Her Devilish Alpha - Chapter 177

“Rose, what am I supposed to do?” Cornelia asked after her third or fourth glass of wine that night alone.

“Stop drinking, that’s what. You’ve got to stop drinking,” Rose said, taking the bottle of wine away from Cornelia.

“You know I could always conjure up another bottle, right?” Cornelia asked.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Rose narrowed her eyes.

“Well, you know I wasn’t referring to my drinking issue when I asked you what I was supposed to do right,” Cornelia spoke, her voice weak.

“If you knew you were going to react this way then why did you want to meet them in the first place?” Rosalynn questioned, tilting her head to the side and knitting her brows.

“Huh, you always know the right questions to ask,” Cornelia noticed.

“Of course, I do. I’ve known you for a substantial amount of time, I know what to ask and what not to ask,” Rose commented.

“Glass,” she said to Cornelia, who sighed.

With a flick of her hand, a glass appeared out of nowhere.

Rose took the jug of water from the dinner table and poured Cornelia a glass.

“Honest answer? I wanted to meet them. I just wanted to get a chance to meet and talk to them, I missed my daughter and… and I missed Emilio too. Obviously, I knew our meeting would have its repercussions and consequences but I still arranged it anyway.”

Burying her face in her hands, she told Rosalynn, scoffing, “Obviously, I knew our meeting would have its repercussions and consequences but I still arranged it anyway. I even went as far as to threaten her that I’d kill her mate.”

Rosalynn facepalmed, “Seriously? Why?”

“I have my pride to protect, I’m still supreme sorceress,” Cornelia answered, staring blankly at her glass.

“Protecting your pride isn’t equivalent to threatening your own daughter, Nelia.”

“I know…”

“If you did then why did you do it? Madeline—”

Cornelia barked, “I don’t need you lecturing me, Rose. I know what I did. Just because you have a closer relationship with my daughter than I do doesn’t mean you get to call all the shots and lecture me about what’s equivalent to what now, even if you’re my close friend.”

Rosalynn frowned, “I never said anything because I was closer to the girl. I’m telling you this as your friend. One that you personally told me you trust.”

Her friend sighed, burying her face in her arms, “Apologies. Guess this whole family ordeal has me antsy.”

Rosalynn folded her arms against her chest, “And?”

Rolling her eyes, Cornelia told Rosalynn, “And for snapping at you.”

“Much better.”

“Look at the bright side, it seems like Emilio and Madeline got closer,” Rosalynn offered.

Cornelia pressed her lips together, “I suppose it’s a good thing… Now, moving on from me, what about you?”

Rendered shocked, Rosalynn questioned, “What are you talking about?”

“Her death is still recent,” Cornelia reminded her.

Gulping, Rosalynn nodded.

“Right. That.”

That was why she had left Eudora in the first place. To clear her mind after Indiana’s death.

“You considered her family, no?”

“I did,” Rosalynn answered, before she quickly corrected herself, “I do. I mean, I do. I always will.”

Cornelia patted her friend on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry for her loss, she didn’t deserve it. Poor thing.”

“Did you get to talk to her?” Rosalynn asked hopefully, wondering if Indiana had anything to say to her.

Cornelia paused, wondering how to answer Rose’s question. She breathed deeply, before she nodded, “I did.”

She remembered the sweet girl, and how sincere she seemed when asking for one last chance to get to talk to a friend of hers to say her goodbye.

“She misses you, I’m sure. She was really sweet when I got to talk to her, the girl seemed at peace too,” Cornelia said to Rosalynn who smiled, seemingly cheered up.

That was one of the differences between Cornelia and Rosalynn.

Cornelia cared about protecting her pride and all that. Being supreme sorceress was her ultimate priority.

Meanwhile, Rosalynn cared about her friends and family. Indiana’s death had affected her in ways unimaginable. Even Cornelia had trouble understanding how Rosalynn could possibly feel that sort of way towards someone that wasn’t even her own blood, although she tried not to bring that up into any of their conversations and try to be there for her dear friend.

“Thanks,” Rosalynn said to Cornelia, heaving a sigh of relief.

“Funny how everything is intertwined into some sort of intricate spider web,” Cornelia pointed out.

Laughing, Rosalynn nodded, “Come to think of it, you’re right.”

Madeline had become dear friends with Indiana. The same Indiana she considered family and treated dearly.

Cornelia was grateful Rosalynn had just asked one question. Any more and she would have had to draw a line.

Being as powerful as she was didn’t come with its rules to abide by. Cornelia had tried going against it to no avail.

She sighed, hoping Madeline was doing alright now that she had woken up.

__

Madeline couldn’t help but feel touched that Emilio was so concerned for her.

Even Xavier was rendered speechless when he saw his former friend rush to Madeline’s side, a look of displeasure and discontent painted across his face as he checked on her and made sure she was alright. It was considerate of him to do so, and he could feel the worry radiating off of Emilio and the relief he felt once Madeline assured him she was alright.

“I’m fine,” Madeline said for what seemed like the millionth time.

She was propped up against a pile of pillows, looking paler than usual. Otherwise, she looked perfectly fine.

Emilio looked at Xavier, wondering if Xavier could leave so he’d be able to chat with his daughter alone. Then again, Xavier probably didn’t trust him enough to leave him all alone with Madeline, despite her being his daughter and all that.

Xavier wondered if it was best if he left the two of them alone to talk to themselves. Emilio wouldn’t harm Madeline again, he was sure of it.

Yet, Xavier still had this gut feeling tugging at him. He decided not to listen to it. Besides, it would only be for a couple of minutes.

He shot Madeline a look. Mouthing, ‘Want me to leave you two alone?’

Madeline nodded gratefully, shooting him a faint smile.

Xavier cleared his throat and said to the two of them, “I’ll leave you two be.”

Emilio watched as Xavier left, amazed Xavier trusted him enough to leave him alone with Madeline. So much so that he had to fight back the urge to smile.

“Xavier told me what happened,” Emilio said, before he asked, “But what about you?”

“Me?” Madeline asked, shocked Emilio decided to ask her after being told everything by Xavier already.

“Yes, you. You must have your own side of the story, right? Something you want to talk about. Xavier’s not here, you can tell me anything,” Emilio assured.

Madeline bit her bottom lip. She did have something to say. And then, her strong resolve crumbled. She looked like a lost child who had no idea where she was.

“Why would she threaten to kill Xavier?” Madeline asked.

Emilio inhaled, feeling like strangling Cornelia now. It was funny how he was thinking she really meant what she said, up until he heard what she had done with Madeline.

But, the moment he heard what Cornelia had done to Madeline, he was appalled. Baffled. Taken aback.

This wasn’t the woman who he loved. Sure, she was very career-driven and ambitious and all that, and this didn’t seem very out-of-character for her.

However, Emilio thought that Cornelia would have at least refrained from doing such a thing to her own daughter. It only made her seem heartless in the process.

Cornelia wasn’t heartless, not to the people she cared about.

Then again, she did abandon her only remaining family. Yes, it was to protect them but she didn’t tell them that, did she? They were left to assume and guess.

Emilio sat beside her on her bed, hugging her gently so as to not hurt her since she was likely still weak after she had told him everything else that had happened and how she felt about it. She told him about all her pent up feelings. Some parts not even Xavier knew about yet.

“It was a horrible thing for her to do, that’s for sure. I’ll talk to her the next time we see each other, it’s unacceptable. I’m sorry you had to go through this, Madeline,” Emilio apologised guiltily on Cornelia’s behalf.

Cornelia knew about how Madeline was feeling, he was sure of it. She couldn’t say she didn’t know this would happen either, so that was something. Somewhere out there, she knew exactly how she had done her daughter wrong and how distraught she had made Madeline by doing this all.

‘Cornelia, what are you up to?’ Emilio thought to himself as he tapped his finger on his chin thoughtfully.