Chapter 6 Fighting For What I Want

Alina’s POV

The silence in my room had become my only friend for three whole days.

Three days since the hospital discharged me with smoke inhalation warnings and a prescription for rest I had zero intention of following. 

Three days after we’d pulled up to the estate in the armored SUV, my father barking orders like nothing had changed and Regina hovering with worried eyes. 

I’d slammed my bedroom door the second we got inside, twisted the lock, and shoved a heavy velvet chair against it for good measure. No maids. No tutors. No nanny with her disappointed sighs. And definitely not my father.

Today was no different.

I sat on the floor beside my massive four-poster bed, knees pulled to my chest, wearing an oversized cotton sweater. My stomach growled so loud it echoed off the silk wallpaper. I pressed both hands over it like that would shut it up. Hunger was nothing compared to the voices still looping in my head…the kidnappers’ mocking laughs from that warehouse.

“Look at her, trying to stay all proper and polite even while we’re roasting her alive. Still the perfect little Sterling princess, huh?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. No. I was done being perfect. Done smiling for cameras, done memorizing stock reports at breakfast, done being paraded around like a trophy heir. I wanted what every other twenty year-old got…messy friends, actual classrooms with gum under the desks, parties where nobody cared whose last name you carried. I wanted to be…normal. For once, just a kid who didn’t have the weight of an empire crushing her ribs.

A sharp knock rattled the door.

“Alina Janet Sterling, open this door right now!” My father’s voice boomed through the door, the same tone he used to close hostile takeovers. “This childish tantrum ends today. I will break it down if I have to. Why have you changed so much? Three days of this nonsense…what happened to my well behaved daughter?”

“Your daughter? You mean the one you had replaced at her own birthday party?” I shot back, but not rudely.

“I already explained the situation, Alina. What has gotten over you?!”

Regina’s softer voice followed, calm but firm. “Fredrick, please. Be patient. She’s just a child.”

“Just a child?” He let out a harsh laugh. “She turned twenty three days ago! On her birthday, while the entire world watched her crash her own party in a blanket!”

“It wasn’t her fault. She’s still a child,” Regina shot back. “In every way that matters.”

I hugged my knees tighter. My stomach twisted again…hunger mixed with something sharper. Fear? Unease? I wasn’t sure anymore.

The kidnappers’ words and the whispers from the guests at the party wouldn’t stop replaying in my head…mocking me. 

I didn’t want to be pathetic anymore. I didn’t want to be a pawn or puppet anymore.

I scrambled to my feet, marched to the door, and screamed at the top of my lungs, voice cracking from disuse and hours of crying.

“For once, I want to be a child, father! I didn't even get to be proper teenager!"

The hallway went dead quiet. I could picture them out there…my father in one of his crisp shirts, Regina in something soft and expensive, both frozen mid-argument.

After a long breath, my father exhaled slowly. “What exactly do you want, Alina? Tell me, so this madness can end immediately.”

I leaned my forehead against the cool wood, tears burning my eyes. My voice came out small and broken, nothing like the polished heir I was supposed to be.

“I want to go to an actual school. Just like Dorothy and every kid my age.”

More like I want to go so I can make Dorothy's life a living hell. For trying to kill me. 

I already solved the puzzle. Everything that happened on my birthday? It was all her. It has to be. She’s always been behind me all my life, praying for me to trip and fall so she can step into my place. 

Maybe my fall was taking too long and she decided to take me out for good.

A pause. Then Regina’s voice, gentle but insistent, broke the silence. “Fredrick, you should let her. She needs to be around people her age.”

I took the opportunity and made more demands. “And… I need my own phone. One I will hold herself, with a password only I know. Not the nanny controlling my every search on google.”

I heard Regina gasp right after, like she just heard one of the most shocking things ever. “What on earth have you been doing to this poor girl? This is no way to raise a child!”

“She’s not just a child,” my father said, voice tight. “She’s my heir. Take it or leave it. She needs to be prepared for when I’m gone.”

“But that’s not the only way to go about it,” Regina replied softly.

I smiled for the first time in days, even though no one could see it. I liked Regina. I really liked her. 

She didn’t sound like one of those gold-digging women from the tabloids who circled my father like sharks smelling money. She sounded… real…like a mother. Like she actually cared about me, not the Sterling fortune.

My father exhaled again, long and tired. “Alina. Open the door. So we can talk properly.”

I swallowed hard. “Promise you’ll let me go to school. And that I’ll have my own phone…one I control.”

“Fine.”

“Swear it on Mom’s grave.”

I heard his sharp exhale and then, quieter: “I swear on your mother’s grave. Now open the door so you can eat before you collapse.”

My legs felt like jelly as I pushed the velvet chair aside. I turned the lock with shaking fingers and pulled the door open just a crack at first, then wider. The hallway light spilled in, too bright after two days of dim lamps and closed curtains.

The moment the door creaked fully open, Regina rushed forward and pulled me into a hug that smelled like vanilla and expensive shampoo. “Are you okay, sweetheart? You don’t look good at all…pale, and those circles under your eyes…”

Maids slipped past us like ghosts, carrying silver trays loaded with my favorites…fresh croissants, strawberries, steaming hot chocolate. Two others headed straight for my bathroom, and I heard the rush of water filling the massive tub, the clink of bath oils and salts.

I pulled back from Regina just enough to look at my father. He stood there, arms crossed, but his eyes were softer than I’d seen in years.

“Father, can I start school tomorrow?” I asked, voice still hoarse.

He rubbed his temple. “You’re a Sterling. You need special tutoring to take over the company one day. A normal school won’t give you that, Alina.”

“You gave me your word, Father.”

Regina stepped in smoothly. “Let the girl go to school, Fredrick. She can take company classes on weekends to balance it.”

I looked at her with pure admiration. She was fighting for me. Actually fighting. She’s my hero now.

My father pinched the bridge of his nose with an exaggerated sigh like we were ganging up on him, then he sighed. “Fine. But on one condition.”

“What?”

“You still have to stick to the rules you’ve lived by as the heir of the Sterling Group and—”

I interrupted softly, “Didn’t you say one condition?”

His eyes narrowed. “When did you learn to interrupt me while I’m speaking?”

I dropped my gaze to the floor instantly, hands clasped in front of me, old habits kicking in hard.

“Another thing,” he continued, voice stern but not cruel. “You will go to school with a bodyguard. You’re my only child, my heir. Keeping you indoors all these years wasn’t just about control. We have enemies, Alina…real ones who wouldn’t hesitate to use you against me. If you insist on this school nonsense, you get a bodyguard. Full-time.”

I opened my mouth. “Father…”

Inside my head, the protest screamed louder. A bodyguard? Some tall, probably ridiculously hot guy in a suit following me everywhere? Like in those movies where the girl falls for her protector and they have this forbidden romance and my dad loses his mind and… No. I did not need that complication.

I was about to argue, but his eyes said it all…take it or stay locked up forever.

I nodded slowly. “Okay. I agree.”

“Good.” He almost smiled. “You’ll meet your new bodyguard tomorrow morning. For now, freshen up and eat. We’re having an important guest later this evening.”

My stomach flipped, but not from hunger this time. More like from dread. I hate when we have guests. I’ll have to sit quietly like a well trained robot all evening. “Who?”

My father’s expression gave nothing away. Just that cool, unreadable Sterling mask.

“You’re about to find out. Just be on your best behavior, Alina.”

He turned and walked down the hallway, Regina giving my hand one last squeeze before following. 

The door clicked shut behind them, leaving me standing there with maids bustling around, the bath running, and my heart pounding like it knew something huge was coming.