Her Devilish Alpha - Chapter 168

Rosalynn took a seat, wondering what she had missed. Madeline’s mood seemingly improved now that Rose was here, or so Cornelia noticed, at least.

Looking displeased, she replaced the frown on her smile with a faint smile, “Rose, great to see you here.”

Her daughter seemed to have a bond with Rose, and she didn’t even try hiding it. Xavier watched, feeling like he was in for disaster. Madeline would kill him. No matter what he said, she would most definitely kill him. Or be upset with him once they returned.

With a crazed look in Madeline’s eye, she said to Cornelia, noticing her displeasure from a while ago, “How thoughtful of you to invite Aunt Rose here.”

Rosalynn smiled at Madeline. It had been quite a while since they last saw each other, and she honestly missed her. She had just decided to go someplace to mourn Indiana’s death, until she was invited by Cornelia for dinner.

Cornelia stared at her daughter, a glimmer of unfamiliar emotion in her eye. The last she had seen Madeline in person was the day she was born. And now, Madeline was right across from her. She took after her in terms of her looks and attitude.

Madeline reminded her of her younger self, except Madeline was more…

Cornelia pursed her lips, “Of course.”

Knowing Madeline refused to be called ‘child’, she refrained from repeating her previous mistake. Emilio noticed she was holding something back. Heck, he could have sworn she looked quite sad about how she was being treated by her very own daughter.

Emilio nearly took pity on Cornelia before he reminded himself, this was Cornelia. Not some innocent woman who had been separated from her daughter at birth. But the woman who had hid her daughter’s entire existence from her own father and gave her away.

Anger welled up in Emilio, although that seemingly didn’t affect Cornelia.

“Why did you give me away?” Madeline asked with teary eyes, breaking the silence.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

Even Cornelia was stunned. An apologetic look replaced her fascinated one. Emilio had never seen Cornelia look this… this… guilty before. Was she really capable of feeling guilty for what she had done?

And was she actually just sorry?

Cornelia made a brilliant actor. So brilliant that she could tear up if she so wanted to. So was she truly sorry or just pretending to be since the woman across from her was her heir?

Right, there was that part.

Both Xavier and Emilio suspected Cornelia had invited Madeline and wanted to get to know her now that she had come of age and matured into the woman she was today. It seemed perfectly like Cornelia to abandon Madeline and only think of her as useful when she was old enough.

Of course, Madeline didn’t know this either, since she was left in the dark. It was horrid enough being forced to have dinner with her biological mother she hadn’t met in decades. If she knew this? She’d be livid.

Madeline stared at Xavier, mouthing, ‘We need to talk after this.’

Xavier gulped before Cornelia cleared her throat.

“Right, you must have wanted to know about that,” Cornelia said. She explained, keeping her cool, “I did it because it was what was best for you, and I was… ah, looking out for your best interests.”

No one dared speak, and all eyes were on Madeline, who felt unprepared and nervous.

“Best interests?”

When did Cornelia ever have her best interests in mind?

“There are some things you don’t know, dear,” Cornelia said to her, a solemn expression on her face now.

“Some things I can’t tell you and are best kept secret,” she said next, taking a sip from a glass of wine that had appeared out of nowhere.

Yes, she knew, she was the big bad villain for abandoning Madeline and not caring about her. She also abandoned Emilio, which only made her seem even more callous, but that wasn’t the truth.

Well, it was, but there were always two parts of the story.

On one hand, she did do all those things, and she had left everyone with no explanation as to why she had done them. She could have informed them or tried to stay in touch with them since she wasn’t pent up someplace or busy with something else.

On another hand… she was nearly omnipotent. She was the supreme sorceress, and that made her powerful. And yes, many were aware that she had a daughter. However, they also knew that she was estranged from her mother and that she was of no value to the sorceress. That also placed her out of harm’s way. And if she were to give her to her father instead, how would Emilio care for Madeline?

He was still trapped in that cave, and she couldn’t possibly just break him out of the place. Not to mention, even if he wasn’t trapped, Emilio had taken countless lives from the innocent. What was to say he wouldn’t kill Madeline either? Even if she knew what type of person he truly was, she still couldn’t trust Madeline in Emilio’s care. He was practically a wanted criminal.

Hence, she handed Madeline off to a family that could properly care for her. She did not just abandon her. But Madeline didn’t know that, so as of the moment, Cornelia was Ms Villain, and she was the person that had wronged her daughter.

In a couple of ways, she felt like she did wrong to her daughter, but she was much too prideful to admit it, not in front of everyone there.

As for Emilio… did he really think she ever stopped loving him? They hadn’t met in decades, sure. But did he really think their love was that temporary? That it wouldn’t stand the test of time? Cornelia was baffled.

The woman couldn’t live with the possibility of Madeline being put in danger because she was her daughter. And if she had formed a bond with Madeline, and Madeline was made out to be her one and only weakness?

The others would soon discover that and would use that weakness of hers for their own selfish gain, and to attain whatever they wanted from Cornelia.