"My life is over!" Emline Hawthorne wailed into her pillows, her hair in a disheveled ss as big fat tears stread down her cheeks. Her dressing, normally impeccable, was now creased and wrinkled, but she paid it no mind, choosing to stifle her face back into her pillows as though she was hiding from the world.
Annalise’s heart ached for her only daughter. Her precious princess didn’t deserve such a future.
"I want to die!" Emline scread into her pillows. "I don’t want to live anymore!"
"No, darling, don’t be foolish!" Annalise quickly said, enveloping her daughter in a hug. "It will all blow over soon, just you see!"
"It will not!" Emline shrieked, raising her head to glare at her mother through tear-stricken eyes. "I’m ruined! How can I live knowing that everyone has seen my nudes?!"
"Technically, you aren’t really nude in them―" Annalise said. The entire family had read the article put out by Lady Vanity and saw the resulting photos― her straddling Matteo in nothing but her underwear, the both of them tangled in his bedsheets, her bra, half-falling off her shoulders to reveal a swell of creamy breast.
If they were from a weaker family, Annalise was sure that her phone would be blowing up with all sorts of obscene offers from movie directors.
As a mother, she was appalled. However, Annalise did not survive in society by caving to the first sign of trouble. The waves were stormy, but Annalise could see the silver lining. She would make sure her daughter rode the wave to success.
"Shut up! Shut up! You don’t know anything!" Emline yelled furiously, interrupting her.
"You be quiet! You’re the one that doesn’t know anything!" Annalise drew herself to her full height, tired of her daughter’s dramatics. She had been wailing for the better part of an hour, and Annalise needed her beauty sleep. "I’ve raised you better than this, Emline Hawthorne. Now snap out of that pitying funk and get your act together!"
Her daughter paused, then she ekly raised her head, stunned by the vehence in her voice. "Mom?"
Annalise cleared her throat. "Don’t you see, now that such photos are out, there’s no way Matteo Montgory can wriggle out of his engagent with you! Unless he wants the world to see him as a bastard!"
Emline gave a tremulous sniffle, her eyes wide with hope. "Really, Mama? What if he decides... he doesn’t want ... now that my reputation is gone?"
"My dear daughter, what era do you think we’re living in?" Annalise raised her eyebrow. "This is the 21st century! And you are his fiancée. There is nothing wrong with you sleeping with Matteo before marriage. If anything, they should be envious that he landed himself with you! He should be thanking his lucky stars that a woman as beautiful as my daughter wants him!"
Emline’s lower lip wobbled. "Mama..."
"Leave it all to ," Annalise promised. "I’ll make sure to drag Matteo to the altar, if it’s the last thing I do!"
"Thank you..." Emline’s eyes were wide and glassy, shining with gratitude, and Annalise could only hug her daughter, her precious darling. "But Mama, I have sothing I don’t understand."
"What is it, dearest?"
"How could my photos be leaked?" Emline asked, her voice watery. "I was in Matteo’s ho! It’s not as though I went to a club and got stalked by the paparazzi. It was supposed to be safe! Do you think Matteo likes to watch..."
"Nonsense, Matteo would never bug his house or indulge in such perversions." Annalise shook her head. "Even if he did, he would know better than to run to a gossip rag with such photos."
"Then... that ans..." Emline gasped, as realization entered her eyes. "Lady Vanity was right! Alia Kentwood must be behind this!"
"Of course she is! Who else could it be?" Annalise exclaid, her face growing dark at the very ntion of Alia Kentwood’s na. That woman was the bane of her existence.
After the humiliation she had suffered at the restaurant, she had gone ho only to be scolded by her father-in-law, claiming that she had destroyed his reputation and made life difficult for Alia.
The very thought made her blood boil. She was practically his family― and Alia was no one, from nowhere! How could he side with her over his own daughter-in-law!
Now, with this incident, she would make sure Horace Hawthorne finally opened his eyes and saw Alia for what she truly was― a money-grubbing skank that had no qualms about stepping on people to get ahead!
A knock on the door interrupted them.
"Emline? How are you feeling? Speak to ."
Speak of the devil. Horace Hawthorne was here. Annalise gave Emline a careful nod before opening the door.
Her daughter, intelligent as she was, made sure to make herself look even more pathetic by curling into a ball.
"Grandpa!" Emline cried out. "Don’t co in! I’m too ashad of myself!"
"Nonsense, you were not the one at fault, why should you feel sha?" Horace asked as he walked into her room with his cane. He patted her head gently. "The fault lies with the person who leaked your photos! Matteo Montgory better have an explanation for this!"
"There is an explanation for this, Father, but it might not be pleasing to your ears," Annalise said. "If Alia Kentwood was responsible for the leaks, he might not be willing to explain."
A complicated expression crossed Horace Hawthorne’s face. "How can you be sure that Alia was the one who did it?"
"This was in Matteo’s ho," Annalise said, crossing her arms imperiously. "Currently, the only people who have regular access to his ho are Matteo himself, and Alia Kentwood. Don’t tell you think that Emline would leak her own pictures?"
"I’d rather die!" Emline wailed from the bed.
"It could still be a misunderstanding..." Horace began but Annalise shook her head.
"Did you know they are staying together? Father, you cannot possibly be so biased against the truth! Emline is your granddaughter! How can you side with Alia instead!"
"Yes! I saw her things when I entered his ho..." Emline let out a pathetic sniffle. "It was as though...the house was their marital ho and I was the intruder! She must have been so angry that Matteo invited to have dinner at their place..."
"The nerve! You’re Matteo’s fiancée. What right does Alia Kentwood have to feel offended at your presence in his house!" Annalise exclaid. "She’s the interloper, not you!"
Emline scrubbed at her face with her hands, the very picture of misery. It would have been hard for anyone to be unmoved, let alone her grandfather, who doted on her since she was a child.
"It’s all my fault... I should have refused... but how could she do sothing like this to ? We’re both won..." Emline sobbed.
Horace Hawthorne thumped his cane against the floor, causing a sharp crack to echo throughout the room. He didn’t want to think the worst of Alia, but he knew better than anyone what won could do when they were cornered.
Elaine’s face floated briefly in his mind, causing him heartache.
"Alia Kentwood has gone too far this ti!" He roared. "I’ll make her and Matteo pay for this!"
Emline buried her face in her hands, so no one could see the tiny smirk that crossed her face.
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