CHAPTER 50: WHO IS ANNA STEELE.

Alexander still sat in the garden, blankly overlooking the running fountain. It was very dark now, and he should probably go to bed and rest his head, he thought. But he couldn’t.

He could still feel the hotness of her slap on his right side of his face. Not that the slap itself hurt him. He just couldn’t push everything to the back of his mind.

He still remembered the rage on Anna’s face, the raw sadness and grief that filled her tone as she spoke to him some hours ago. And most of all, her declaration of pure hatred for him.

Alexander exhaled sharply to soften the strange emotions in his mind. He didn’t know why he felt like that. He had been hated before... he probably lived on people’s hatred for him, and no matter how he tried to downplay it this time, he knew this was different. Anna’s hatred for him felt odd.

Well, he couldn’t blame her for hating him that much. She thought he was responsible for all the chaos going on in her family. From her family’s destruction, to the downfall of her father, and now... her mother’s death. And why wouldn’t she blame him for it? He had made enough choices in the beginning to make himself look like the villain in her story.

He shook his head in disagreement as he tore his gaze away from the fountain to nothing in particular. It didn’t matter if he was the villain in her tale, just like how it didn’t matter what she thought or felt about him. What mattered was that no matter how much she hated him, it wouldn’t change the fact that he had nothing to do with her mother’s death.

"Boss, you are here?"

Ethan’s sudden appearance disrupted Alexander’s thought. He turned his head to the right and found Ethan standing there with his neural calm expression.

"What is it?" Alexander asked.

"I couldn’t find anything on the hospital footage," Ethan responded, stepping in front of Alexander.

Alexander’s brows furrowed.

"What do you mean you couldn’t find anything on the footage? Was it tempered with?"

"That seemed to be it." Ethan shrugged. "The last part showed when Irene visited Seraphina in the hospital. She seemed to have said something to her, because one could see the fear and desperation on Seraphina’s face. But after that, there was nothing else on the footage," Ethan explained.

"Someone is at work," Alexander said, nodding thoughtfully. "I knew something was wrong when she died way before the time the doctor issued."

"Who do you think it might be?" Ethan asked, staring right into Alexander’s eyes, as though the answer was there.

Alexander seemed to think for a while. He honestly didn’t have any suspects in mind. But now that the hospital footage got tempered with, he could suddenly think of who was likely behind that.

"I have no suspect yet... but I want you to look Irene up. She and Seraphina have been rivals since the beginning."

"Alright, I will do just that," Ethan nodded, dropping a brown envelope on the table in front of Alexander. As he was about to leave, he stopped and took a closer look at Alexander’s right face.

"Why is that side quite red? Did you get bitten by a bug?"

Alexander threw a deadly glare at Ethan, wondering if he should answer the stupid question or punch Ethan on his ugly face.

Then, he decided to answer him. He was bored anyway.

"It is a slap," he casually said.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Slapped by who?"

"Her."

"Who is her? Your wife?"

Alexander nodded. Who else would it be, anyways? The ’white-haired thing’ was the only one who could dare do that and go scot free. If it was someone else... he wasn’t sure though, but they would have been long dead by now.

"Why did she slap you?" Ethan asked, his expression turning into confusion and curiosity.

"She thinks I am responsible for her mother’s death," was all he could say.

"But you are not..."

"She won’t believe that," Alexander breathed.

Ethan sighed heavily.

"Maybe you can prove to her that you have nothing to do with her mother’s death. She was poisoned after all."

"I will not prove anything to her. She is free to believe whatever she wants to," Alexander stated, his tone laced with annoyance. Ethan was getting on his last nerve by his absurd suggestions and if he didn’t get out of his face, then it might result in something entirely different.

"Just leave. I am done talking," he ordered.

Ethan shook his head with a half smile before leaving.

Once he was gone, Alexander reached for the brown envelope Ethan had dropped, then opened it. Inside, he could see a bunch of photos stacked together.

He quickly took them out. And there they were... Photos of Claudia meeting up with a strange guy in one of the most popular clubs in the city. The guy was dressed in all black. A black hoodie and a face mask which made his face completely invisible.

Claudia on the other hand seemed to be very angry at the strange guy. There were glasses shattered on the floor and other things that were thrown, but the guy didn’t change his posture the whole time.

Who could this have been? Alexander thought as he stared intently at the photos.

Why was Claudia with him? Could it be the Wanted guy on the posters?

Alexander’s thoughts were all over the place, but none of them seemed to be adding up on the mystery regarding the accident.

He arranged the photos back into the envelope, then rose up from his seat.

Maybe it was time he approached the one question that has been bothering him for some time now. Who is Anna Steele?

****

The next day, I couldn’t muster the energy to do a thing. My whole body ached and my limbs felt numb. My face had became even more swollen overnight from all the tears.

I just sat at the table, staring blankly at the broth soup Victoria made for me. It smelled so delicious, but sadly, I had no appetite.

Through out the whole morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the voice recorder and Alexander’s words.

Each time I thought about who could poisoned my mom, the first name that always come to my mind was Irene. She would always pick a fight with my mother on every little thing just to remind her of her place as a mere mistress. But Irene wasn’t reckless. She wouldn’t risk everything on something so extreme. Would she?

I shook my head. No. Irene liked to control. She wouldn’t get her hands dirty. Who else?

The staff? My mother had been careful about who she trusted, but not everyone in the house was loyal. Could one of them have slipped something into her food? Her tea? But why? They literally had no reason to do that.

And there was Alexander.

I didn’t know why it felt like he wouldn’t kill my mother. Sure he wanted us miserable, but there was something in my mind that was telling me otherwise.

However, if he knew she was poisoned, then he must have known more than that.

Or maybe he might even know who did it.

But the problem was that I couldn’t go to him, not after everything I did to him.

I slapped him, screamed at his face, blamed him for everything. I pressed my palm on my face in embarrassment. How could I ever face him again?

"You have no choice, Anna. Is it either you find out what happened or let your mother’s killer live their lives. And you don’t want that, do you? I thought, then whispered to myself, "No, I don’t. They have to be punished for what they have done. For making me more miserable than I already was... they have to pay."

With that, I stood up and made my way to Alexander’s room.