Chapter 252: Chapter 252

"Mrs. Wendover...." Angela, Clara’s maid, started to say, only to change the way she addressed her mistress immediately with that stern glare directed at her. With James’ demise, Clara did not like being addressed that way for many reasons.

The name Mrs. Wendover had lost its use and prestige for her. Clara only felt shame being associated with the name, for Wendover now only reminded people of the prominent drug syndicate leader. To add to that, the sex scandal that had ensued had made a lot of people use that same name in mockery of her.

"Oh, is that Mrs. Wendover? Some Mrs. she turned out to be pftt! Maybe a pornstar would have suited her best!’

"That sounds correct. In fact, with her husband no more, and most of his assets confiscated, I should think that Mrs. Wendover can star in her ownadult film as Mrs. Wendover, the office slut! hahahahahahaaaaa!"

"Or maybe, the prosecutor’s ’companion’!"

Another reason was that Clara felt old when she was addressed that way, so she had started to double emphasize that the few staff left around her call her by her given name only.

It had been weeks since the passing of her husband. Clara had grieved a lot, but not in the way that she had following the death of her first husband and Shelby’s father, Mr. Monroe.

Clara was not destitute. She had food to eat, a roof over her head and a few workers around too, but she still felt confined and lacking.

With the investigation and subsequent sentencing of James, the Wendover family had lost all of its assets, and the only one that had not been seized was the mansion in which they lived. That building had somehow been allotted to Rockwell Wendover, and that was the only one that had remained in the family.

Rocky had assumed charge of all expenses relating to the home, and Clara never once asked where that money came from. Both Shelby and her brother also never told Clara of the money that Ian had generously given to Rocky.

Rocky’s school fees and other school-related expenses had all been paid off in advance by Ian as well.

Clara was still wallowing in some sort of self-pity.

She locked herself in her room following the funeral and the days afterwards as if she was grieving, but Clara was more embarrassed by the sex video that had briefly circulated. Her thoughts were quite interesting,

’If Ian could take care of it for her, why did he have to wait until it had fully circulated before he lifted a hand to help?’

Considering what Ian had asked for in return, Clara still had not initiated her task of maintaining that business yet.

"Clara," Angela tried again,

"It’s been weeks. You should try to get into the day-to-day of the store. If master Ian should come around, it will be hard to explain."

Angela still got no response from Clara, who was still wrapped up in her sheets in bed. Angela bit her lips and then said the words that had been brewing in her heart,

"Master, let the previous month go by and did not ask any questions. I know it might be because of Miss Shelby. Clara, you understood the terms very well. If you don’t act, I know that Master Ian would never let you off easily, regardless of anyone’s account. Look at what happened with the master when he was the one who arranged Miss Shelby’s marriage-"

Clara turned, and her gaze sharpened.

Angela closed her eyes when she met Clara’s gaze because she knew she needed to do everything possible to get Clara to do what was agreed upon, but Angela never thought that Clara’s thinking was skewed that much. Angela continued, still with her eyes closed so that she would not falter in her words,

"I know that after today, master Ian might start to pursue this."

"Why after today?" Clara asked snappily. However, this harmless question sparked Angela’s glee. She was happy that her madam had at least shown interest in her words.

"The T-Vino winery is organizing a wine tasting event. I heard that it’s an internal thing, but most of the stakeholders include the powerful families-"

Angela got startled and she frowned, not understanding why Clara was so agitated. Before Angel could continue, Clara picked up her phone and dialled Shelby’s number. Even though Angel had been with Clara for a long while, Clara’s words to her daughter caused her mouth to drop open.

’We were talking about her starting her work, but how did Miss Shelby offend her mother this time?’ Angela could not understand it one bit.

Angela flinched on the side and crossed her arms in front of her as if to form an X. She desperately needed Clara to stop, but Clara was not listening! She continued her rantings.

"I can’t believe you! Do you even see me as your mother?"

"You ungrateful wench! You had this dinner or wine-tasting or whatever with all the important people around, and you did not think of letting me know?"

At that, Angela pieced the info together, but she was not even sure how to react to this. Clara’s words were not for the mild-hearted at all. She kept spewing what Angela felt was nonsense to her ears until Clara threw her phone against the wall!

"SHE DARED HANG UP ON ME! Shelby Monroe! What is wrong with this child?!!!"

Angela stood there unmoving, disappointment clouding her whole being, and then she turned and left the room.

Angela was supposed to report on Clara’s activities, but she could not even bring herself to repeat what she had just seen.

"Miss Shelby is really pitiable. I can’t even wrap my head around having a mother ," Angela whispered and then left to get back to her other chores.

In the warehouse, Shelby’s hope spread and then diminished all in the course of a few seconds. She had thought that it was Ian or someone else but even when she realized that it was Clara, she had held on to the hope.

Her head was foggy, and she could not concentrate with all the blood rushing through her brain... or at least that was what it felt like to her. The dull headache was pounding then, but even with her pleas, Clara just kept being herself.

Before Shelby could muster the strength to say any other thing, the familiar beep sounded again, and her phone went dead!

It dropped out of her hand, and she started to use whatever strength she had to crawl with her belly sweeping the ground.

She had no idea how long she had crawled, and then she could not will herself to move anymore.

"I-an.... P-lea-se, h-el...p!" Shelby’s voice was but a little whisper.

Just to the side an in the dense shadows, a cloaked figure watched on indifferently.

"Wasn’t that Ava?" Abi asked her husband. After that last time when Brianna had come back from the Thornston’s estate in tears, Abi had not lain eyes on Ava and Abi never knew that Ava would be living so well like that?

"What did the guys do? I had instru-"

Abram placed his hands on his wife’s hand, stopping her in whatever she wanted to say. Usually, it was the other way round in every single thing they do. Abi was the level-headed one, and Abram was the emotional one. However, Abi nearly slipped.

She turned around and checked that her nearby words had fallen into the wrong ears.

"Thanks for prompting me." Abi kept her words to herself, but they both knew that Abi would follow up on whatever she had been about to say about Ava.

It went to say that Ava was not in their good books, and Ava might have known this because that was the first time, from when they had known Ava, that she had never bothered to come over and greet them. It had quite a while but the Mush’s seemed to want to settle accounts with Ava especially.

Their thoughts were the same, "A peasant and poor person like that dared to slap our precious Brianna? No matter how much time passes, she will pay threefold or even more!" Abi vowed, and her husband shared similar thoughts.

’I should have followed up on this myself! Why did they spare Ava? Did Brianna get a soft heart at the last minute?’ Abi asked herself, adding, ’An offence towards my daughter is the same towards me!’

Abi brought out her phone to check her messages.

"Why is she sending this now?" Abi whispered and then turned to her husband,

"We have to leave, Abram."

He nodded and downed his glass of wine, and then the two of them slipped away from the room.

They found Brianna already by their car when they exited the building.

"Oh, where did you get another dress to change into, Brianna?" Abram asked, but Abi noticed whose dress Brianna had on, and she narrowed her eyes, but she was not about to question Brianna there.

Abi did have a keener eye because Brianna had been pestering her for that dress for a long while, and she had seen it on Shelby that evening. The dress was catchy and therefore hard to miss.

Abi sighed, deciding not to talk as she boarded the car with her family. It was only later that she realized the gravity and implications of her daughter’s actions.

Abi may have her connections and was willing to take on Geneva, but Ian... was a whole other mountain she did not dare to cross! Will she be willing to do this for her daughter? That was the question that remained to be answered.

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