I swallowed hard as I picked up that folder and opened it, not knowing what I'd find inside. Whatever it was, it had to be something important. Something worth locking up. But what could that possibly be?
The folder didn't hide many papers. No, it only hid one thing, and as my eyes scanned that one thing my mouth dropped open and my heart did something strange in my chest. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, what I was reading, so I had to read it three times in its entirety before it sank in.
It was a will, I thought. And even though it was a little hard to understand, if I was reading it correctly, it changed everything.
Not me and my wants and needs mind you, but rather my aunt’s.
If she managed to wed me off to a pack before my twenty-first birthday, my future pack would receive half of my inheritance and she would receive the rest. None of it would be mine.
It shouldn't have shocked me so much to read something like that. Really, I should have expected it. I imagined clauses like that were quite common when it came to omegas from rich founding families.
What was more interesting was the added clause at the end of the will: if I did not match with and wed a pack by my twenty-first birthday, everything would revert to me.
The language on the will did not specify Cecilia had to be the one to find me a pack. In fact, it didn't bring up my guardians at all except the part where, if I was matched off, they would receive half of my family’s money.
It didn't make sense to me. Cecilia already had enough money. My uncle left her quite the lump sum, I was sure. She didn't need my parents' fortune too.
But it had to be why she was so adamant in finding me a match. Hell, she'd mentioned trying to set me up herself with the sons of her country club friends—and as someone who grew up around those types of alphas, let me just say that spending the rest of my life with them did not sound appealing in the slightest.
We were running out of time, or rather she was. Tick, tick, tick. My aunt was running out of time to wed me off and add to her fortune.
The more I thought about it, the less it shocked me. There'd never really been much love between me and my aunt, so finding out I was basically one big paycheck to her made sense.Still, the hurt and betrayal cut me deeply.
I put the will back in the folder as neatly as it was in the first place, and then I closed the folder and set it down in the drawer. It took some finagling, but I was able to relock the drawer before I left the office.
As the day wore on and my aunt eventually came home, I got more and more pissed off. The more I thought about it the angrier I became.
What would my aunt do with all of that money? Marrying me off would literally leave me with nothing, especially if I ended up with alphas who viewed me as nothing more than a womb to fill. There were plenty of alphas out there like that.
Much as it might make me sound like an entitled spoiled brat, that money was mine. Hell, this house and everything in it should have been mine too. I understood that I was a child when my parents died, and while I spent months in the hospital recovering, I didn't really have a say in the matter, but now that I was an adult I should.
But that's the issue, wasn't it? Even though I was nearly twenty-one years old I was still a child in the eyes of the law. Omegas were always treated differently. We were viewed as children basically, until a pack came along and took us in, made us one of their own.
Really, I should be thankful my parents’ will included a separate clause for me if I never found a pack. Even back then they were thinking ahead.
It's why, as my aunt and I sat down for dinner that night, a plan formulated in my head. Truth be told, it wasn't all too different than the plan I already had, but there was more intensity and spitefulness behind it.
I’d do anything to make sure my aunt never saw another dime.
My aunt Cecilia was a fifty-year-old beta with short, straight blonde hair that fell in hard angles around her face. It made her look severe, and the way she did her makeup, especially around her blue eyes, only made that severe look worse. She constantly wore an expression that could kill you, and her words were right behind that look to back it up. For a beta, she had the tendency of acting as though she was an alpha.
We sat across from each other at the long table as the chef brought out our meal and set down the plates in front of us. She did not so much as glance at the chef when he placed the food before us, but I did. I made sure to smile and thank him for his hard work, just like I did every day.
Our chef was nice. An old beta who had been with us since before my parents died. He was like a part of the family, even though he worked for us. Cecilia never treated anyone that way though, not even me.
Cecilia hardly looked at me when she said, “I trust you spent the day getting ready for tomorrow night. You may think you have all the time in the world to match with the alpha of your dreams, but your birthday is coming up quick—”
It was something I'd heard multiple times before, and though she might sound urgent about it, I still didn't give a crap. Of course, I learned a long time ago to not voice my true desires to my aunt. She simply didn't care.
So I told her exactly what she wanted to hear: “Yep. I picked out my outfit and everything.”
That wasn't a lie. I did pick my outfit. I was planning on wearing one of my most boring, plain dresses. And after finding what I found in her office, I knew exactly what I wanted to tell the hairdresser tomorrow at my appointment.
Let's just say the appointment was going to run long. My hair was a natural black, so it’d take some time, but I had faith in my hairdresser. I was going to liven up my look with a splash of color, some blue.
My aunt would have an aneurysm the moment I came home with a hairdo like that, but we'd be too close to the matching ceremony at the Omega Garden for her to fix it.
I couldn't wait.
