Clarissa’s cold attitude made Zach a little awkward. He gave his wife another nudge from behind. Urgh. We’re supposed to be forging a good relationship with Matthew right now. Look what you’ve done. Even the air feels stale now.
Zach was placing the blame entirely on Hilary and stared daggers at her.
Mason feigned ignorance toward their awkward behavior and began speaking to Clarissa with a bright smile plastered on his face. “Hey, Clary. Happy birthday! I’ve heard so much about you from Yvonne. We were so busy with our engagement, so we didn’t get to really hang out with you before this. Clary, let’s get together more when you’re free, okay?”
Upon hearing that, the corners of Clarissa’s mouth twitched. Clary? Do you even know me? How thick-skinned.
Mason’s words felt especially fake and empty, especially when Yvonne was standing there with an indignant expression.
“Clary, you must be really close to Yvonne, right?”
“Clary, you’re close in age with Yvonne. If you two want to go shopping or have high tea together, I can be your chauffeur! Oh, this is so random, but you guys actually do look similar to each other! Hehe! You two are really fated to be sisters, am I right?”
Mason did not seem the slightest embarrassed by his ridiculous remarks, nor did he seem bothered by the ugly expressions of those standing beside him.
In fact, he even tried getting Yvonne to join him. “Yvonne… Hehe! Why aren’t you talking? Weren’t you telling me that you really missed Clary back at home? You also talked about how pretty and talented Clary is during our dates… “
Clarissa could no longer bear with Mason any longer.
“Ahem… Ahem… Mr. Wynter, please excuse me. I have to go to the washroom to fix my makeup for a bit.”
Clarissa had used to think that it was fake and ridiculous for a woman to talk about fixing her makeup out of the blue.
However, at that moment, she experienced first-hand just how useful that excuse could be.
Without waiting for Mason to reply, she strode off without looking back.
Matthew was also disinterested in dealing with those unimportant people and chased after Clarissa without even looking them in the eye.
Meanwhile, Matthew’s friends were feeling fired up once more as they watched the couple walk off together. Whistling and cheering noisily, they talked about how scandalous the two of them were acting.
Yarick had found himself interested in some female celebrity after lots and lots of flirting. The two of them had the same things in mind, and they immediately hit it off with each other. Before long, the pair could be seen cuddling suspiciously in a corner.
Upon seeing the two of them, Ellie shook her head and turned to Damon with her glass of wine in hand.
“Not over Clarissa yet?”
Ellie’s voice was so soft that only Damon could hear her.
Damon smiled wearily, shaking his head. “It’s just that the feelings of regret and loss are simply too bitter.”
It would be a lie to say that he was deeply in love with Clarissa or that watching the proposal was heartbreaking for him. His feelings for her seemed insignificant compared to that of Matthew’s.
However, he did have some real feelings for Clarissa, after all. He felt a strong sense of loss and regret upon seeing how another man was treating her like an invaluable piece of treasure and even going to lengths to prepare a romantic proposal for her. Those feelings seemed to overpower his sense of joy in the cheery atmosphere.
Damon took a gulp of his wine and shrugged lightheartedly.
“I don’t think you’ll understand how I feel. At the same time, I think my negative emotions would fade before long. After all, a part of me feels happy for Clare from seeing the joy in her eyes.”
Ellie pursed her lips. “Oh, gosh. Stop it. Anyways, why brought you here today? I didn’t think that you’d come.”
“Well, it’s a rather important day, isn’t it. I’m glad that I decided to come and witnessed such an important event of her life.” Damon smiled.
Patting on his shoulder gleefully, Ellie said, “Hey, let’s take some photographs. You’re supposed to be good at this, so I’ll definitely come after you if the photographs don’t turn out good!”
While there were also professional photographers stationed within the venue, Damon still took it to his own hands to snap some photographs in memory of the wonderful events that transpired that day.
With all the important portions of the event schedule complete, all that was left to do was networking and having fun. Though the renowned Mr. Tyson was already taken, the venue was certainly not short of the beautiful or the rich.
Meanwhile, Clarissa was still in one of the bedrooms within the huge villa. In fact, she was actually fixing her makeup. Her lipstick looked faded, and there were suspicious red marks on her neck that would require some concealer to hide.
Matthew was sitting on the sofa nearby, staring at her with a burning gaze with his arms crossed. He seemed rather amused to observe his little princess fixing her makeup.
Clarissa rolled her eyes when she caught sight of Matthew’s naughty smile in the mirror.
“Hey, you should get out soon. What if they start to suspect that we were doing… doing something in here?”
Matthew raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t we?”
He was referring to the quickie they just had.
Turning red for the umpteenth time that day, Clarissa pouted her lips and tried to think of a rebuttal but could not come up with any.
“But still, you need to go out and attend to the guests. You’ve been in here for way too long. Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me staying in here. They’ll probably understand. We’re just so deep in love and just thirsting for each other, after all.”
Thirsting for each other?
Matthew was making himself really explicit.
Sighing, Clarissa gave up chasing Matthew out of the room and quickly began covering up the kiss marks on her neck. She wanted to get ready to leave the room as soon as possible so that she could drag Matthew out as well.
However, before they even stepped out of the room, a commotion seemed to have ruptured amongst the crowd.
Clarissa gave Matthew a worried look before they swiftly made their way out. A shrill, familiar voice pierced their ears.
“Clarissa Quigley! You’d better come out now! You heartless, fake woman! You… “
The dirt coming out from Mimi’s mouth could be compared to that of a sewage pipe.
She seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and even had the audacity to barge in with a team of reporters holding cameras.
Clarissa’s heart sank. The staff stationed downstairs were quick to respond and immediately got the security guards to chase the reporters out.
However, Mimi came prepared and was ready to make a big scene.
She continued to yell at the crowd with that unpleasant, creaky voice of hers. “Clarissa is an absolute whore! Back in school, she hung out with gangsters. Don’t be deceived by her looks. She’s also a cold-blooded traitor. I’m her cousin, and she has never cared about my family at all. She set us up and tried putting me in jail… “
No matter how rude and obnoxious Mimi was acting, she made sure that everyone at the banquet heard her words. Even if she were to be chased out, she had already caused the atmosphere to sink into a record low.
Some guests would dismiss her shouts as mere lies, but it was also possible that some might believe her or start doubting Clarissa’s character from those words.
Naturally, when those people leave the venue that day, unwanted rumors about Clarissa would spread.
That was exactly what Mimi wanted.
Clarissa turned as white as a sheet. While Matthew’s heart throbbed a little as he looked at her, a dangerous spark flashed in his eyes. He was getting battle-ready.
However, before he could take any action, another group of people appeared.
A grouchy old lady stopped the security guards from dragging Mimi out of the room.
“Let her go. I want to hear what she has to say. Let her finish.”
As it turned out, Margaret had appeared at the scene, along with Yuliana.
Those who recognized the two of them froze. A storm was brewing.
Margaret swept her eyes across the room and eventually found Matthew standing with a shaken Clarissa on the second floor.
“Matthew! Get down here. Do I need to escort you myself?”
She made her status clear to everyone at the scene.
With that, the room fell dead silent.
Clarissa’s hands were tightly clenched around the railing. Her nails had turned gristly white.
From the moment Margaret entered the room, Clarissa instinctively felt that things were about to go down.
All of a sudden, she felt a big, warm hand wrapped around hers. Looking up, she locked gazes with Matthew. He smiled at her gently.
Smiling back at him, she said, “Let’s go.”
We’ll have to face this anyways.
Clarissa told herself that she could take the pressure and stick together with Matthew through all the obstacles they would face. Everything shall be resolved as long as our hearts are with each other.
Matthew held Clarissa’s hand as they walked down the stairs. On the other hand, Mimi had her scathing gaze fixed on Clarissa and smirked wickedly.
“Clarissa Quigley. Don’t you even dare think that you can hide your dirty secrets forever. This is karma.” She turned to Margaret. “Ma’am, I’m Clarissa’s cousin. I know exactly how she’s really like. She’s just scamming all of you just to become the future Mrs. Tyson!”
“Shut your mouth, you whore! You mad dog! You’re just a broke beggar trying to bite Clarissa with your wretched fangs just because she refuses to let you suck her blood and money away!”
Ellie was quick to stand up for Clarissa. “Hmph. Cousin? I know you, little girl. You’re just a good-for-nothing who doesn’t even go to school. You spend your days messing around with the likes of Shermaine Smallwood. I know exactly who you are!”
Shermaine’s notoriety was no joke at all. The crowd began buzzing, and some were even pointing fingers at Mimi.
Mimi’s eyes widened. However, being the thick-skinned loser she was, she tried to laugh it all and said, “So what about that? Don’t try to shift the focus here. I’m talking about Clarissa. Sure, she can do what she wants and marry into wealth, but do you guys even know what kind of person she was in the past? Hmph. A beauty? No, she was just a dirty rag back at home, and all our neighbors knew just how stinky she was!”
“Shut the f*ck up! You b*tch! I… “
Unable to hold back her anger any longer, Ellie dashed forward, brandishing her clenched fists. Mimi, the coward, hastily hid behind Margaret.
“Mrs. Tyson, help!”
“Stop it, Ellie!”
Yuliana yelled at her daughter.
“Enough!”
Matthew growled, silencing Ellie. “Ellie, you can leave first. I’ll handle this. Jeremy, escort the guests to leave.”
It would be a terrible idea to deal with the situation with all the guests watching them – it would make the Tyson family seem like a joke.
