The Stolen Heiress: Claimed by her Father's Ruthless Enemy.

The door was open, but Alexander wasn’t inside. I set the tray down on his desk, and I was about to leave when something caught my eye. A folder had been left open, papers spilling slightly out from under it. I knew I shouldn’t look, I shouldn’t invade his privacy. But curiosity got the better of me. What if they were about my father’s properties?

Reaching out, I pulled out a white piece of paper. It was a letter from a medical facility. My mother’s name was typed at the top.

I began to read the content.

’Patient Seraphina Steele’s condition has deteriorated significantly. Life expectancy is estimated at less than twenty-one days. Patient has expressed strong desire to see her daughter, Anna Steele, before end of life care becomes necessary.’

At first, I thought I was seeing things. I had to rub my eyes with the back of my palm to read it again, and checked the date. It was a week before my mother died. Then everything started to land. My body began vibrating so uncontrollably that I could barely stand on my feet. I had to grab the edge of the desk to steady myself.

Alexander had known.

All this while I thought I couldn’t see my mother before she died, Alexander had known. He knew she was dying, he knew there was a countdown, he was told she wanted to see me, and he never said a word to me. He let her die, longing. He allowed her to rot with all her hopes of seeing her daughter for the last time.

What kind of heartless monster was he?

"What are you doing here?" The voice suddenly came into the room, but I was too angry to even be startled. I snapped my head to the direction.

Alexander walked into the study. He stopped when his eyes fell on the clutched paper in my shaking hand. His blank expression didn’t change.

"You knew," I said, not recognizing my own voice. "You knew she was dying. You knew she was asking for me."

"Yes," he simply said.

"And you said nothing." My throat was closing up, the words scraping their way out. "You let her die without letting me see her. Then I had to find out like this?"

"It wouldn’t have changed anything," he said flatly. "She still would have died."

That only irritated me further that I suddenly felt the urge to slap him across his face. But I clenched my fist to stop myself from doing so.

"That was never your decision to make. You have no right to keep me away from her. She was my mother, and I deserved to say goodbye. How dare you take that away from me?!"

He looked at me for a long moment, something moving behind his eyes that I couldn’t read and didn’t have the strength left to try to.

"I did what was necessary."

"Necessary for who? For me, or for you?" I crumbled the paper and threw it on the desk. Then I took some steps closer to him and muttered. "If anyone hadn’t said this to you before, listen now. A monster, that’s what you are."

His gaze narrowed and his jaw tightened at my words. Without waiting to see any of his reaction, I moved past him and out of the study.

I hurried to my room, tears blurring my vision. The moment I closed the door to my bedroom, the dam I had been holding back finally broke.

I slid down against the door until I was sitting on the cold floor. My hand pressed tightly over my mouth, trying to muffle the sobs that tore out of me.

Uncontrollable tears streamed down my face.

How could he? How could he do this? How could he live every day knowing that he held a mother’s final request to her child, and never said a word about it?

She was dying, hoping every second that her daughter would come to her. And she died thinking I didn’t care, or worse thinking I was punishing her for everything she did to me, not knowing that I had no idea what was happening to her. She died completely alone because Alexander had decided that none of her wishes and desire mattered.

This was part of his sick revenge, wasn’t it? This was what he... I was crying so hard that my thoughts were trailing off. My throat felt so tight and my ribs hurt from trying not to scream out aloud.

I remained there on the floor, weeping until I couldn’t cry anymore. My tears were dried, and the grief holding my chest melted into an emotion I couldn’t quite explain.

Every ounce of fear and restriction I had for him was gone. I didn’t care about the marriage clauses anymore, I didn’t care about the three billion, or the four billion, or the seven billion total debt he had threatened me with yesterday. He could do whatever he wanted, he could blacklist my name if he wanted... I didn’t care. I would rather drown in a raging sea right now than spend another second breathing the same air as him.

Wiping the wetness from my face, I stood up and made my way to the dressing room. I pulled out a traveling bag from under the closet and began to pack a few things.

Why was I even taking them? I thought, mid way through the packing. These were none of my things. They were brought with his money. The only thing I came here with was my backpack which unfortunately got destroyed from the fire when I was kidnapped.

So, there was no need to take his things when I was done with him.

Putting back the bag inside the closet, I went to the cabinet to get my heart medicine. I looked at the ring on my finger, and without hesitation, I slid it off and threw it onto the bed. At that moment, the cold grip of reality got hold of me. Where would I even go from here?

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!