Aria hurriedly closed her eyes to shield the water from getting in. Then, she wiped it off with her palm and slowly opened her eyes to gaze blankly at Ryan.The corners of his lips hooked up into a mocking smile as he dropped his hand and snorted, “What is that scary look for? Is this your way of thanking those who do good deed for you?” Some staffs who were lurking behind him chipped in with a huff, “She can’t even thank you for giving her water.” “How ungrateful. If I were Ryan, I wouldn’t give her anything ever again.” “Look how hard she’s glaring at him after what he went through to bring her that water.” When she kept looking at him without saying a word, he scoffed in contempt, “You still won’t thank you? I just saved you from dying from thirst and you repay me by glaring hard at me?” “Honestly, if I knew you’d be like this, I would’ve saved myself the time and energy of bringing you this water.” “No one even remembered you were standing outside except me. Yet, this is how
“Yeah, it’s Aria.” Ryan’s eyes darkened as he said dispiritedly. “Aria, hurry up here. These gentlemen have better things to do than to stay here.” Joseph urged her, forcing on a wide smile. Aria gripped the hand of her bag tighter and swallowed hard when her eyes met the furious look in Stella’s eyes. Nevertheless, she lowered her eyes to the floor and strutted towards the men. “Miss Aria Miller?” The second man repeated, raising his brows questioningly as she got close to him. She nodded, “Yes, I am.” As soon as the words rolled off her tongue, the one with the invite reached into the pocket of his suit jacket for it. He handed it over to her with a gentle look on his face. “Ms. Miller, you’ve been invited to Carolyn Jensen’s fundraiser which is being held tonight.” “The venue and time is written in the visitation. Ms. Jensen looks forward to seeing you tonight. Have a nice day.” Then they left immediately. As soon as they walked out of the door, Joseph snatc
“Do you want more chicken, Aria? Here, take mine.”"This tastes nice. Here, eat this. It tastes nice to you too, doesn't it?""Do you like it, Aria?"“Mhm, it's tasty like you said. I like it.” Clank!In the modest dining room of the Miller family, the direct two lines of the family sat around the table having dinner.At the head of the table was an elderly woman in her late 60s, and by her left and right side were her sons and their families.Upon hearing the man’s voice for the nth time thatevening, Stella Owen, who became the matriarch of the Miller family after the passing of her husband five years ago, angrily threw her spoon on her plate, making everyone halt.Seeing the furious look on her face, the petite girl who was decked in luxury goods from head to toe sitting on her right hand side immediately pointed her spoon at the girl sitting across from her, saying self-righteously, “Hey, Aria Miller, shut the mouth of that darn dog of yours!”“Why would you even bring him to din
The dining room fell silent and Aria clenched her jaw tightly as she apologized with her eyes lowered to the table, "My apologies, grandmother."Stella ignored her and glanced at the butler who was standing a few meters away from them.Upon being glanced at, the butler strutted towards Aria and placed an enclosed piece of document in front of her.“I came up with a plan to move our family forward and you will do it whether you like it or not.” Stella said without looking at Aria even though she was talking to her. “Mother-in-law, Aria will be delighted to follow whatever plans you have made for her!” Emma Mitchell, Aria's mother, leaned towards the table and smiled forcefully as she tried to butter up to her mother-in-law.However, Stella didn’t bother to glance at her direction and just kept her eyes straight.Emma’s face and that of Dean twitched in embarrassment, while Ryan and Mia laughed secretly.Stella cleared her throat noisily and continued sternly, “I paid heavily to get so
“Hey! If you’re still alive, get off the floor and go do the dishes!” Instead of helping him up from the floor, Emma Mitchell walked around him and kept stubbing him with her foot.“Hurry up and get up, will you? You spilled milk everywhere and broke the glass. It almost cut me just now. Get up and clean it up!” Dean frowned as he tiptoed closer to his mother.Aria walked out of her room to see what fell and quickened her pace when she saw Leon sprawled on the floor.“What are you doing on the floor? Why is he lying on the floor? Did he fall? Did you push him, Dean?”Dean dropped the still full glass of milk on the table and harrumphed angrily, “Hmph, why would I push him? Do you only think the worst of me?”Emma immediately shot her a stern look, “How could you accuse your brother of doing something so vile? Even if he did push him, I’m sure it wasn’t his intention to do so. Can you be a little more on your brother’s side and see the good in him too?”“He may be an idiot, but I’ve ne
The next morning, Aria opened her eyes to an empty bed. Leon had kept her morning coffee on her bedside table as usual before leaving.She drank it and got ready for work. When she got down to the living room, she sucked in a deep breath when she saw a certain person mopping the floors while her mother and brother were lying on the cushion with their legs on the glass table as they watched their early morning soap opera.“Mother, why is Leon cleaning when the housekeeper will be here any minute?”Emma scoffed without glancing towards her direction.“Do you not see how dirty the house is? Dean ate a lot of snacks last night and littered the place as he watched his favorite show, and we might get a visitor any moment.”“Who knows when the cleaning lady would get here to clear out this mess. And why wait for her and do nothing when there’s someone around to start cleaning while she makes it here?”Aria’s gaze flickered between her mother and Leon, who had stopped mopping and was now star
In the hotel lounge, Grant Wyatt was speaking with the owner of the hotel when he noticed some keys on the floor.He picked them up and stared at them for a moment before recalling he had seen them dangling from Leon's waist earlier.“Do you remember who has the highest amount of shares in your hotel? The person who supported you when no one else believed in turning your tiny pub into a big hotel?”“That person was you, Mr. Wyatt,” the manager nodded and took the keys he was stretching towards her.“Me?” Grant Wyatt laughed and slipped his hands into his pockets, “Up until six years ago, I was nothing but a disgraced manager who couldn’t provide properly for his family.”“All I did was take over the company that was handed to me by the owner as he wanted to stay out of the limelight. And all I did was invest in the businesses he asked me to. I’m nothing but a mere company guardian.”Venice Carter stared at him in confusion before a bold thought popped into her head and her hands tremb
Mia was stunned at his words at first, but when she gave it a second thought, she nodded in agreement. Aria always tried to protect her idiotic husband by every means possible as she believed an embarrassment to him was also an embarrassment to her.If Leon really licked off the dirt on Simon's shoe with his tongue, Mia would really feel superior and use it against her in the future. In fact, everyone in the city would know her husband licked off dirt from someone's shoes."What are you doing still standing there? Hurry up and go down on your knees and lick off the dirt. Or do you plan on calling Aria?""Hmph, she'd run helter-skelter trying to raise money to compensate him and still won't come up with enough money to do so. That's how expensive his shoes are."Leon said nothing to them and instead stared down at Simon's shoes for several seconds."I didn't damage the shoes, neither is there any dirt on them. But even if there was, why do I have to lick it off with my tongue?"Mia qu