"Did he?" Kelsie replied, her lips fighting against their instinctive coil.
Gone was the refined and elegant first appearance Kelsie had displayed when they first t. Instead, all Alia saw hidden behind her layers of makeup was a vindictive mask that looked down upon everyone.
"Caleb must’ve thought that this matter was too insignificant to talk about," Kelsie said instead. She harrumphed softly, barely audible, but no one could miss the way she turned up her nose in arrogance.
In actual fact, that was a re façade to hide the truth about how Caleb actually hadn’t told her these things. What’s more, Kelsie would rather die than admit it out loud in front of Alia Kentwood of all people, but Caleb had gone cold the last few days, ever since he had left her a ssage about visiting X’el Incorporated’s headquarters.
She had left multiple calls, only for them to either go to his voicemail or be inford by the cold beep of his number’s unavailable tune. To this day, she had sent at least a hundred ssages. None of them were returned.
"Bumr," Alia said.
Kelsie needn’t say anything. It was as clear as day from the way her face paled that things weren’t as smooth sailing on her end ever since Caleb’s last visit. Perhaps there was so trouble on the horizon for the lovebirds.
While Alia held no more love for Caleb — and perhaps even a little too much hatred — she was still upset by the fact that Caleb had left her for Kelsie Friesent. To see that their relationship had cracked and was slowly crumbling brought a streak of sadistic joy to Alia’s bones.
Horace Hawthorne’s eyes twinkled. He observed the interaction between Kelsie, Emline, and Alia, and quickly cleared his throat. Addressing Alia, he kept his gaze on Kelsie as he said, "Correct if I’m wrong, Alia, but is this regarding the test you told about earlier?"
Alia raised an eyebrow.
While she couldn’t be sure that Matteo hadn’t as well, she was sure that she hadn’t specifically ntioned any test to her grandfather. All Horace knew was that Carlo had perford exceedingly well at X’el Incorporated and was well on his way to climbing the ranks once he graduated from college― that was if he chose to continue working at X’el.
"Yes," Alia said nonetheless, catching the look in her grandfather’s eye. "Carlo managed to snuff out so mistakes in a company’s accounting. It wasn’t until after did Matteo told that the records were taken from W&W’s records."
"Dear oh dear," Horace said, shaking his head. "The months those records were based on― if I recall, they were from when W&W Industries had collaborations with Friesent Corporations, am I right?"
Then, he straightened and turned his attention to Kelsie.
"Perhaps you would like to inform your father to look into this matter, Miss Friesent," Horace continued. "While we all may be rivals in the business field, you have been Emline’s beloved friend for so long. It’s only right to look out for you and your family."
Despite his words about looking out for the Friesent family, Horace Hawthorne hadn’t been trying to be discreet with his words. He made sure that whatever he said was loud and clear enough for those standing around them to listen to their conversation.
While most of the party carried on a distance away, there were still a significant number of people standing nearby who curiously turned their heads to have a look. Those burning stares and inaudible murmurs quickly flooded them, causing Kelsie’s face to turn red in a mixture of anger and embarrassnt.
However, what could she do in the face of the most powerful man in the city other than just grit her teeth and thank him for the way he embarrassed her?
"Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne, for the warning," Kelsie said through gritted teeth.
She smiled — albeit very obviously forced — and said nothing more before turning to leave. Emline’s hands were all but shaken off from Kelsie, and the only way to describe her departure was that she escaped the scene as hurriedly as she could.
"Grandfather!" Emline exclaid, horrified. "How could you say such a thing like that? To my best friend, no less?"
"It was a re warning, Emline," Alia said, stepping in before Horace could reply.
Perhaps it was because she had been spending so ti on the sa playing field as these rich, haughty, princessy heiresses. She was starting to understand the wonders of handing these people back a taste of their own dicine.
"Grandfather was just making sure Friesent Corporations wouldn’t just get snuffed out so quickly. If W&W is going to go down because of Caleb’s horrid business managent, his future in-laws should at least have a sowhat successful career so that he wouldn’t be sleeping on the streets."
Then, out of pure spite, Alia added, "After all, this ti, I doubt Kelsie would be too thrilled about taking on three jobs just to keep up with his exorbitant lifestyle choices."
On another day, if she had been conversing with another person, perhaps Alia would have felt a little guilty of what she had said. One sentence was enough to bring Horace Hawthorne’s mory back to the fact that Alia had suffered horribly during her marriage to Caleb Walton. To top it all off, their divorce was partly because of Kelsie Friesent.
Perhaps Alia should thank Kelsie after all. Without her, who knew if Alia would’ve found her mother’s side of the family. Alia would have still been married to Caleb, scrubbing toilets for a living while running around a nightclub afterward in the evening.
Her tactics worked wonderfully as well. Horace Hawthorne looked at her with so much heartache in his eyes that Emline was nothing more than a puff of smoke before his very eyes.
Emline gritted her teeth, anger bubbling up in her chest. However, it didn’t last for longer than three seconds before she forcibly stamped it down. She took in deep breaths to calm herself, and to Alia’s surprise, smiled angelically.
She could not afford to be angry. Not while everything was still brewing.
"You’re right, Alia," Emline sweetly said. "Kelsie and Caleb would never be able to handle that sort of lifestyle. She’s just a little upset, but I’m sure she will co around."
Even Horace was a little surprised by Emline’s sudden shift in attitude. He laughed, gently patting Emline on the shoulder.
"My, how you’ve grown," he said, adoration in his voice. "It’s wonderful to see you two finally acting like family. Co, let’s go downstairs and greet our guests. This is a night for our family’s charity organization, and as the previous lady in charge, you deserve just as much credit for its success."
Emline rely bead in pride, as though she was a peacock showing off her feathers. She gave Alia a boastful smirk, one just out of Horace’s side, and her back straightened.
As Horace gestured to the steps, Alia caught the eye of soone who stood a distance away.
"I’ll et you downstairs in a bit, Grandpa," Alia said, ignoring Emline entirely.
Horace rely nodded in reply, and soon enough, he and Emline disappeared into the crowd.
Once she was sure they were gone, Alia turned back to the owner whose pair of eyes had been watching her entire exchange with Emline and their grandfather. She marched her way over, making sure to keep a cautious distance.
"How long have you been watching us?"
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