His Debt

28th Debt

Elianne

DURING DEVON'S free time, she would read her mother's ancient diary. It had been two days since she'd started reading it, yet she'd already read half of the pages. She'd flip the pages randomly, reading an entry.

        She turned into the last page, and there she discovered a ragged picture; two girls—who seemed to be around the age of 5 and 10—were smiling gleefully, their arms linked together. On the right was a girl with green eyes, who had a red wavy long hair that reached past her shoulder; she knew immediately that it was her mother. On the left was a blonde girl with a straight shoulder-length hair, her eyes icy blue; Devon had no idea who she was, but she looked familiar. Both of the girls were pretty.

        Devon had seen her before, but she didn't know where. She swore that she'd seen her before, she just hadn't had a tad idea where they had met.

        Her gut told her that the mystery girl had played a big role in her mother's life. Slowly, she tried to detach the image from the sheet. She successfully did it, but the page was ripped into half. She turned the photograph over, trying to find any caption or some sort.

       She scanned the back; there were slight yellow smudges, and on the bottom left, her eyes spotted a hand-written message: With Elianne, my best friend and sister. Best day ever! Cherubin Orphanage.

        Elianne; there was something about her name that roused her anxiety.

        Devon flipped into another page, searching for any entries that contained 'Elianne's' name. She found what she was looking for on the 90th page.

    Elianne is like a younger sister to me. I care for her, and what I wouldn't give to take her away from this horrible place. The orphanage isn't a nice place for children like us. The foster parents that were supposed to adopt her adopted me; it should've been her, not me.

    She detests me now, and I hate that I'll have to leave this place, carrying the hatred she has towards me.

    I hope that one day, she'll forgive me. Sorry, Elianne.

 

        After reading the entry, something clicked in Devon's mind. Elianne—it shouldn't be a coincidence that the one who's sending her death threats carried the alias 'E.' And now, it all made sense. Whoever Elianne was, she definitely hated her mother to the core; right now, it seemed that she planned to get her revenge by tormenting Devon—the daughter of the girl who took a good future away from her.

        Leonel Smithson was right. She wasn't after the company or her father's money; Elianne had her personal reasons.

        But she just didn't get why she'd have to be the one who'd receive all the hate Elianne had for her mother.

        Then she suddenly remembered that incident at the ball, when Nathaniel was shot in the back; Elianne's organization was the one responsible for it.

        Nelly's voice cut off her train of thoughts. "Devon!" she called out. "Break's over! It's time to shoot the yacht scene."

        Devon nodded, and flipped the notebook close, stuffing it inside her bag.

• • •

WHEN SHE WAS done shooting, Devon immediately called Leonel Smithson. She wanted to relay the information she discovered as soon as possible.