Chapter 313: Chapter 313
Satisfied with her looks, Brianna sashayed out of the women’s room and into the cool air. Despite the goosebumps from the slight chill, she was not bothered. She needed her best ’weapons’ for Ian’s attention and would not compromise.
She did not forget to don the gift that Ian had sent her, those beautiful earrings. It did not take her long, but her confidence took a bash in that short time. Brianna was used to being the centre of attention, but on this day, apart from a few leering looks, she got none of the praise she got when she was with her other two friends... ex-friends then.
That was a solid punch to her ego. Brianna could not help but pause and use the reflection of a glass wall to check herself out.
She wore a short, impossibly tight dress that contoured her entire body, leaving little to the imagination. The dress was mid-thigh length, so paired with her heels, it made her look like a stripper walking outside her workplace: sexy as hell and the object of everyone’s attention, except no one was looking. She swept her hair aside to show the earrings and then firmed her resolve,
"I am here for Ian and not these losers."
Brianna had not yet realized that the starstruck looks she had been getting for ages were all because of her friend, Shelby. In Brianna’s view, even though Shelby was beautiful beyond words, her wardrobe choice was poor and not worth anyone’s time. She, Brianna, was beautiful, had curves, and was wealthy. Where else could anyone get such a good combination?
She shook off that deflated ego-like feeling and walked towards the meeting place.
Just inside that building, Shelby looked at Samantha up and down, worry marring her features as she thought about what would have happened if none of them had been around.
"I’m okay, Mum," Samantha said to the question that Shelby had yet to ask, making her nod.
"Suzie, get the kids home so they can rest."
Suzie turned quickly, with Murray following. They decided to use the underground parking instead and, therefore, missed the incoming visitors.
Shelby stretched out her arms, and Samantha walked in to get a hug, to Ian’s dissatisfaction. Even Ava was surprised at how Shelby was treating her eldest daughter, but she wisely did not comment.
"You go ahead. I’ll join you soon."
Ian leaned forward and pecked Shelby and said to her. Shelby nodded, and then, together with Ava and Samantha, they headed back in the same way they had earlier.
Ian watched their back disappear before he turned to Currey, and the two followed where Brad had disappeared off with Raye.
Ava kept looking at Samantha. After what she had witnessed, Ava had softened around the little girl, and she had an idea of what might have caused her change.
However, the three were prepared for anything but the stunned silence that greeted them upon returning to the lobby they had been in merely a few minutes ago.
Shelby was well used to this, but not when she had literally just exited and come back.
With each of them radiating a different kind of breathtaking beauty that instantly commanded attention, they were unsure of their effects on the people who had come to dine and look around.
Even young Samantha had somehow been added to this group’s attention-grabbing aura. With flowing raven-black hair, Samantha moved with effortless grace, well beyond her fourteen years but still retaining a bit of that teen innocence, but still with a lot of pompousness and defiance, making her brown eyes sparkle.
Even Samantha did not know she had started to exude that confidence when she was near her mum. Her sun-kissed skin glowed under the light. The second, Ava, with piercing grey eyes from those contacts that made her ebony skin glow against those contrasting eyes and a smile that could light up the darkest room, exuding a magnetic charm.
Her short, brown-dyed hair, nose ring, and long dangling earrings that touched her shoulders made her feel like an exotic breath of fresh air.
But it was the third who left everyone speechless: Shelby. Her short-blond hair cascaded and curled around her face in waves, with bangs that caressed her eyes like the soft touch of a lover, making the people around her wish they were the wisps of glossy hair caressing her face. Her delicate features, porcelain skin, and blue eyes sparkled like sapphires.
Shelby’s beauty was so striking that it felt like time had paused, the air in the room heavy with awe as people gasped in quiet admiration, unable to tear their eyes away. Only one word could describe what they felt: otherworldly!
The three walked back to the same seat that they had left. Samantha was the only one uncomfortable under those piercing gazes as she was not used to them, but this made her puff her chest with pride. ’That is my mum and aunt!’
She would have been in the crowd in the past, but now, she was right by their side.
Just then, a person came through the revolving door, truncating the pseudo-spell that all of them had been under, but Brianna just felt that all eyes had turned on her as she entered the place.
However, instead of Ian, she saw the people she did not want to see. They were an eyesore, and Brianna was unsure why Ian insisted on keeping them by his side.
Brianna walked under the long gazes straight to where the trio were.
Samantha may still be a child, but she was also aware of some of the things that Brianna had done to her mother, so she stiffened and stood before Shelby, making Shelby smile.
"It’s okay. Let me handle this." Shelby patted Samantha’s hand, but Ava was different.
"You dare to come here?! After what you did?" Ava boomed. Brianna faltered a little because she had never seen Ava that angry, but then she scoffed.
Her initial dissatisfaction with seeing them disappeared, but then she caught the ending of Ava’s statement and got momentarily flustered,
"What did I do?!" She anchored her hands on her waist and turned on her bitchy mode.
Because of the attention they had captured upon entering the lobby, many eyes remained on the four. With Brianna’s shout and whiny voice, the rest of the people who were not paying attention also turned.
Before Ava could say another word, Brianna boasted,
"Ian invited me himself to come here! He even bought me this!"
She gestured towards her ears.
"Isn’t that the earring that Brianna got you? How did it end back in her hands?" Ava leaned against Shelby and asked, whispering.
Shelby smirked and nodded,
"Huh... Isn’t it interesting? She didn’t even notice that she had gifted me this herself, and she wears them with pride, thinking it was from Ian.... You saw them only a few times and know this, but can she who supposedly bought them not recognize these?"
Ava looked long and hard at Brianna, trying to understand what was going on until she heard,
"She’ll get a taste of her own medicine.... She put something on it, but now, she will experience whatever, herself!" These words made Ava smile... a sly smile that only those who really knew Ava could understand. Unfortunately, even Brianna, who had spent much time with these two, had always thought they were beneath her, so she did not recognize this.
"What are you smiling at? You still don’t understand that poor people like you cannot have a stand in this society?"
A wave of dissatisfaction ran through the guests who were around. What did she mean by that?
"If that is what a rich person looks like, then I don’t want to be rich!" Some shouted from the back, making the people around laugh. Brianna started feeling hot and equated it to the embarrassment she felt from that.
However, Brianna had thick skin, and it did not take long before she smiled brightly with a scoff.
From the time Brianna had entered till when she was running her mouth, Shelby tried to hold herself in place and not do anything rush, but it was getting increasingly difficult. This was the girl who had once been considered a friend, but looking at her sultry appearance, all Shelby wanted to do was tear that mask off her face.
After trying to sleep with Shelby’s husband, Brianna did not end there; she offered Shelby a hand of friendship only to try to kill her on top of that. No matter how ’good’ Shelby felt in her heart, she could feel her emotions start to get out of hand. Brianna, not knowing this and certainly not caring even if she knew, continued,
"Let me tell you, Ian is my crush and my love, and he will alwa-"
No one had seen that coming, not Ava, Samantha, or even the people around. In fact, they had not even seen when Shelby had closed the gap between her and Brianna.
Brianna was caught off guard by the intensity of that slap and by the moment when Shelby’s hand connected with her cheeks. Her face twisted in shock and fury, her eyes blazing as she recoiled, clutching her stinging skin. She screamed out
Before she could complete her threats or statement or even recover from the first slap,
*PAAAAAHHH!!!!* The second slap landed even harder than the first, snapping Brianna’s head to the side. The sharp and resounding sound echoed across the whole place, drawing surprised gasps from everyone there.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE-! YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN LAY YOUR FILTHY PEASANT HANDS ON ME? YOU!!!!!!" The mixture of pain and rage broke Brianna’s voice, but that did not stop the fury from falling off her in waves. Brianna’s hands were shaking, and her eyes were brimming with tears of humiliation.
However, when everyone thought it was all done,
Shelby delivered the third and the fourth slaps in succession. Two on each cheek were enough to silence Brianna, but only momentarily.
"I’ll never forgive you for this!" Her words came out in short breaths. Every inch of Briannia vibrated with fury, but beneath it all, she felt pain and humiliation unlike any other.
Brianna’s eyes stung with tears, and she struggled to keep them from flowing as a slight wave of dizziness washed over her. No one had ever slapped her like that before. She was her parents’ pampered girl.
"H-OW DARE YOU! YOU POOR NOBODY!"
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