"Who is Claire?" Justin suddenly asked his adopted daughter after breakfast on a day he was free enough to have breakfast with them.
Everyone in the dining room turned and looked at him shocked by the sudden question. At first all of them listening were not sure of who the question was directed to but when they noticed his gaze was fixed on Anna alone, they also turned their gaze to her knowing he was talking to Anna.
Seeing the gaze of her foster father fixed on her, Anna gulped. She did not like where this conversation was going to. She did not know how he knew about Claire. It was only a few days ago she stopped hearing that girl's name. She succeeded in overcoming the nightmare she suffered from due to the incident that happened to her only to bring in a new one.
Claire has become her biggest nightmare now. It was as though the girl was haunting her every day. She chose to believe that she was only over thinking when she got her peace back for a few days now but it seems the ghost of the girl was not satisfied with the way things turned out.
"Who is Claire?" Justin asked obviously displeased that Anna remained silent when she should be giving him an answer.
"She was a schoolmate," Anna replied with a lot of effort used to prevent stuttering.
"A schoolmate you hit so hard that she had to see a doctor, right?" Justin asked sternly.
"When did that happen?" Valerie asked obviously surprised by the new revelation. She turned towards the two girls who were her adopted daughters and frowned waiting for an answer. She wondered when it happened that she did not know about it.
"I . . ." Anna stuttered unable to prevent it any longer. Her palm became very sweaty and she did not like this at all.
"Since she can't give us an answer, you should be able to do that, right?" Justin asked now fixing his gaze on Rose.
Rose frowned. She really did not want to be the one to tell the tale. It should be best if the main lead narrates it, right? She also held back just like Anna with her head bowed and her chin almost touching her chest.
"You two don't want to give me an answer, right?" Justin asked getting really angered by their silence. He scolded himself over and over again on his mind about letting the girls into his family. He lied to himself that if his daughter was alive, she will possibly have been the best child and not bringing problems and troubles to his door step. Perhaps he was actually right to think that way and he was not lying.
"I hit her really hard when she said something bad about me. She insulted me. I did it because I was very angry when I heard what she said," Anna suddenly lifted her head and narrated sincerely. She avoided her foster father's gaze but she did not look scared any more.
"I see that you are very proud that you hit the girl, right? I saw the video," Justin said angrily. He sat down back on the chair he sat to eat breakfast when he felt like he could not hold back his anger. The look of confidence in her eyes was what pissed him off more.
"That happened over about two years ago and everything was settled," Anna told him confidently. What gave her the sudden rush of confidence was the memory of what happened that day. She remembered what Claire said about her. "She said nasty things about me. I guess they did not include it in the video or you won't be this angry with me."
"Really? Do you know what will happen to your reputation if the video gets out?" Justin asked trying hard to keep himself from shouting out at her.
"I really don't care. What she said then, was a rumor that she could start and ruin my reputation in a more effective way than me beating her up would. I had to make her stop to prevent the rumor from spreading," Anna justified her action.
The incident that happened to her was still a very dark dot in her memory. It was like a locked safe that she had no key to which prevented her from know its content but that does not give anyone the right to try creating her memories for her.
"You then found a way to kill her afterwards to seal it up, right?" Justin asked. Looking at Anna, he knew that she possibly did not have anything to do with what happened to her since it seems the person who did it was definitely someone ruthless and equipped enough to make that happen.
Looking at the teenager before him and remembering her reaction when she saw the girl's copse, he knew she was not aware of who the culprit was and was possibly feeling threatened herself.
Anna gasped at that unexpected question. She looked at her foster father in astonishment unable to believe what she heard from his lips. How did she become strong enough to make that happen? She did not bother giving him an answer but made sure to show how wronged she felt.
"Jace was the person who helped us stop the rumor," Rose chipped in although and she felt completely uninvolved and out of place in the conversation when she was done speaking which immediately made her regret talking.
Justin glanced at Rose but said nothing about that because he was fully aware of that. "Well, I am sure you are wondering why I am bringing this up. The video is the reason why you did not get accepted by the Royal University," Justin announced. He shook his head before standing up to leave.
"Who sent the video to them?" Anna asked because she could not remember that such a video existed. "How did they get the video?"
Justin glanced at Rose for a split second without giving an answer to Anna's question and walked out of the dining room.
Anna was literally losing her mind. Someone have to take the video because she does not think the school will want to hand over the CCTV tape to the university she wanted to attend. This was too much, who was behind it?
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom She glanced at Rose when she felt tears fill her eyes.
"Are you okay?" Valerie asked walking to Anna.
"I am fine, I just need some time to think about this," Anna said and ran out of the dining and out of the house completely.
Rose glanced at her foster mother before running out after Anna. "Anna. Are you okay?" Rose had to ask when she saw Anna simply standing in front of the mansion staring up at the morning sky with the sun shining with a mild intensity.
"Do I look okay?" Anna snapped and looked down. She frowned at her foster sister. "Who do you think did this to me?" Anna asked sadly as she returned her gaze to the sky.
"What you are doing is not good for your eyes. Let us go inside," Rose said softly as she reached for Anna's wrist.
"It was a lot better when I did not know the reason. Then, I was able to accept it but with this, I feel so wronged. I don't deserve any of these. You heard what she said about me, right?" Anna asked looking at Rose with her now red and misty eyes.
"Yes I heard and she deserved getting those slaps from you but she did not deserve to die the way she did. Whoever did that to her is the cruelest being in existence," Rose said truthfully. She knew how bad the girl looked and according to rumors, the girl was molested and abused before getting killed.
Rose felt whoever did it to Anna used the cruelest method to have her kicked. "What if the video gets leaked?" Anna asked when it occurred to her.
"I don't think it would. The person will not want to get caught since it will be easy to track him down," Rose tried to assure her. She will have to task Liam with the job of finding the person as soon as Anna calms down. "Also don't worry. Dad will make sure it does not get leaked out on the internet since you are his daughter and it might affect his reputation."
That seems to be a very persuasive reason why the video will stay hidden because Anna who was about to begin crying calmed down visibly.
"We can ask Wayne to hack their system to find out who sent it to them and how it got sent," Rose suggested giving Anna some hope before she gets to talk to Liam.
Anna frowned when she remembered someone who could help her who was more powerful with more resources than Wayne who was now so high up that she could only brush it aside.
She had a cause to smile when she remembered someone else.. Shaking Rose's hand off her wrist, she ran into her room to get the keys to the car her mother told her she was free to use at any time.
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