommy please. I know how you want to call me that. Now, I am giving you the right to call me one.”

I let out a gasp of air. My heart is just in pieces now and anytime my tears could fall because of my suppressed feeling. “Please do not beat around the bush. Tell me the reason why you are here.”

“I missed you and I want to see my other daughter. Don’t you miss me too, Alana?”

She tried to sound sweet and doting but all I could hear was her lethal voice as she forced me to drink the water with her spit on it.

“Lie. The reason. Tell me the real one,” I said with the coldest tone I could muster.

She blinked before deliberately sighing. “Alana, can you be more patient with your sister? Sophia grew up to be such a sickly kid that is why we make sure to shower her with everything. Nothing should upset her.”

The pen broke in my hand as I tried with all might to blink all the tears away. Sickly? If they care so much about Sophia being so sickly, then how about me? Why can’t they see that I also needed someone back then?

Instead of beatings, I needed a hug. Instead of a scrap, I needed real unspoiled food. Instead of being unwanted, I wanted acceptance.

I was denied basic necessities. I was denied justice!

“Please, give her back the funds for her house. Do you want your sister to be embarrassed in front of her friends? We could just move the date of the party. Just bring back her funds. I am sure you also don’t want to see her sad and upset, right?”

“I want to,” I stated without any reservation.

Minerva gasped in surprise. “W-What?”

“I want to see her sad and upset so I won’t give her any money for her unnecessary extravagant house,” I repeated again to make a point.

“A-Alana! How could you say that?” She covered her mouth in shock. “Please, just give her back the funds. She needed it so badly.”

“No, I am afraid I cannot do that. You may go.”

Francine knocked on the opened door and peeped inside. “Ambassadress, the alpha prince is here. Where should you talk with him?”

I caught my breath as my mind debated whether to talk to him or not. The rejection and outright dismissal I faced last night still makes my heart constrict. I just… I don’t think I want to see him now.

I don’t think I can look into his eyes directly and not cry at all.

“Alana!” Minerva gripped my shoulders and forced herself to look pitiful. “Bring back your sister’s funds! She needs it so badly! I am ordering you!”

I pushed her hands away and pointed at the door. “And I am ordering you to leave. Now!”

The guards came in and dragged Minerva away from me. “No! Unhand me! How dare you do this to the luna of the alpha! Alana!”

She kept on wailing until Francine shut the door closed in front of us. “Alana, what should I tell William?”

Her face is bright as if she is really expecting something good to happen between me and William.

“Francine, please tell the alpha prince that I am busy and I am sorry that I cannot talk to him,” I told her and buried myself back into work.

“Hm?” she reacted with wide eyes. “But why?”

“Just tell him that I am exhausted.”

It took her several minutes to reply. “Oh, okay. I’ll tell him that.”

I went back to work assessing to keep my mind busy or else I would be tempted to fly away into his arms.

Knowing that he dined with Sophia after he ignored me blatantly makes my heart bleed. I just needed time to think things through and to heal my wounded heart before I came back to him.

“Alana, baby,” William called me when I left the room after three hours of continuous work.

He was sitting across the door with a book in his hand and it seemed like he had been waiting for me since hours back.

Our eyes connected and my tears immediately welled when I saw the longing in his eyes. I know that he can read the same thing in my eyes.

“Alana…” he stepped towards me but I shook my head.

“I don’t like you now.”

His steps faltered and he took two steps back, pain and shame all over his face. “I know, I know. I also don’t like myself when I ignore you.”

I averted my eyes into the sunset outside remembering how we used to look at it together in front of the lake.

“Why are you here?” I whispered.

Lucas is behind me listening to all our conversation.

His face lit up in hope as he scratched his hair adorably. “Have you walked across the fields in your village? Have you…”

“I don’t want to,” I uttered, cutting off all of his hopes. “Lucas, please take me to the plaza. I have to give these books to the children at school.”

The beta nodded. “Yes, Alana.”

William did not surrender and came forward too. “I can go there with you. Al-”

“Come on, Lucas,” I said, turning my back to him.

“Right away, ambassadress.”

While in the car, I can’t help but glance at William who is still in the same spot where I left him following us with his eyes and hunched shoulders.