"That little b*tch must have never dreamt I would do that, right? Thinking not letting her leave in her father's car was the end? How naive!" Just like her mother.
"That had only been the appetizer before the main course!"
"I wonder how she must be feeling at the moment? Despaired? Restless? As she watched different cars driving past her with not even a single one of them willing to extend a helping hand. Of course, they don't dare to! Not unless they are willing to make an enemy out of me because of you. But I doubt those spineless cowards who only care about their interests will really take that gamble", The woman spoke with palpable disdain and contempt in her voice, with a hint of viciousness in her eyes.
It made her look contradicting with not even an ounce of the elegance and gentility she had displayed earlier on nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, the servants present in the living room tried to slow down their breathing as they listened to her soliloquy, so as not to attract the woman's attention and ire. A middle-aged servant woman in particular, standing not far away from where the woman sat, trembled heavily in fear. She was the one who had secretly informed Ariana that Mr. Houston, her father had left as she didn't feel good watching her sitting cluelessly in the living room while waiting for someone who would never arrive.
Other servants who had been loyal and close to the former mistress and Ariana had been fired and sent away by the current mistress. She had only been able to escape that same fate because apart from that very day when she had received her former mistress's help, their paths had never intersected again, except from seeing her from afar.
The only reason she had took the gamble of getting discovered and possibly fired by the mistress of the house or maybe even worse, was that she had once received help from Ariana's mom when the woman had still been alive and had since then swore in her heart to repay the favour one day.
The kindness she had been shown years ago was why she had been propelled to inform Ariana secretly as she knew just how important today was to the younger woman. However, she had started feeling antsy and panicked after doing what she had done as she began worrying that the woman would find out about her deed...
Jane Norman remained unaware of the fact that one of her servants was feeling anxious and fearful, neither did she seem to care about saying her true thoughts aloud in their presence.
This was because in her heart, they were just inconsequential existence who have no important role to play in the big picture and therefore, she had never tried to conceal her true self in front of them. She continued speaking slowly in an unconcerned tone.
"By now, she should already be feeling helpless and quite desperate, right?", She asked no one in particular and nor did any of the servants try to answer her as they understood it was a rhetorical question.
Her face suddenly turned hideous, few seconds after she asked the question.
"Yes, she should be! How dare she covet what is mine?! She should have obediently stayed on exile instead of rushing to return at the slightest opportunity. Or did she really think that everything would become hers just because I have no child?", A complex emotion appeared on her eyes at her last sentence before disappearing in a flash.
"Even If I am destined to have no child, I won't allow what is supposed to be mine and my child's fall into your hands. No way!", She then stood up determinedly and strode upstairs with cruelty and sinisterness in her eyes, leaving behind the servants who looked like they have been granted amnesty as they collectively let out the huge breath they had been holding on no longer seeing the woman's figure.
The middle-aged servant who was already covered in cold sweat almost slumped to the ground on seeing the woman leave and hurriedly held the wall for balance.
'Fortunately... Fortunately...', She thought to herself, relieved that the mistress seemed to not have found out what she had done.
....
Minutes ticked past with the fingers in Ariana's clenched fists digging deeper into her flesh but she felt no pain. She was already feeling desperate after waiting for more than twenty minutes and watched helplessly as the time she was supposed to be in work got closer and closer.
Even though she had the urge to cry and give up already, she forcibly suppressed both the urge to cry and give up as she knew that crying can't solve her current problem. And if she gave up without even putting up a fight, she would despise herself and would never be able to face her mother again.
In the past few minutes, she had been taught and experienced the cruelty of the high society once again.
Different cars had drove past her with most of them stopping on seeing her, some of them who were familiar faces and others who were not, but after knowing her name and identity, they had flew faster than the previous person.
Although she understood that the reason was because she was still a powerless heiress just returning from exile and they don't dare take the gamble of offending her stepmother 'cause of her, she still couldn't help but feel downtrodden.
Everything about this circle was really all about benefits and interests.
Loyalty? Familial Love? Kindness?
All those never existed within this circle. Her biological father had personally taught her this fact and now those people she had once called uncle, friends and buddies had once again taught her what it meant to be a member of the high society.
Her family and this circle had given her a comfortable and envious life but had taken what was most important from her. Actually, if she really had a choice, she would have chosen to have been born into an ordinary family - with a loving father and a caring mother.
Not parents who treated each other like guests and with one of them later cheating on the other and leading her to death with depression!
Ariana shook her head. This wasn't the time to be thinking about all these messy things.
She glanced at the time and the light in her eyes dimmed, she had just a little over 20 minutes before she would be officially late for her first day at work.
'How awesome was that?!', She thought sarcastically to herself.
Knowing she could no longer wait for the members of her circle to suddenly discover their conscience and let her hitch a ride, Ariana fished out her phone with plans to book a taxi.
'Even if I am going to be late and would leave a bad first impression, I still have to get there first.'
Right about when she was going to click on the button to book the taxi, she heard the noisy horn of a car seemingly coming from in front of her and looked up without expression, forgetting to press the book button.
In fact, she was only looking up out of courtesy as she thought in her heart that this time was probably not going to be different from the others, but when she looked up and her gaze collided into those familiar charming eyes, her breath stagnated.