Allea

two

Power & money both came into my hands without any hard-work that's why I put no value to it and used it in all useless ways I could. I didn't know much about business and never cared to, I had unlimited money that I could spend on various lavish things, forgetting that nothing of this was mine, to begin with.

The rightful heir, Kai Odgen Allgaier, who only saw his loved ones going away from him from a young age, grew up neglected. I never bothered myself with him, being his guardian, two years later when he turned thirteen I sent him to boarding school and continued to enjoy my extravagant life neglecting both him and the company. I even got admission into a famed university with a huge amount of donation just to get around gloat and waste more time & money.

When Kai was fourteen, he got addicted to drugs. He was rich, he had money, knew nothing about the world we lived in and became the target of the bad company because he was an easy money source and in the coming years his addiction got worse. When I came to know of it, I still didn't do anything for Kai, because around this time I met him.

It was quite a rich party, which was attended by every business and influential person, and of course, I was there. The main reason for my visit was to gain shareholders and contracts for the company, because of not trusting the CEO, many shareholders started selling their shares and the stock market for the company was getting low as well as contracts & investments but when I saw him, I once again forget my responsibility.

It was probably not love at first sight but infatuation. He was a man of countless accomplishments, Aris Salvadge, who screamed wealth & power, then how could my stupid-self not feel attracted to it?

The time I should have used to focus on other things, I spent it to follow him everywhere and utilized every mean to get near him, for two years I flashed my gaudy clothes and money foolishly in front of him, showing him that I was of his match but he never bothered me another glance. Why would he? Gold-diggers like me hovered like bees around him.

For two years I followed him around stupidly, completely ignoring the grave I was pushing the Allgaier Corporation in.

When I wake up from the stupor, I was twenty-four years old, just a year before I took my own life.

That year I finally focused on the company because shares were falling low in the market and we were losing more contracts. The company was facing big losses one after another and when I saw no other way out, I could only think of resources and connections. Aris Salvadge's father who was once a great supporter of Odgen Allgaier and the share-holder. With all doors closed, I reached him and begged him to invest in my company. I assumed, considering his past relation with Odgen and Jackson, he somehow convinced his son to invest and give us a leading contract.

I was determined that year to make it work, but how? Recently graduated in finance, I hardly knew what and how to do -it was too late, everything and the company was way too deep in dung to bring it back. That year I tried but no matter what I wasn't able to grasp anything and things continued to slip out of hands. So lost in foolishness that I never bothered to focus and now I was facing the consequences of my actions, but this was only the beginning.

Around the same time, I recollect getting a call from the hospital about Kai's condition, that's when I remembered that I also had a step-brother but it was also too late. Because of the overdose of the drug, he was admitted to the hospital, and above this, in a state of subconsciousness, he harassed a waitress who pressed rape charges on him. Not concerning much about his situation because I too was busy, I assigned some people to handle it.

Three months later, we were losing the investment money and failed to fulfill the contract because of my short-comings. It finally happened what I dreaded, the company was about to fall into bankruptcy but was still held by thin threads which also broke when the news of the Allgaier's Corps.' original heir's death swirled everywhere.

Kai died.

That day, for the first time I felt how it feels like trying to breathe but couldn't. The location of Kai's dead body was unknown, and when they found him two days later after years I saw my step-brother clearly, and I just stood there not knowing what to do, how to feel.

The heir of a billionaire who was bound to a great life, was thrown in a dump, his clothes shattered and body swelled with bruises even decaying looking horrid, and mouth was stuffed with a white substance, so much that it choked him.

I remember trembling but tears still didn't come, I had no right to cry for him. I couldn't see his face, I felt like he would wake up and ask me, blame me that I did this to him. He was just an innocent child and I did this to him.

I never wanted to admit that I was the one who killed him, How did I become such a monster?

With Kai's death, it took a week for the company to went into bankruptcy and all the properties were confined.

So blinded by the shine of money that in the end I was left with nothing. Everyone in the world was blaming me for everything and they right to do so, everything I did keep repeating itself in front of me and above all Kai's face asking me, who did this to him.

I was weak, so weak that I feared facing the world after losing everything. Feared facing myself, the monster I had become.

And what else can a weak & pathetic person do except to run from reality instead of facing it?

It was not someone else or love which ruined me, I ruined myself with my own hands, my greed, my hunger, my selfishness did this to me. I pushed myself in the grave I dug with my own hands.

In the end, all I could do was to hide my face and find solace in that grave.

Sitting here on the floor crying while reminiscing my life, how pathetic I was, and now I'm here at it again, I'm given a second chance, but do I deserve this?

Before I could answer my question, my room's door creaked open and with a blinding light, a figure stepped inside the room. I didn't realize when my crying turned into screamings, others must have heard it. I raised my head to see who it's and my eyes met the sight of blue-eyes staring at me with an awkward face, the child in front of me reflected my disheveled state with wide-eyes.

Kai...

The eight-year-old child cautiously took steps toward me, looking down at my state he asked innocently, "Why are you crying?"

Hearing his words, I couldn't stop my tears from once again escaping my eyes and his face became blurry in my tearful vision. Soon I felt a small warm palm against my face that is wiping my tears, his face became clear in front of my eyes.

"Is it because of Paa and Aunt Zinnia?"

I didn't answer him but my tears stopped and I nodded hesitantly in front of his bright-confused eyes.

"Don't cry. When mother died, Paa told me that we should not feel bad for the ones we have lost but love the ones we have left, we should get busy loving them."

My eyes got clear the same as my senses, and I just stared at the eight-year-old Kai in front of me. Who doesn't even know what I did to him but is here to console me. If he came to know what I did to him, would he hate me?

Is this the reason I'm given a second chance? Not just for me but also for the ones, who considered me a part of their life yet in the end lost their lives because of me.

"Don't worry, we still have each other."

"K-Kai, Can I-I hug you?"

My voice trembled when I asked him, he gave an adorable little nod and opened his arms wide and I wasted no time in embracing him.

"Allea, my child, what will you chose, the relief of death, or the hope of life?"

"Life, a life where I'll never be weak again."

From this moment onward, the old Allea died, she killed herself. Now, there's no more to her.

Never will this Allea repeat anything she did, never will Allea be foolish again, never will this Allea be weak again.

This Allea will live and never will fall in life again.

I will never let the darkness take-over my soul.

Never.