Chapter 2

The head priest, his name is Father John, smiled at me to assure me that nothing was going to happen to me. That made me a bit more comfortable in an environment where I felt suffocated from the pressure being exerted by the men around me.

I sat straight and confidently looked at the man sitting in front of me and something clicked in my mind. It is incomplete but it still clicked. I somehow know this man yet I don't remember him. I have no memories from before I was in the orphanage. I don't remember the faces of my parents, my grandparents, none. The only thing I remembered was my name. That's it.

And since something clicked in my mind, my head tilted a bit to the left, trying to remember who this person was. That is a habit of mine that I should probably correct since it gives away a lot of things for me. I immediately straightened again and the man's brows raised at my actions.

He ignored me afterward and looked at Father John.

"Are you sure this is her?" He asked Father John.

"Yes. And she is ready to go back with you. She needs to learn to act her age as well as learn the responsibilities that she will be shouldering in the future." Father John replied.

"I understand that part, John. But does she have the guts to face the world of dangers that come with being an Alcantara?" He replied.

The moment he called Father John as just John, I could not stop my mouth. I hate it when someone disrespects others who should be treated with respect.

"I know I shouldn't join a conversation when I am not a part of it but who the hell are you to call Father John that way? Can't you tell that he's a priest? A head priest at that. Do his clothes not ring a bell? Are you f*cking blind or just plain stupid?"

And at that point, I stood up and looked down on him as I continued my spiel.

"And who gave you the right to judge me, huh? Did you think that I would be a simpering idiot? Scared of everything and everyone? Well, think again. You barely know me yet you are judging me." I asked him, my voice dripping with venom.

He was silent for a while before he said,

"I never once thought of you being a simpering idiot. What I am asking is if you have the guts to face the dangers of being an Alcantara. You have no memory of what happened to you and your family before you came to this orphanage. You do not know how hard it was to hide you from them. You do not know the lengths we did, me and JOHN, to protect you. And yes, I have eyes that see John as a priest."

He said that in the calmest way possible, and that made me immediately shut my mouth and just stare at him. Seconds and minutes pass by and everyone in the room is silent. I sat down, looked away, and kept myself quiet. He, on the other hand, started talking again with Father John. Probably ignoring me.

"John, did you teach her nothing? How did she end up with a mouth like that?"

My ears were the shade of a rotten tomato upon hearing the tone that he used to talk to Father John. I wanted to rip his mouth off of his face for the blatant disrespect he was showing. But instead of doing that, I stared daggers at him after he said that. If looks could kill, he would be six feet below the ground right about now.

Father John just sighed before saying,

"We educate every single one of the kids staying here at the orphanage. She knows the basics of every subject we have here. She reads several books every week to supplement the lessons we give them and she's doing that on her own. I don't know the depth of her knowledge that's why I am telling you that it's time to let the world know that the heiress of the Alcantara conglomerate is alive. But not only alive, capable of leading those under her. That's why I told you earlier that she needs further education if she were to shoulder her responsibilities."

After he said that, the room went quiet again. There was a clock inside the room that when everything was deadly silent, you could hear the tick-tock sound of it. And right now, it is annoying the hell out of me. And since I am Alexandria, I stood up and said,

"Since no one is saying anything, can I say something? At least, before the ticking of the clock ends up making me go insane."

I paused, for effect, looked at the man down again, and continued.

"Look, mister 'whoever-you-are', just say you don't want to take me back. In fact, just say that you are never taking me back. I already half-expected that I will be leaving this place the moment I turn eighteen because nobody would want to adopt me because of my attitude problems. And just so you know, I was in the middle of breakfast when you called me to come here. I am leaving because you have no intention of leaving here with me. I am leaving because I am hungry and I would like to continue eating my breakfast. Also, if you leave me here, don't come back ever again. I am not going with you and I will change my name so that I can live my life the way I wanted it to be."

After that, I left the room. His guards didn't stop me from leaving the room. I closed the door, well, I slammed the door before slowly walking out to the lobby and straight to the door. I was about to open the door when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I instinctively jumped at the contact, grabbed the hand and twisted it as best as I could before facing the guy who grabbed me.

Lo and behold, you probably guessed who grabbed me. The man I sat across in the room earlier.

And in my confusion, I asked, "How in the high hell are you here already? And why didn't I hear you?"

Before he answered, he moved his head to tell me to let his hand go, which I did. He massaged his wrists and said,

"I'm quite fast on my feet and you didn't hear me because you were in your own little world. I'm here to apologize for earlier. And I still haven't introduced myself."

He held out his hand and said, "My name is Gabriel Alcantara, your father's younger brother."