Chapitre 55: Knowing The Future
There's a truth that Selina Von Degure of House Von Degure fails to see.
Truth was so glaringly obvious that she deliberately turned a blind eye to it.
People avoid telling her the truth because they fear her and the consequences of crossing her.
But Aldrich? He feels no fear nor hesitation to speak the truth to her face. And he does it without a second thought.
He had originally planned to leave her behind and catch up to Trevor.
That is until he heard her voice again.
"I seem to recall you having a striking resemblance to one of my girls... Saldrich, was it? The name alone speaks for itself, not to mention the silver hair."
Selina had seemingly recovered from the blow Aldrich dealt her.
Or at least, that's how it appeared.
She wouldn't be the queen bee if a few harsh words could knock her down completely.
Aldrich, however, wasn't surprised to hear her mention Saldrich.
If he knew Selina well enough, he'd know she'd use Saldrich as a means of psychological torture.
And he did know her well enough to expect that.
For this situation, Aldrich had anticipated such a move and had prepared a suitable counter to her threat.
"Alright, listen here, young la—"
"No," Selina interrupted, her voice cold and authoritative. "You will listen to me. I'm the queen bee here, not the other way around. S-Class first-year? That belongs to me. I rule the gang, it's my kingdom, and my word is final. Neither you nor Fiona are in a position to tell me what to do or how to act. You don't have that kind of authority."
Aldrich couldn't help but think, Yikes...
Selina's outburst had left a mark on him.
"This place is mine, young man. So if you know what's good for you, you'll stop pissing me off and start thinking of ways to please me instead. Because believe me, the next time you cross me? A splash of drink on your clothes won't be the worst of it. That, I can assure you."
With that, she turned on her heels and walked back to the VIP section, her steps purposeful and unwavering.
Aldrich watched her retreat, shaking his head.
She's even scarier in real life than she was as a character in the book.
He had expected resistance, but not to this extent.
It was a mistake on his part to forget that Selina was, in fact, the queen bee in a place where competition was fierce, and wolves were constantly looking to topple her from her throne.
If he'd acknowledged her power more seriously, perhaps he could've avoided the humiliation and be better prepared to stand his ground for a counter.
"I'm going to have to prepare for next time," Aldrich thought grimly. "I have no intention of doing as she says."
His next step was clear: he would need to talk to Fiona about how to handle Selina.
Selina was a ticking time bomb.
One wrong move, and she could blow up at any moment.
And the only person who could stop that from happening is none other than Fiona.
The problem was, that Fiona wasn't exactly taking action.
She had been avoiding any confrontation with Selina, knowing just how deep Selina's obsession with Edward went.
In the book, Selina's love for Edward is not the kind of love you see in fairy tales.
It was more obsessive than romantic, and it drove her mad, a madness that would come to full fruition much later in the story.
Fiona, understanding how much Edward meant to Selina, had chosen to act as the sacrificial lamb, bearing the brunt of Selina's madness to keep up the facade of their relationship.
More like a facade relationship, Aldrich thought, bitterness creeping into his mind.
Edward wasn't a bad guy, not by a long shot.
He was one of those characters you'd naturally root for.
But like all great characters, he had a flaw, a flaw that made everything worse in the long run.
His relationship with Selina, while obviously in love with Fiona, was that flaw.
A nasty flaw, to be sure, but a flaw nonetheless.
The problem was that Edward allowed it to continue, tolerating Selina's behaviour when he could've ended it.
That flaw eventually spiralled out of control, putting many people's lives at risk.
Aldrich realized that if he could somehow address Selina's authority over the others and take it away this early on, it would be doing everyone a favour.
He could open her eyes to the reality of the situation before it escalated further.
The only problem was that he needed Fiona's cooperation to make it happen.
Convincing her wouldn't be easy.
"Knowing the kind of person Fiona is?" Aldrich muttered to himself. "She wouldn't do that. Not in a million years."
Asking Fiona to take back her crown was the same as asking her to betray Selina.
They might not be on speaking terms at the moment, but Fiona still considered their friendship salvageable.
If she did what Aldrich suggested, that friendship would be destroyed in an instant.
Aldrich clenched his fists, frustration bubbling up inside him.
'I'm twenty-two years old, damn it! Why do I have to spend my time dealing with rebellious teenagers at this point in my life?!'
His mind was a whirlwind of confusion and irritation.
Knowing the future had only made things more complicated for him.
As someone with knowledge of what lay ahead, he was like a man who had stepped out of time, trying to prevent the tragedies he knew were coming.
Because of that, everything he did seemed to have unintended consequences, creating new problems in the present.
His friendships were now tangled up in the mess, and he had to figure out how to protect them from the coming storm.
The worst part knowing the future for him, the worst part was the loss of that element of surprise, the very thing that made life worth living.
The knowledge that he knew what was going to happen next robbed him of the thrill of the unknown.
In many ways, it made him feel like a spectator in his own life.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
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LetMeCook Here it is guys, the bonus chapter for Power Stone task completion.
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