NINE
481 Words
Chapter 9 – Secrets Behind the Door
Night fell, and silence blanketed the Madrigal mansion. Yet Althea’s mind refused to rest. Sleep evaded her, chased away by restless thoughts and a gnawing unease that tightened around her chest. Every step she took across the polished wooden floor echoed louder than it should, in rhythm with the rapid beating of her heart.
She was about to return to her room when faint voices drifted through the corridor. They came from the study room.
Her pulse quickened.
Slowly, cautiously, Althea approached the half-closed door. Through the narrow gap, she caught sight of Xavier and Lea inside. They stood close—too close. Their faces were serious, but there was an intensity in their eyes that made Althea’s stomach twist.
“She must never find out,” Lea’s voice was sharp, deliberate. “If she learns the truth, she won’t be able to handle it.”
Althea’s grip on the doorframe tightened until her nails bit into the wood. Who were they talking about? What truth?
Her heart pounded violently as questions assaulted her mind.
Then Lea leaned forward, resting her hand against the desk. The distance between her and Xavier shrank until their faces were only inches apart. Her tone softened, laced with something Althea didn’t want to hear.
“You know I’ve always been by your side,” Lea whispered. “I know you better than anyone ever could.”
Xavier didn’t move away. He didn’t push her back. For a fleeting second, he simply stood there, silent. And for Althea, that silence was an answer in itself.
Her world tilted. The air seemed to collapse around her as she stumbled backward from the door, her eyes stinging with tears she refused to let fall. She pressed her hand against her mouth to stop the sob rising in her throat.
The image of them—too close, too familiar—seared into her mind. It wasn’t just Clarisse. It wasn’t just the shadows of Xavier’s past. Even the people standing beside him in the present… they were walls she could never climb.
That night, Althea learned a bitter truth of her own: sometimes, the greatest danger to your heart doesn’t come from the enemies outside—it comes from the ones closest to the person you love.
Back in the solitude of her room, she collapsed onto the bed, hugging herself tightly as if her own arms were the only shield left to protect her.
Her tears finally slipped free, yet behind the sorrow, something else ignited within her chest. A flame.
If this world was a game of power, deception, and unspoken truths, then she would not let herself be a pawn any longer.
Even if she was wounded in the process, even if her heart bled, Althea made a silent vow beneath the shroud of night—
She would fight.
- Writer
