Return of The Alpha Heiress-Chapter 16: Clarissa – My Bedroom

I was already used to being the subject of gossip, either in Brown Pack or at the academy.

So hearing the servants in this house whispering about me wasn’t surprising.

But what they were talking about did catch me off guard.

The Alpha? The head of this family and the leader of this pack? He didn’t accept me?

"You know how an inner wolf can recognize someone with its bloodline, right? Miss Clarissa hasn’t awakened hers yet, so they can’t check."

"But Young Master Larry, Young Master Edwin, and Miss Shannon seem to have accepted her as family already. They even brought her here for a meal."

"Probably just allowed to look around," another servant added with a snide tone.

She sounded jealous, but she wasn’t wrong.

My status in this family was still unclear.

Perhaps, tomorrow Edwin —who called me ’Big Sis Clar’ so sweetly today— might ignore me if we met on the street.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

Long burgundy waves, sharp eyebrows, purple eyes. I resembled Luna Eileen so much, but...

Resembling someone wasn’t enough.

Once I stopped hearing the servants’ voices outside the restroom, I returned to the dining room.

I tried to act normal, though without meaning to, I became a little colder.

"Clarissa, I apologize for sending you lunch in a crimson oak box that day."

Luna Eileen looked at me with such guilt that it made my chest tighten. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

How was I supposed to stay cold when she looked at me like that?

"It’s okay. But you didn’t have any trouble touching a crimson oak container yourself?" I asked.

Luna Eileen nodded. "It was fine."

But Edwin chimed in, "Oh, so that’s why Mother’s hands were all red?"

"Red?" My eyes widened. "I’m sorry, it’s because of me—"

"Don’t worry about it. I’m fine," she said gently.

Maybe the Alpha doubted me, but Luna Eileen... she had been sincere from the very beginning.

"How about we check your room?" she suggested quickly. I nodded.

We headed to the second floor. Shannon came out of one of the rooms.

"You’re here to see Sister Clarissa’s room?" she asked.

Luna Eileen nodded, smiling warmly.

Only Luna Eileen and I went upstairs. Edwin and Larry stayed behind.

"I have something to take care of for a moment. I’ll accompany you around the house later, Sister Clarissa," Shannon said before hurrying downstairs.

Turns out the room prepared for me was right beside Shannon’s.

The room had a white and brown palette, giving it a warm and cozy atmosphere. The lighting was good.

The glass balcony doors opened to a beautiful view outside. The bed was large, covered with a thick, warm fur blanket. There was a big wardrobe with a vanity inside, a study desk, and a bookshelf beside it.

"How is it? Do you like it?" Luna Eileen asked, hopeful.

I nodded instantly. "It’s like my dream bedroom."

Hearing that, Luna Eileen’s eyes filled with tears. She pulled me into a hug.

"Now you can have any dream you want," she whispered.

I hadn’t expected my casual remark to affect her this much.

She let me go when a servant arrived, carrying one of Shannon’s dresses for me to change into.

"And also, Luna... Miss Shannon is baking a cake, but she..."

The servant didn’t finish, but Luna Eileen seemed to understand immediately.

Apparently, Shannon wasn’t the best baker.

"Clarissa, you can bathe and look around your room first, okay? I’ll check on Shannon downstairs," Luna Eileen said hurriedly.

After my door closed, I heard the servant whisper outside,

"Luna, Miss Shannon didn’t mean to cause trouble in the kitchen. She just wanted to make a welcome cake for Miss Clarissa."

Once again, I was inconveniencing them. They didn’t need to welcome me with so much effort...

I looked at the blue dress Shannon lent me. It was stunning.

It made me suddenly embarrassed thinking about Nadia’s blue dress I borrowed.

Hopefully they wouldn’t laugh at me for coming there wearing something so plain, while they wore beautiful dresses even on ordinary days.

Clatter!

I jolted. Something heavy crashed loudly outside.

Instinctively, my feet took me out of the room.

Right in front of Shannon’s door, a box lay open. Its lid had snapped clean off from the fall.

But the most shocking part was the blue pearl necklace that had spilled out of it.

I took one step forward... then stopped.

Something felt wrong.

No one was here. Shannon’s door was closed. Shannon and Luna Eileen were downstairs.

So who had dropped this box of pearls?

"Thief!"

Just as I finished analyzing the situation, a young maid appeared out of nowhere and screamed.

I turned toward her. She stared at me with disgust and anger.

"I didn’t ste—"

"Thief! Thief!" she cut me off and screamed again.

Servants rushed in from both upstairs and downstairs. All of them stared at me and the pearl necklace, whispering.

Luna Eileen, Shannon, Larry, and Edwin came up from the first floor as well.

Suddenly I was at the center of attention, again.

I took a quiet breath. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to me.

"I didn’t steal it. The box had already fallen when I walked out," I said calmly, though inside I was preparing myself for the worst.

Maybe today would be my first and last day in this house.

Good thing I hadn’t changed clothes yet. It would’ve been ridiculous to change again if they kicked me out.

Then the maid began her own explanation, completely different from mine.

"Luna, miss, young masters— she’s lying. She stole the jewelry and I caught her. She panicked and dropped it."

She was lying, though.

Maybe she didn’t want a defective omega becoming a young lady of this house. Or maybe she was the one who stole it.

Or...

Someone else told her to do this.

Whatever the reason, I finally understood:

This life didn’t suit me. I needed to wake up from this dream.

The four people claiming to share blood with me wouldn’t hesitate to kick out a thief.

And the truth? Who cared? Wasn’t it normal to assume a poor girl like me would want expensive things?

"No way!" Edwin suddenly shouted.

...