CHAPTER 51: TRAP HIM WITH PREGNANCY?

I was halfway towards Alexander’s bedroom, when I suddenly heard some noise coming from within the house. I paused for a moment and strained my ears. The commotion seemed to be an argument.

Maybe it was the staff, I thought and continued my way.

But as I moved forward, the noise grew louder and louder, and I couldn’t just ignore it.

So I passed by Alexander’s room and made my way to the first floor.

I climbed down the stairs, then stopped when they were just three steps remaining.

Leaning against the banister, I looked around with a slight frown on my face.

There were about three security guards, surrounding and dragging someone I couldn’t see clearly. But it seemed to be a lady.

"Miss, I told you. You can’t enter without permission." The tallest guard held up a hand to block her attempts to push past him.

"Do you know who I am? How dare you touch me?" The lady snapped.

That voice, I knew it so well, but it couldn’t be who I was thinking right now, because there was no way she could have been here.

"What is going on here?" I asked after a brief moment.

The guards stopped and quickly adjusted themselves the moment they heard my voice.

"We are sorry, ma’am... we were trying to stop this lady from trespassing further..." one of the guards spoke, sounding genuinely apologetic.

I tore my gaze away from them to look at the lady. And I wasn’t wrong. It was her. Claudia. But what the hell was she doing here?

"Shock to see me, aren’t you?" Her lips curled into that cruel smirk I was familiar with. She stood a few feet away from the door, her hands crossed over her chest as her eyes darted around the guards and me as though we were pieces of trash.

"What are you doing here?" My tone was stern which made the smirk on Claudia’s face turn into that of a mockery concern.

"Oh Anna... I came to see how you are doing... I heard your mother died." She took her hand to her face and wiped out some invisible tears with her fingers. "Aren’t I a good big sister that way?" She added. Even a deaf person could hear the malice and fakeness in her voice.

Not that it bothered me. I knew exactly what she was doing. She came here to pick a fight with me, and I wasn’t in any mood for that.

So, I turned around and tried to walk away, but her voice stopped me.

"The doctor said Aunty Seraphina was poisoned... and I wondered who could have done that," she said, pretending to be thinking. I turned around again to face her.

"Listen, Claudia, I don’t have time for theatrics. If you have nothing good to say, please leave," I stated.

"Leave?" She snorted a laugh, as though she found that particular word to be ridiculous. "It seems like you don’t understand that you or anyone here can’t tell me to leave. This is also my property."

Now, it was my turn to snort a laugh. Her property? Was she going nuts?

"Anna oh Anna..." she muttered, taking a few steps forward, deliberately. "You are so dumb... so desperate, that you can go with anyone who showed you a little, dirty kindness... I can’t believe you are my ’sister’."

My hands balled into fists as anger boiled inside of me. I had the burning urge to slap her across her face. Wasn’t she the cause of all this? If she didn’t chase me off the cliff that night, I wouldn’t have ended up in the hands of Alexander. Now, she dare to call me dumb and desperate?

I climbed down the remaining three steps and moved closer to her, standing in front of her. She didn’t flinch, clearly not afraid of what I was up to. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it.

"You are the dumb and desperate one Claudia," I began, staring straight into her green eyes. "You have been so all you life; desperate for attention, desperate for validation, and desperate to cause trouble. I wonder how you can still walk with your head high, when you should be hiding your face in the dump."

Claudia nose flared. I could see the smoke coming out of her ears and nostrils. I expected her to throw her hand like she always did, but instead, she smiled. A creepy, scary smile as she took a step closer to me.

"Say what you want about me, I don’t care. At least I am not the one going about, stealing people’s men. I am not the one who stayed with a man, knowing very well that he is after my family," she said, her tone laced with mock sweetness. "A desperate thief, that is what you are, Anna. So desperate that it had to be your sister’s fiance."

A wave of cold rushed over me, causing my body to freeze. Sister’s fiance? What was she talking about?

Claudia laughed sharply, upon seeing my reaction. "Oh, don’t act like you are surprised. The man you have been warming the bed of is my fiance. We have been engaged since we were children," Claudia declared and it felt like my head was covered with fog.

What?

Alexander was engaged to my half-sister? How? Why didn’t I know? Why didn’t he tell me that? Why... My head was suddenly throbbing as different questions flew around it.

"You knew it didn’t you?" Claudia probbed, looking at me as if she was expecting me to say yes, so that she would have a reason to crash out. But I was too in shock and confusion to answer her.

I was speechless.

She scoffed, sarcastically. "Why am I even asking? Blood has always been thicker than water. What are you going to do now? Get pregnant for him to trap him forever? That was what your mother did and I won’t be surprised if you did the same thing."

That was it. Still taking bad about my mother even now that she was dead?

"Throw her out," I ordered the security guards who were still standing around.

Claudia flung her fake blonde hair backward, her face turning red with embarrassment.

"You won’t dare that?" She spat.

"I can. And I will do more if you don’t get out of my sight this instant," I uttered and whirled around to leave.

The guards tried to grab Claudia by her arms, but she glared fires at them. "Do not touch me, or else you want to die. I will go myself," she warned, and the guards let her be. "Don’t think this is over, Anna. I will get him. He was mine to begin with." Saying that, she strode out on her own.

On my way to Alexander’s room, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Claudia just said. Why would Alexander made me sign those papers when he could marry his original fiancèe? He could have still gotten his revenge even though he married Claudia. So, why me?

I let out a deep sigh, not wanting to think about it anymore, and knock on Alexander’s door.

"Come in," his voice rang from the inside.