Chapter 51 That’s Enough Manipulation!
Chapter Fifty-One
Clara gritted her teeth as she watched her daughter run away from the hall. She, however could not stand up and run after Selena.
There was something that she was working on at the moment and that was putting Aria in a tight spot.
If she stood up now, and ran after Selena, she would not be able to fully blackmail Aria emotionally.
So she sighed, and turned back to Aria, with her head bowed and her eyes lowered, continuing her task.
There was something the citizens of Crestmont cared a lot about, and that was respect to elders.
They outrightly believed that an elder should always be respected in their society, no matter what they had done.
It doesn’t matter if Aria had been shipped to the country side by her step mother and made to live a horrible life since she was younger.
It doesn’t matter that they had originally conspired against her to make her marry an invalid.
It doesn’t matter that they had almost thrown her to a brutal Minister, to avoid any harm coming to the family.
It doesn’t matter that they had made her live the life of a recluse, without any education.
As long as the one who had commuted the crime was apologizing, the victim had to accept if that person was an elder.
Clara knew this, and while she had her head bowed, there was a half smirk tugging at her lips.
“Aria Beaumont, you will not be able to escape now,” she grinned wickedly, “The citizens of Crestmont would deal with you themselves.”
Aria, however, did not give a damn about what the citizens of Crestmont thought.
She had seen through Clara’s act and she was not buying it.
“How evil.” She thought darkly, her eyes narrowed at the scheming woman before her, “She plotted against her own stepdaughter this way just for her own perverse satisfaction? Hah! I won’t let you get your way.”
In some way, because her soul was connected to that of Aria Beaumont, Elara sometimes felt some emotional pull in situations that she knew she would have however not be moved.
Currently, there was a huge weight pressing against her heart. So painful that she was almost gasping for breath.
Elara understood that this was Aria’s rejection of Clara’s apology. She had been so cruel to the young girl all her life and Elara swore she was going to make Aria comforted.
“You do not want to accept her apology, right?” She said softly underneath her breath, her fists clenching by her sides, “Do not worry, Aria. I will make her pay for this insolence!”
Elara was determined to make Clara grovel, but it would not be at Clara’s own call.
She would make the bitch grovel so hard that she would literally want to kill herself from despair.
Right now, it was going to take more than kneeling down or hitting of the head on the floor a few times to move her.
Soon the people started murmuring amongst themselves, seeing that Clara had knelt down for a full five minutes now and Aria was still not saying anything.
“Does she want the poor woman’s legs to give out?”
“Miss Aria is someone who is actually hard hearted. Imagine what she’s doing to an elder who is also her stepmother!”
“Surely, she wasn’t raised well. But what can you expect from a girl who was raised with pigs?”
“She must be so smug now that she has the Graves family behind her.”
“The Graves family are giving her so much power. This is not good for the Graves family. It can be their undoing!”
George, hearing all that was being spoken about, foolishly feared for his life. He could not let the Graves family be ruined by Aria.
He had only just started receiving favors from them, and the Beaumont Empire had only just started getting back on their feet.
If they got angry now, there’d be no more support from them and it would all be because of Aria.
He turned back to Aria, “Aria, please, can’t you forgive mother and father?” He asked in a pleading manner, “Do you want Mother’s legs to give out? If you continue this way? The Graves family will abandon you.”
“The Graves family will never abandon her, Mr Beaumont,” Lucian uttered after a long while, giving George a look that sent a chill down his spine, “The Graves family is in every way different from the Beaumont family. We do not abandon one of our own.”
As he spoke, his eyes met that of Nathan’s and he felt a surge of anger.
He realized that he’d sounded exactly like his grandmother did, when she had allowed Nathan to be brought into the family many years ago.
His mind went back to his plans on kicking Nathan out of the Graves family and he wondered if that didn’t contradict what he’d just said to George Beaumont.
His expression hardened the next second, however, and he looked away from Nathan, disgusted.
“He had started all this,” he thought to himself, “And I will finish it. Nathan must pay the consequences for all he had done to me.”
After he’d spoken, George had quickly stepped back, swallowing hard at Lucian’s interference.
“That’s not what I meant, of course, hehehe!” He laughed nervously, his eyes darting around the hall anxiously, looking at anywhere but Lucian’s blue-gray gaze.
Lucian looked at Clara who was still kneeling down and felt bile rise in his throat.
“If you think you’d get her acceptance through this cheap trick, you better think again.” He uttered coldly, causing Clara’s head to snap up sharply to meet his gaze.
Lucian continued, taking note of her eyes widening in horror.
He could also see into what Clara was trying to do and it disgusted him.
“How dare you think you can manipulate her into accepting you? Everything you’ve done to her up to this moment is that not enough manipulation?!”