1 Check my bookshelf

"It's gonna be alright,

I'm never gonna leave your side,

It's gonna be alright."

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-ALICE-

"Wake up miss." My tall, gold curtains are now open, allowing all the morning sun's rays to invade my grand bedroom.

"I'm awake" I reply tiredly while rubbing my eye with the back of my hand.

"Breakfast is ready downstairs; your Mother and Father are already there."

"Thank you, Harriet." She gives me a slight Asian bow before walking out of my room, closing the door gently behind her.

I yawn loudly and reach my arms out wide, stretching, while stepping out of my silk sheets and into my morning slippers.

Harriet always puts them perfectly for me, approximately ten centimetres away from my bed.

I walk to the other side of my spacious room and into my gold and white themed bathroom.

After taking a very nice and refreshing shower, I enter my ginormous walk in closet to pick out an outfit from my many designer clothes.

If you haven't gotten the hint yet, I'm rich, insanely rich.

Today I'm wearing a peach long-sleeved, short dress that has a thick belt, exposing my very small waist and wide hips. With that, I'm wearing white Jimmy Choos and carrying a matching white, Chanel bag.

I wore my straight, long, blond hair loose, just as I always do and put on some natural glam makeup before exiting my room.

I walk down the oval-shaped stairs, saying good morning to all of the help that was executing their morning duties.

As I reach the foot of the stairs, I see my Mom and Dad sitting at the rectangular dining table, made of marble. Our dining table is really big for a family of three, but the perfect size for a rich family of three.

"Morning mom" I greet.

My mother was never the most affectionate towards me so our conversations are very minimal, unless she's scolding me or putting me on a new diet plan.

Harriet has always been more of a mother figure for me.

She gives me a shocked look and raises her eyebrows.

"Apologies. I meant, Good Morning mother." I fake a smile.

She gives me her signature, Cruella de vil smirk "Good Morning Alice." Her attention was diverted back to her breakfast.

I sigh and walk to my father who is seated on the other side of the table, "Morning Daddy!" I give him a big hug.

What can I say? I'm a daddy's girl.

"Morning my dear." He gives me a large smile and continues, "Don't you look as gorgeous as ever."

I twirl for him, showing off my outfit.

"You've gained a bit of weight though." My mother joins the conversation with her eyes still fixated on her breakfast.

The smile my Father had put on my face is now gone. At this point I am filled with disgust, a regular feeling my mother manages to instill in me every day.

I turn back to my father, ignoring my mother's words "How are you feeling today?"

He had a heart attack that completely shattered me a couple of weeks ago. He says it's nothing but I can't help but feel suspicious of the cause of it.

See, my father is a very healthy man who has no history of serious illness whatsoever and then all of a sudden, bam, he has a heart attack? I tend to overthink things, but something tells me I'm not overthinking this.

"I'm feeling great." He quickly pulls my arm closer to him, whispering something in my ear, with a now very serious tone "Check my bookshelf" he whispers.

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and pull away to look at him.

He pulls me back into him "Not now, when the time comes. Please don't ever forget that." Now his voice is panicked, "Now laugh so you don't raise any suspicion."

I laugh pulling away from him as he commanded.

My heart began to beat irregularly at the creepiness behind the randomicity of my father's words. His change of tone made me awfully confused but, knowing him, he doesn't say anything without a reason and considering that we're hiding this conversation from my mother, I know something's up.

I don't want my mother to catch along with what we're hiding, so I continue as normal "I'm going to go shopping now. I'll see you later today, right?" I lean down and place a kiss on my father's cheek, still feeling chilled by what he just whispered to me.

"Okay, darling. I love you." He replies.

My father, though he shows me so much affection, doesn't just randomly say "I love you", so the fact that he's saying it now indicates to me that whatever is going on is quite serious.

"I love you too dad."

I head out the door and walk to my pink convertible Porsche. I love that baby. It has a personalized number plate that reads "HER". I wanted one that says "BOSS-BITCH ALICE" but I was only allowed three letters.

I hop in my car and head off to go do some shopping, still with my father and I's strange conversation replaying in my head.

I know that it seems like I have this perfect life full of money, but honestly, I'm tired of the repetition this life carries.

Everything I do is the same every day: I go shopping, (occasionally) I go to the salon, I meet with Brad (my boyfriend), I go home, sleep and repeat.

The truth is, I've always wanted to go to college. I'm actually really smart and had some of the highest grades in my high school, however, Daddy said he doesn't want me to ever have to rely on myself for money and he therefore won't let me go.

If I had gone, I would've studied Economics to hopefully do something in that field.

But of course, I remain a passive little girl (even at twenty-two years of age) who does whatever her daddy tells her too. I love my dad I just hate that I can't speak up against him.

I pull over in front of a Louis-Vuitton retail store and headed inside to purchase a few more handbags.

"Good Morning Miss McAllen." Rebecca carries my purse for me as we walk around the store.

"I told you to call me Alice" I wink.

"And my Bosses told me to call you Miss McAllen." She whispers.

"Of course, they did." I sigh. I hate being addressed so formally by my agemates, "I'll take that one, that one, and that one." I point at a few of the purses on the shelf and walk to the checkout till to pay.

My phone rings and I look down at the caller ID.

Baby<3

"Hey babe!"

I begin walking out of the store "Hey Brad."

"Please meet me for lunch, I have something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"you'll see." I can almost feel him smirking on the other end "I'll send you the address, don't be late."

CALL ENDED.

I receive the address and begin driving there.

Of course, I pull up to one of the highest-end restaurants in all of Manhattan.

I walk in and find Brad sitting on a table close to this enormous window.

He waves at me with the biggest grin on his face as I walk toward him.

"Hi my love." I take a seat in front of him.

"Hey babe."

Brad had already ordered our food for us along with some expensive Champaign that the young waiter brought to us.

"What's the occasion" I motion to the bottle of Champaign sitting in a bucket of ice.

"I wanted to talk about this after dessert but I can't wait any longer."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion.

Brad puts his hand on top of mine over the table.

"So, we've been dating for more than a year now, and the time we've spent together has honestly been the best time of my life."

I feel as my cheeks heated up.

"Alice. When I'm with you, I feel all my worries fade away. When I see you, I see nothing and nobody else. When I touch you, my heart races faster than humanly possible." He stands up from his seat.

Butterflies colonize my stomach as I become aware of what going on.

"And I don't think I ever want to stop feeling the way you make me feel." He walks to my side of the table.

He's about to propose.

"I love you Alice. More than I've ever loved anyone in the entire world." He got down on one knee.

Honestly, I like Brad. But do I love him? No, and I am really not ready to get married, so I'd be crazy to if I were to say yes to him. especially considering that our relationship was slightly forced by my mother. My heart starts to pound out of my chest as I realize I have to turn him down.

"I want to be with you, and you alone for the rest of my life." He pulls a ring box out of his pocket, "Will you-"

He's cut off by my ringing phone, saved by the bell.

I look over to see the caller ID,

Harriet.

She never calls me on her personal contact, she always calls on the home phone, unless there's an emergency. I can feel my heart sprint in anticipation for what she's about to tell me.

"Hold on one second." I put my hand out in front of Brad as if saying "Wait" and pick the phone up to my ear.

"Harriet?"

"Miss, please come to the hospital now." Her voice sounds panicked "It's your father."

CALL ENDED.

I hastily rise from my seat and kiss Brad on his cheek "I have to go."

"Wait! Alice! What's wrong?" I heard Brad yelling behind me.

Any normal person would tell their boyfriend to drive them to the hospital in a situation like this, not me though. Brad isn't the best at being there as emotional support, he always seems to be caught up in his own feelings.

So, despite how shaky my hands are, I get up from my seat with the intention of going to the hospital, alone.

I ignore the fact that I am running from a whole freaking proposal, and with my heart beating hard against my chest, I rush to my car and start driving off to the hospital.

As I drive, tears fall down my face in fear of what the doctors might tell me.

My Dad is all I have, besides all the money and the reputation, it's just him. If he dies, I'm not sure how I would survive.

He must've known something was going to happen to him, considering the conversation we had this morning.

I knew that his first heart attack was suspicious. Someone must've done this to him, something really suspicious is going on and I'm not sure if I really want to find out.

In my head, I continue to remind myself of what Dad told me to never forget "Bookshelf, bookshelf, bookshelf" I recite.

Walking into the hospital feels like hell all over again since his last heart attack. Except for this time, I walked in with a feeling, a very strong gut feeling that:

My father is dead and he might've been killed.

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Song: Falls by ODESZA feat. (Sasha Sloan)

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