Falling For My Alpha Stepsister (GL)

April

So Madam took me directly to a private resort, which I guessed was where she kept her main residence.

Her maid brought in the coffee for both of us on a silver tray, placing the quiet cups onto the glass table between us.

I sat down across from her, staring straight down at the dark, steaming coffee, wondering what on earth she could possibly want to discuss with me at this hour.

"You don’t like your coffee plain," Madam suggested smoothly, watching my hands hover over the rim. "If you want, you can add milk." She snapped her fingers twice, and the maid stepped up right away, bringing over a small jug of milk.

Honestly, I didn’t even want to drink coffee. I had been making that liquid all day long at the bookstore, to the point where I didn’t seem to have the slightest appetite to sip another drop. Plus, I just wanted to go back and sleep, not stay awake all night watching Angel snoring and whistling beside me.

I forced a tight smile onto my face, trying to look as polite as possible. I really didn’t want to sound rude to someone like her. "I don’t want to drink coffee."

"Oh..." She leaned back, resting her elbow on the armrest. "This is the district. Here, we stay awake during the night and sleep during the day."

"But I sleep at night so I can wake up early to go to work," I said, my voice steady.

She didn’t even register what I had just said. She completely brushed past it and went straight to business.

"What is your relationship with Angel?"

Okay, that question was expected, but I genuinely thought she didn’t give a damn about what Angel did with her personal life. The other time during breakfast, she hadn’t seen any kind of problem with me being with Angel, but now here she was, bringing it right into the light.

"We are heading somewhere, but I don’t really know how to define our relationship," I answered, shifting slightly in my seat. "Why am I here?"

I had to ask because I was getting increasingly nervous about this sudden private conversation. This was starting to look just like one of those cliché scenes where wealthy parents question their child’s partner. Some will try to pay you off with a fat check, telling you to back off from their precious heir, while others want to know when the whole official marriage process is going to commence.

She wasn’t actually related to Angel by blood, but Abigail always said her mother acted like Angel was her real daughter, constantly stressing over her well-being. Abigail had even mentioned once that she envied Angel because of that exact dynamic. The maternal attention Abigail was supposed to get from Madam as her real daughter, Angel had been getting it ever since childhood. And Angel didn’t even appreciate it.

"I want to talk about Angel," Madam began, her sharp eyes fixing directly onto mine. "Now that you happen to be the most important person in her world... I still can’t quite believe she settled for you only."

"Hahaha... me neither," I said, pulling out a weak, dry laugh to try my best to act cool.

"Since she was a little girl, Angel liked the water," Madam said, her tone softening just a fraction as her gaze drifted toward the windows. "I was the one who taught her how to swim. That was when she was just four years old. That girl is such a quick learner. Then from age six, she started going to real competitions, winning medals, and making a big name for herself. Swimming was her career... not this district. But from the moment she found her mom dead in the pool, that career died right along with her mom."

My heart gave a sudden, heavy thud against my ribs.

Oh... I had heard plenty of rumors about the late Mrs. Morningstar’s demise, but I had absolutely no idea how she actually died, let alone that Angel was the one who found her body inside a swimming pool.

No wonder she refuses to get near deep water. That was why she had used that long pool net to scoop me out that day instead of jumping in herself.

"Only those people who are truly close to Angel can make her bend the strict rules she sets for herself," Madam continued, leaning forward with her hands clasped together. "You have somehow proven yourself. You working here in the district means you are going to have a lot of time with the girl, and I want you to use that time to make her go back into the water. I want Angel out of this district for good."

I don’t know if it was really my place to ask her, but I was going to ask anyway. This was real life, not some fictional book.

"Why do you want me to do all that?"

"I just mentioned that, didn’t I?"

"I know, but..." I paused, shaking my head slightly. "I don’t even know how to swim myself. Angel loves skating and skating. But trying to give me some kind of mission for Angel... to get her to swim... and to leave the district... she loves the district."

"The district is not a good place for anyone to live in," Madam said flatly.

"Your own daughter lives here with her husband," I pointed out immediately.

"My daughter stays wherever I stay," Madam shut me down coldly. "But Angel... she is not meant to be here. Her late mom wanted that girl to live in a world where she will be free and happy, a life she never got to have herself. And you are the one who could actually do that."

What the fuck was I supposed to be now? Some kind of chosen one? All I did was claim Angel as mine, and now this lady was trying to flip my whole relationship with Angel into some heavy secret mission.

"I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but no," I said, staring straight into her eyes, keeping my voice firm and clear. "I’m not doing what you’re asking me to do. My relationship with Angel is just getting started, and I am not ready to ruin or lose that by forcing the Alpha to do something she clearly doesn’t want to do."

"If that girl continues to stay in this district, she is going to turn into an exact copy of her mother," Madam warned, her voice dropping into a stern tone. "Look, I am completely in support of you and Angel’s relationship. When your mother and the Master returns and finally realizes that you are having a full affair with your step-sister, how do you think they will react? I am going to stand right by you two if you get that girl away from this environment. Make her live the life she was meant to live. Maybe buy a house on a quiet island, get married, have kids... that is a normal life."

I don’t even know how that uncomfortable conversation fully ended, but before I knew it, I was already outside the private resort, stepping out onto the sidewalk to walk back toward Angel’s terrace. The whole thing was just so weird, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about how terrifying it must have felt for little Angel when her mother died right in front of her.

It made me feel so sad, instantly making me wonder what would happen if I ended up searching for my own father and he turned out to be dead too.

Because him not giving me a single phone call after all these long years was making me feel genuinely worried, even while knowing deep down that he probably didn’t want to call me for real.

Honestly, I didn’t see anything inherently bad about living here in the district. At first, I had assumed it was just a sketchy place built for raw erotic entertainment, but it was so much more than that. It felt like an actual tight-knit community. I saw regular people living their everyday lives here all the time.

I finally entered the apartment building and stepped inside the elevator, reaching out to push the top button for the terrace floor.

When I finally opened the door and walked inside, I saw Angel was already stretched out on the mattress, fast asleep. Curled up right next to her stomach was Terror, folded into a tight little ball of orange fur, sleeping just as soundly.

I quietly stripped off my shoes and joined them on the bed, sliding beneath the warm blanket. I reached out, wrapping my arm firmly around the sleeping Alpha’s waist, pulling her close as I finally closed my eyes and drifted off into sleep.