Chapter 90: Chapter 85

◼️◼️◼️ [omniscient]

The story.

The story of a girl, it was nothing much. But when you involve a princess, and the one without a crown.

You have a story stirred with envy, anger and blood spill.

Keira White was no princess, but neither was she any less. Born into richness, she was treated like one. Her feet used to grace the floors of her empty mansion, her giggles once resonated the cold  marble walls, the string of long story she made up was admired by many, but the many were paid to laugh for her. Admire her, praise her.

Their laugh was that of hollow promises. They were not there to stay.

Maids and nannies were an illusion, they kept changing like the seasons. Her giggles were not welcomed at the dining room anymore. Especially not when her family gathered for the weekend. A single dinner, with her mother on phone. Father invested on a deep conversation and brother, her only sibling the interest of her parents. And as for her- the girl who waited days for the weekend, the day she garnered her anticipation with hope of a spark, an initiation of bond with at least someone. Even her brother would have sufficed. But no, keira was too dim to out shine the brighter stars.

She was never asked how her day was.

She was never confronted when she broke the rules.

She was never wanted as a child.

Leonard white was the son who stole the show. He captivated the attention, emitted confidence like no one else could, Lured everyone into thinking that he was the one. The one who was right for the corporation to lean on.

Keira white?

She was used to it. Life in shadows. Smile on her face. Anger in her baggage.

Anger.

It ran in the veins of Whites.

Keira had a friend. Stuart had provided her with not just the finest education experience. But gave her a friend who was not partial to her in a hope of befriending or getting on the good side of her brother. In fact the friend she had was far away from linking herself with petty materialistic world despite being the most sought after heiress of her time.

Elizabeth Stuart.

Elzina's mother.

"Just like your mother" airily, though Keira had aged like a fine wine. Her voice held coldness and animosity hidden behind that icy smile that was the result of rotten envy stashed since years, it was enough for Elzina to snap her out of a pit. A well of craziness she was feeling and falling in. "You look so much like Elizabeth up close"

Elzina's mind yelled at her. Thousand different questions begged to be released. But her sealed lips barely took control.

"Beautiful and classy. That's how she was. But you seem to have inherited a bit of recklessness and feisty attitude like your father" she stood taller, a glimmer of ecstasy in her eyes as she remembered Fredrick Winston.

The poor boy who had aspired to be accepted by the society which was so different than his. Who instead won hearts and made the academy aspire for an intelligence and charm like his than wealth in itself.

"You are scared love? Don't be. I won't hurt you" she takes a step forward. Even her walk was poisonous. Predatory. Vile. Elzina gripped the armrest with all her dignity. She was indeed scared.

"You are making her uncomfortable" sweat glistened on Nathan's forehead. His heart clenched to see Elzina in such stage. She was crumbling. It was too much for her to take in.

Keira. That name that Nathan first acquainted two years ago. At that time the blonde woman gave him the taste of money. She had found him, messing up with minor systems. Hacking his way into messy stuffs in exchange for filthy money.

He wanted a life out from his parent's empire. Not medical but something else he was good at. Illegal dealings was the only way he saw fit, that promised him of a new beginning. But whatever the future held, his vision will sneak its happiness with an image of him being united with Elzina.

Keira White offered him a place in Stuart.

Opened a window for him. Gave him hope.

But that prospect came with a price. It was when Keira had emailed him an image of Alex.

Simple job. Keep me updated on him. Do this and soon you'll have enough sustenance to support your girl. You and Elzina would look absolutely great together.

The inscription written beneath it. It still flashed across his eyes. He remembered being confused and detached for a moment until he had replied her with.

Elzina who?

He expected some sort of misunderstanding by her part. But what he wasn't ready for what happened next.

Elaine Winters. Is that what you think her name is?

Keira had chosen Nathan for multiple reasons. A puppet in love, a messed up boy and someone who was easy for Stuart's scholarship with that record. One boy to spy on Elzina and Alex. Killing two birds with a stone as they call it.

"I think we should give her sometime-"

"Look at you" she coo's cutting him. "So in love"

"I am trying not to traumatize her" he summed up the tensing confidence as he clipped his words. His eyes fixated on the blue pools of Keira. The crinkle of her eyes as she smiles coyly. Moving her gaze to Elzina who watched the exchange. Breathing and not feeling.

"Traumatize her more than her family's death?" Keira's smile vanishes as she speaks and so does the insensitivity in Elzina's chest.

The mention of her parents stabs right into her. Tears prickles her eyes as her lips quivers.

"Why?" is all that stumbles out.

Time ticked by. It wasn't until Keira ran a hand through her blond locks. Keira lost her game. That was the one reason why she had an Eighteen year old girl as her hostage.

The girls whose life she had shattered years ago.

The girl who once had lived a life Keira dreamt of as a child.

The girl's father who she had fallen in love with. So deep and deadly that she had thought of ending them all when her best friend got what Keira couldn't live without.

She had tried for years. Pills after pills. Drinks after drinks.

But instead of forgetting, the initial days of pain and rejection amplified. The valentine's day when Fredrick had asked a help from her, to deliver a stuffed toy with roses to Elizabeth innocent to way he had hurted her. It refused to fade from her memory.

As for the gift. It never made it, keira had ripped them open that night, watched the cottob gut out in seams, and finally had burned them to ashes.

That night she knew that she lost her best friend. Lost because she was ready to kill her if it meant her a chance with Fred.

When the year ended, Keira had molded her heart into a stone that was much more complicated than any of White's in history. Her brothers even.

She was ready to leave it all for Fred, willing to hurt herself over an over enough so that she could see some sort of sympathy in Fred's eyes, to see the love in them.

It was madness.

She needed help.

But no one noticed her. She was too invisible even for someone to notice her, let alone feel the need to care. Elizabeth had tried to help her, but she was problem.

Elizabeth was her problem.

She was the woman who Fred had rejected her for.

"YOU KILLED MY FAMILY BECAUSE DAD DIDN'T WANTED TO BE WITH A PSYCOPATH?" Elzina. Who had been forced to listen to the lunacy screamed as her body thrashed to be released. Pushing it to the point when had to Nathan stand behind her, holding her shoulder in place. But to no avail it calmed her.

There was nothing to be calm about. Elzina wanted to feel Keira's throat in her grasp. Chock the last bit of oxygen off her system. Watch her struggle to breath. Like they did. Like she did.

"I didn't kill them. I gave your father a prospect. Years later, but I did. To leave you both and choose a life with me" Keira hisses, leaning as she faced her in level. "But he took a risk that ended up with him on grave. Even then beside her"

Elzina closed her eyes, shaking her head in denial.

Tears streamed down her face, her body shaked with sobs that were even futile to control.

How could she do this to her?

"Unfortunately you survived" the slight lisp Keira had, not bold but enough to be heard clearly in sheer silence was like the slither of a reptile. Elzina blinked, her gaze distant and clouded. Only her ears heard "I had nothing on you. Though you were their last symbol of their love left behind. I let you be"

Keira gripped Elzina's chin, forcing her to look at her.

"But I changed my mind when you began to search up the dead past. Yes I lamented for fred. But I love my life more. And you, so young with rage had some clues to what happened that night. You were sure that something awful happened. I destroyed every prick that was after me, including that FBI official. But you_You were not giving up" the  of keira's teeth came into view. She was serpent. "I can't have that. I had Nathan to keep tabs on you, when you got a step ahead with the whole pendant fiasco. I tried to end you, but Nathan assured me that he'll keep to blind. Drag you back to square one every time you got ahead. I was a fool to trust a fool"

Keira throws a glare Towards Nathan.

"Few months and you were turning eighteen. And this time you were aware of your title as Elzina Winston. I tried abducting you with Nathan as bait before you could inherit. He volunteered but it failed like every other thing he planned. I wanted to stop you before you revealed yourself, before you had enough power to bring the case back to life. Ruin me again. But that didn't happened either. And here we are, almost at the end. My last resort before I escape"

Keira moves towards the right, her hand raises as she side lines the curtain. The moonlight pours in through the window as she looks up at sky. Glowering full moon soothes her eyes.

No one speaks.

Nothing moves.

Except the heart that beats inside them, with their own fears.

Though no one showed, it was there. One is not human without fear.

"Alex thinks of you as his mother"

Keira's chest tightens at the raw care and love in Elzina's voice for Alexander. Thomas for her. The boy who was as closest to a son. Like the only bliss of motherhood she could experience.

"He meant nothing to me"

Liar. Her heart thudded.

"I used him as a tool to keep Leonard's mouth shut. Leonard can't afford to lose the only heir to his corporation and constant blackmail regarding his son kept him levelled. Thomas was too dependent on me and Leo made it possible by his constant cruel ways of disciplining him. Leonard lives for reputation and social hierarchy. He committed some grave mistakes himself. There was no way he would risk all he worked for because of his sister's crimes or his own. We traded each others secrets and kept them safe" turning keira leans against the wall, the wooden panel flat by her waist.

Elzina's head felt like it exploded every minute. Holding her body up became a chore.

Her blinks lazier.

Her breathing heavier.

Her body colder.

"Leonard knew I wasn't asleep all this time. I wanted to lay low. Wanted to create walls so that there was no way my past could sneak through the cracks, destroying my life forever. It just worked fine when the doctor was coward enough to give into my mild threats. Unlike your father he seem to love his family just fine" Keira chuckles dryly. Recalling the times the doctor would call her informing the visiting appointment that Alex would request.  A comforting smile graced her lips everytime at the thought of her little nephews concern for his aunt. That he still was guilty for the things he told her that night.

But then his initial regular visits became a thing of past. Alex left, left to mend things with his mother.

Keira was once again left alone. Forgotten. Isolated.

And then fate had just the right strings to pull at the right time.

Alex met Elzina. The months spent together in Summerville changed many lives and the two young teenagers weren't aware of what lurked behind them.

But now-

"You are sick" Elzina seethed "do you hear me Keira white? You are deranged, ugly and crazy"

Keira's eyes goes hard, like two sharp spears in warning. But it fails to inject Elzina with terror.

"You killed my parents, my mother-

"Your mother wasn't saint either. She shot a man to death before she drove the car with you both"

"You were the one who send him to hurt us. You hurt my mother. You finished everything" Elzina wheezed with pain and sizzling wrath. The accusation all true. And there was no reason for Keira to deny it.

Yes keira had the assassin ordered, yes she was there in that home to clear the crime scene. Yes she was behind the deaths.

But does she repent?

"Are you going to kill me? Is that how you end this?" she watched as the girl snarled, bounded but bold. The eye contact so firm that it was keira who looked away first. The malice and hate in Elzina gaze too intense and naked.

"No"

"What?"

"I'll demand a hefty ransom in return, enough for me to start a life outside of this country. I'll remain a fugitive. But atleast I won't be spending the rest of my life in prison" Elzina frowns, something was not adding up.

"Then you set me free. Like I can go?" she loathed the hope in her utterance. But the crystal blankness she saw in Keira's eyes, it was rancid than her insanity.

"You are important to them young Winston" them. The 'them' was the series of people who never accepted Keira. Ian, Leonard and Thomas. Elzina had a family. Her Nana. A friend like Mike. And a list of others. "Those fools will believe it. But you won't stop at that. I see resentment In you that I once had for Elizabeth and you. So I decided on a trade. I spare your life with an alternative that will keep you grounded."

Elzina felt her heart sink. The question bubbled out as her throat constricted.

"What trade?"

Keira tilted her head, her fingers entwined by her waist. Even a gesture so common felt hazardous when Keira white was involved. And it was ten time more catastrophic when she opened her mouth.

"It's simple Elzina. I get the money, you get to live and-" She pauses, her eyes flickering to the boy who stood close to Elzina, like her guide and protector. "-Nathan gets you"

It took Elzina a while to collect the meaning behind her words. When she did- it all came crashing down.

She wasn't able to hold it any longer as the sour taste tingled her throat.

Nathan was by her side immediately with a bin as she threw up.

***

This was the last of omniscient narrative. And the book is so close to the end that eveytime i publish a chapter i tear up thinking its one step near to climax.

Love you all so much for the experience. Thank you.🤗🤗♥️♥️