Anybody But You

27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Vibe: Bud by Fenne Lily

At least once a month, Alice would receive letters from her siblings. There was no certain time or written rule, and that was probably what Alice loved best about them.

They were like little gifts for doing nothing but survive.

She'd receive one from each of her elder siblings without fail, updating their youngest (and probably most adored and spoiled) sister of their happy and prosperous lives with their own little families. Sometimes they'd even include treats that made them think of their darling baby sister. She treasured everything she was sent. During her time as a princess, they were really the only things keeping her going.

Elizabeth (30 years old) was the second youngest. She was madly in love with her husband and raising two boys out in the countryside. Next was Oliver (32 years old). He was her favourite and he knew it (and encouraged it). When he wasn't spoiling Alice with treats and currency, he was spoiling his wife and daughter. He lived in Lucian and worked closely with their father. Then there was Derek (35 years old). Sadly, his wife died and left him with three precious daughters. However, since he was a knight in a kingdom up north, he quickly remarried and had a son not long after. Lastly, the twins, Samantha and Joshua (also 35 years old). Samantha worked for a living with her husband, and because they didn't have children, they traveled (Alice reaped the benefits in all the wondrous things she sent). Joshua was a very serious tutor for the Lucian palace. He had two kids a little younger than Alice with his beautiful wife where they all resided within castle-grounds. He had the most elegant life out of them all.

Although it made no difference to the family, the twins were technically Alice's cousins. Her mother's brother and sister-in-law had passed in an accident when the twins were five. Alice's mother always wanted a big family, and so, the family gained two new mouths to feed (and then one more a few months later. And then eventually Alice).

When Alice was born, her siblings were already 12, 14, and 17 and her parents were in their thirties. By the time she was at an age where she could form closer bonds to them, she only saw most of them when they visited—but when they were around, they wouldn't leave the beautiful doll-like child alone. Unfortunately her mother died a few short years after her birth when a sudden epidemic swept through Audovera, leaving her father a widow that closed himself off to an emotional world—three year old Alice included.

Her adult siblings were really the only family she had growing up and between the nannies, maids, and her siblings' perfectly spaced out visits, they raised her as a team to replace the parental roles she'd lost out on. It wasn't perfect and as she got older priorities changed, but she adored them all for doing their best. Maybe if her father had remarried, things would have turned out differently. Nevertheless, he never did. It was actually one of the things Alice always admired about her father—his dying and desperate love for his late wife. Because of their tragic but beautifully romantic love story, Alice foolishly believed she'd also find that person meant for her.

Then her father sold her off to a psychopath and that hope died with her.

Yet, still, Alice was a bleeding romantic at heart and excluding the distant relationship she had with her father, her family meant everything to her. She no longer minded that love between two destined souls most likely wasn't something she would ever experience, she just wanted to love the ones in her heart how she could, while she was still could.

In other words, Alice was maturing.

Turning 18—an official adult in the eyes of all that mattered—she felt a calming sense of purpose that was suddenly clear to her. Revenge or justice, it all led to to one thing: why was she even alive?

Since awakening, Alice hadn't really reminisced about her memories from before her past life. She had been a completely different person back then and she couldn't help but to wonder why she had been given such a cruel path to go down. Did she deserve it? Or was it all really predestined since her childhood? Would any single change (such as her mother living through the epidemic or one of her siblings staying home to raise her) have saved her from such a sad life? Were events destined not because they were already written in stone, but because the past dictated and led people to make predictable choices?

If all that was true, who was the first to step off their path to save Alice?

Who saved her soul?

~*~*~

A.N.

Alice is maturing *cry* I adore her character so much. Her childhood is so sad but also beautiful thanks to her siblings *cry again*

Thank you for reading x