4. Ladies and Lia

"What do you mean?"

Lia was dumbfounded. It was the first time, that stuff like this had happened to her.

"I have to study your whole book tonight and meet your family and also some enemies tomorrow?"

Aster sounded too confident.

"You are really smart. You can do it," he said encouragingly.

Lia was angry. She had to read it till midnight for just a once over. Who knows how much she would remember? She was clever not a genius. She had studied countless nights to get here. Not one night.

Men were disasters.

She solemnly read till midnight and passed out. Her mother thought it was a case study when she came to wake her up. She unknowingly dodged a bullet. If her mother read it, she would be done. Wow. God really helped her.

Aster waited for her to change their outfits. This time, there was a personal costume designer and makeup artist to change their looks.

Lia became a glammed-up version of herself in advance mode. She looked wow but knew she had no time to do this routine every day.

Looking at them standing side by side, the stylists sighed. What a good-looking couple!

Lia walked marveling at the decorations. When they reached the destination, Aster pulled her towards him.

She was about to scold him.

"They are looking, act like I said something funny."

Lia understood. She giggled.

From the point of view of the viewer, it looked like the lovers were well, chatting and laughing.

"You shouldn't use this cologne. It makes me want to sneeze."

Aster was grumbling.

"It doesn't matter. I like this cologne. You won't wear it. Why do you get to complain?"

"I don't like it and if we have to act like this, I will pass out one day."

Aster snorted.

Their closeness was seen by the people hiding in the shadows.

There were many girls who were instantly angry.

Claudia was here too. She was both surprised and not surprised. Surprised because it was Lia and not surprised because it was Lia. Lia was amazing in her mind.

"Welcome."

A booming voice announced their arrival.

Lia acted like she was on a plane where she was the god who was surveying the mortal world undercover. That gave her the necessary sense of superiority.

The rich ladies were surprised to see her manners. But that didn't mean they hated her any less.

Lia was very comfortable in this situation. She faced the most horrible ones in her life. For when she forgot she had to give a seminar and had not prepared but she still had to present it. That was a case of an adrenaline rush she never experienced again. This was nothing compared to that.

The old ladies flanked her and surrounded her. She knew most of those like 99.999% were hostile.

"Are you pregnant?"

"Did you force the Brooke kid?"

See. Case in point.

"Madam, we are just married and then we had to separate. There is no kid in question. But maybe we could have one in a few years. I still want our world to be ours, for now."

"The kid talks sweet words now that he has a wife."

An old man with a bushy beard smiled.

"Grandpa, you tease me."

Aster smiled. His charming self really blinded everyone. Lia wanted to get safety goggles to get protection from the glare. She rolled her eyes in her imagination because she couldn't in reality.

"Lia, this is my favorite grandpa. Major Sander. He is my trainer."

Lia bowed to the old man.

"Good good," the old man muttered and gave her a gift envelope.

Lia didn't open it but she put it with Aster.

"This is Grandma Sander. This is Colonel White, General White."

He introduced the elders he liked. Lia also understood that these were his close relatives and that others were all vultures.

"Boy Aster, how about me? When will you introduce our daughter-in-law?"

Lia didn't need to see to understand that this visitor was mean.

"She is not as beautiful as my Rose. How did you like her?" The old lady muttered but her voice was loud and everyone heard it.

Lia understood that this was embarrassing her. She noticed a haughty young lady beside the old lady.

"Presumably, this must be young lady Rose. She just looks like a beautiful Rose. Maybe someday she would find a perfect companion to her, like thorns, are to the flower Rose."

No matter how they understood, they all thought that she was politely scolding them.

The old lady was ruffled.

"Who do you look down on?"

Aster butted in.

"Grandma Fuver, Lia means that sister Rose would find someone that would protect her from every harm. Why don't you understand this beautiful idiom?"

The old lady was angry. Her face was red with anger and the young lady beside her was red with humiliation.

Humph. If they wanted to step over her, they should also be ready for her to step back on them. Was she a soft person or an escalator?

"Haha, let's all eat. And we can all know the young lady a little better."

"Who is she? I think she is just a bumpkin. We never heard the name Carver in our circle."

"She dares to put on airs. She will know the heights of skies when she meets a real rich lady like sister Halley."

Claudia listened to their chatter and she became more and more angry. How dare they?

"Move around. Bad luck."

Some of them moved past her.

Claudia hated these unscrupulous money-loving bastards. Since her mother died and her father remarried, she was treated like an unlucky ghost. She was numb from this but today she hated when they talked about Lia like that. She was better than these second-generation ancestors who relied on their family name.

"Look, it's sister Halley. Let's see how this fake miss would look next to her."

Claudia hated Halley more than anyone. She was the one who took part in bullying her the most. She was the niece of her stepmother. A proper princess. But did she know her aunt was the reason her mother died?

Halley entered the room like she was the sole person to be watched. She walked with her head held high like a swan. She was beautiful but she had a rather unkind look on her face that made her look mean. So, mean. They said it right. Inner beauty is the most perfect jewel a person can wear. Otherwise, even if you have a perfect face, you look like a grumpy old witch.

"You, how dare you stand next to Brother Aster?"

Lia almost rolled her eyes at this young lady.

"Ah, I actually wanted to sit but you see, there are many elders here, so I had to stand."

"You, get out of here. Throw her out."

Halley yelled, infuriated.