Chapter 69 Some of us still have dignity
CHAPTER 69: Some of us still have dignity
Vera
Natalie’s usual flawless, composed exterior was a mask of professional perfection, yet it couldn't entirely hide that sharp flicker of displeasure that crossed her face the moment her eyes landed on Claudia.
Armed with her tablet like it was a shield, she glided to her seat with a practiced grace that felt out of place juxtaposed with the apparent tension in the room.
Her gaze barely flicked over me, offering me a perfunctory, barely-there nod before shifting her focus entirely to Silas. She completely ignored Claudia, as if she were nothing more than the dishes on the table, her attention focused fully at the head of the table.
“Silas, we need to go over the first drafts of the agreement from the legal department from the LutherCorp before the meeting at the office this morning,” she stated, her voice as smooth and cold as polished glass. “The margins need a thorough verification.”
Silas hummed, barely offering a nod in response, his piercing gaze fixed on me. I shifted, awareness and a strange current running through me at the intense attention.
Natalie noticed. Her expression was a sheet of neutrality as she drew a seat and sat down, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
Claudia’s hands gripped her cup tightly.
Silas’s phone vibrated against the mahogany surface. He glanced at the screen, and dropped his cup, standing immediately.
“I have to take this,” he muttered, leaving the room without a backward glance, leaving the three of us in a silence so thick it was suffocating.
I speared the fruits on my plate, shoving it down my throat to occupy my attention.
Claudia was the first to break the silence, her venomous eyes remained fixed on Natalie with a look of pure loathing.
“So, Vera,” she said, her voice dripping with forced casualness, “what grand plans does the lady of the house have for the day, aside from recovering from my brother's... enthusiasm?” She added, smirking in Natalie's direction.
Natalie’s hand stilled for a fraction of a second over her tablet screen, but she continued scrolling without looking up.
I cleared my throat, trying to find my voice amidst the suffocating tension.
“I’m due for a check-up at the hospital this afternoon,” I replied softly, my hand instinctively resting on my stomach. “Dr. Caleb requested Silas’s presence this time as well. I was just about to tell him about it."
Natalie didn't even look up from her tablet, the cup of coffee in hand as she chimed in, her tone sharp and dismissive.
“Silas is far too busy for such things. He isn't available for hospital visits today.”
The words acted like a match to a powder keg.
“Excuse me?” Claudia’s chair screeched against the floor as she leaned forward, her eyes blazing. “Who the hell are you? And what right do you have to decide what my brother is available for, Natalie?” she hissed.
Natalie didn't look up at Natalie. “Business associate? And I was simply stating a professional fact,” she replied coolly. “No need to blow your lid.”
Claudia saw red.
She huffed. “I see the years have not made you wiser,” she sneered. “You’re still sticking to my brother like a shadow. Don't you think you're overstepping?”
Natalie finally looked up, a thin, condescending smile playing on her lips.
“At least I’m here, Claudia. I didn't disappear.” Her eyes hardened. “I wasn't the one that abandoned her family, eloping with… with something I stole from another.” Her gaze flicked to me briefly, then back to Claudia. For some reason, I felt that her next words were not meant for Claudia alone. “Some of us still have dignity.”
Claudia didn't flinch, if anything, her smirk widened…very lethally so.
“Oh, darling. If you're referring to that, I’m quite done with ‘it’,” she smirked. “You're perfectly free to have ‘it’ back, that is if ‘it’ actually wants you.”
Natalie’s jaw tightened.
Claudia continued, pleased with Natalie’s reaction.
“Then again, that shouldn't be a problem for you, should it? You've always had a penchant for forcing yourself into places where you clearly aren't wanted.”
What was it? A man?
I saw Natalie flinch, a tiny crack appearing in her pristine facade, but she recovered instantly.
“You really should try to grow up, Claudia,” she advised, her voice dripping with condescension. “Word of advice, try quitting being a liability to your family, especially to Silas. He has enough to deal with without your drama and issues.”
Claudia’s cup of coffee landed on the table with a loud thud that made me flinch.
“And what right do you have to worry about Silas?”she scoffed. “Why are you trying to protect him? You are not a Rutherford. And you aren't even his wife, Natalie. Vera is,” she gestured wildly towards me. “Remember that?”
Natalie smiled, but there was no humor to it…only hardness and sharpness.
Seeing the situation spiral, I felt a surge of nervous energy.
“Uhmm… Maybe we should just all just take a deep breath—”
“Vera, dear,” Natalie interrupted, her voice soft but carrying the same hardness and sharpness in her smile as she looked at me with a condescending tilt of her head. “This has nothing to do with you.”
I recoiled, awash with embarrassment.
“I was just—”
“I suggest you focus on your breakfast and channel your energy on your housewife affairs,” she said with a smile that was meant to look polite, but didn't hide the bitterness behind. “Your input isn't required here."
Claudia’s face went scarlet. She sprang up from her chair.
“How dare you speak to her in that manner? You are a guest in this house, Natalie, not the mistress! You have no right to speak to your boss's wife in that manner!”
I was too overwhelmed to say a word in my defence. The worst was when I felt hot pressure building at the back of my eyes.
“What is going on here?”
Silas had walked back in, his phone gripped in his hand and his brow furrowed in a dark, dangerous line.
He looked from Claudia’s shaking frame to Natalie’s cold composure, and finally to me.