Chapter 6

​"You can certainly enjoy this lovely journey, Elena. But you will be doing it... entirely alone," Chloe laughed in smug satisfaction.

​Refusing to waste her breath on Chloe, Elena simply sat back and opened the book she had deliberately brought from home.

​"Don't you dare think you'll get to enjoy a single second of this flight with Liam, Elena!" Chloe hissed sharply, stepping into Liam’s pod.

​Chloe rudely shoved against Elena’s leg as she squeezed past to get to Liam. Without a shred of shame, she slid right down onto Liam’s lap. Her slender arms, adorned with glittering luxury bracelets, wrapped possessively around his neck—deliberately flaunting their vulgar intimacy right in front of Elena.

​"Do you honestly think Liam wants to sit anywhere near your mountain of fat? For the entire flight to Paris, Liam is sitting with me! If you don't like looking at it, you can move your fat ass over to seat 1C," Chloe ordered.

​"She’s right, Elena. Move over there!" Liam piped in, joining the effort to banish his wife.

​"This seat was purchased for me by Lady Elizabeth. Why on earth should I surrender it to a woman with cartoonishly painted eyebrows and a face caked in heavy putty?" Elena countered smoothly, completely unfazed.

​"Why, you miserable bitch! Have you no self-awareness? You’re nothing but a bloated, hideous pig!" Chloe shrieked, her temper flaring at the mockery. She immediately whipped out a compact mirror to check her makeup.

​Seeing that Elena still refused to acknowledge their demands, Chloe’s irritation turned into pure malice.

​"Or perhaps you’d like to cancel your trip altogether? Get off the plane right now before we take off! Your mere presence is an absolute eyesore!" Chloe ranted, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she glared down at Elena with haughty disdain. She then sank her back into Liam’s chest with a spoiled, dramatic sigh.

​Elena finally tore her gaze from her book, her expression perfectly serene. She let her eyes roam over Chloe’s tight knit dress, which left very little of her sleek curves to the imagination.

​"Just stick to your job as a married man’s mistress, Chloe, and leave my life out of it," Elena delivered calmly, before turning the page of her book, completely unbothered.

​"What did you just call me? A mistress?!" Chloe screamed, her face instantly flushing crimson. "Watch your mouth, you fat sow! You are nothing but a pathetic, decorative wife!"

​"And yet, I am the cherished daughter-in-law of the Harrington family," Elena countered, offering an elegant, razor-thin smile that drove Chloe right over the edge.

​Liam locked his arms tightly around Chloe’s waist. She was shaking with rage, looking as though she wanted to swallow Elena alive.

​"Don't listen to a word that bloated elephant says, Chloe. This seat feels a thousand times warmer now that you're here with me," Liam murmured affectionately, entirely erasing the existence of his own wife who sat mere inches away.

​Chloe let out a cruel laugh at Liam's biting insult.

​"Liam, I missed you so terribly. Even though we just drowned our longing in my bed last night, I already miss you so much this morning. Do you miss me too, Liam?" Chloe whispered in a spoiled pout. She deliberately raised her voice, her eyes darting sharply toward Elena, begging for a reaction.

​"Of course I do, darling. Every single second," Liam replied, his voice a low rasp.

​Liam gripped Chloe’s waist tightly and pulled her down, crushing his lips against hers in a fierce, wild kiss right before Elena’s eyes. They prolonged the erotic display, fully expecting the woman beside them to break into tears, scream in agony, or at the very least, show a flicker of heartbroken jealousy.

​But Elena didn't flinch. Her face remained a mask of pure indifference. She calmly turned another page of the thick tome she was reading—a comprehensive analysis on capital markets.

​Met with Elena’s stone-cold reaction, Liam let out an annoyed grunt against Chloe’s lips. His colossal ego took a heavy bruising; it infuriated him that his passionate display with another woman failed to elicit a single drop of emotion from his wife.

​"A fat girl like her has probably never tasted true pleasure like this, Chloe," Liam jeered, deliberately raising his voice so it would cut through the cabin. "She’s so heavy and rigid that no man would ever want to touch her. God, what awful luck I have! Being married to a woman like that is enough to completely murder my libido."

​"Naturally, Liam. She's nothing more than a boring, walking lump of flesh," Chloe whispered back, pressing a barrage of possessive kisses all over Liam’s cheeks.

​"I genuinely marvel at how she can just sit there without dying of embarrassment over her own size," Liam added snidely.

​"She really needs to know her place. The difference between her and me is the difference between a goddess and a troll!" Chloe chimed in, dissolving into giggles.

​Elena remained completely detached, entirely absorbed in her text.

​Ten minutes bled by, and the noisy, invasive sounds of their intimacy only grew more disruptive. Elena finally let out a long, heavy sigh. She didn't close her book; she merely slid her reading glasses down the bridge of her nose, fixing the two individuals before her with a look of profound, unadulterated disgust.

​"If the two of you are so utterly desperate to indulge in your repulsive biological urges, could you kindly take them away from me?" Elena spoke. Her voice was ice-cold, deadpan, and carrying a terrifying weight of intimidation.

​Chloe tore her lips away from Liam, her face burning with deep humiliation. "What did you just say, you rigid whale?! You dare try to kick us out?"

​"I am not kicking you out. I am simply asking you to use your brain—assuming there's one left in that skull," Elena cut her off, her tone never rising an octave. "The roar of the aircraft engine is already quite loud enough. I have no desire to endure the additional audio pollution of your indecent antics. Move to the empty pod next to us."

​"Liam! Look at how this elephant is speaking to me!" Chloe cried, stamping her feet, throwing a tantrum right on Liam’s lap. "Who does she think she is? She’s just a contract wife you’re going to kick to the curb any day now!"

​"Watch how you speak to Chloe, Elena!" Liam barked, his eyes blazing with fury as he lunged slightly forward to dominate his wife's space. "You have absolutely no right to dictate who I talk to or what I do on this aircraft!"

​"I am not dictating your life, Liam. I am merely reminding you of public decorum," Elena shot back, her composure as unyielding as an arctic glacier. "Move, Chloe. Liam. Or shall I press this call button right above me, summon the flight attendants, and report an ongoing act of public indecency that is disrupting the peace of this first-class cabin? How do you think that will play out?"

​Liam’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth ground together. He was completely cornered by Elena's fierce, unwavering defiance; she clearly harbored no fear of him whatsoever. He knew that if Elena caused a scene, his reputation would be dragged through the mud, and the secret of this flight would be exposed to his mother. He gripped Chloe's hand firmly.

​"Come, Chloe. Let's move to the empty suite across the aisle," Liam hissed, his eyes flashing with suppressed rage. "There is no point in entertaining a rigid, lifeless bore like her."

​"You watch your back, you oil drum! Just wait until we land in Paris!" Chloe threatened viciously, tossing her head as she stormed out of Liam’s lap with a heavy pout.

​"The suite across the aisle is plenty spacious for the two of you, so do move along," Elena said flatly, her eyes already dropping back down to her book.

​Ultimately, Chloe and Liam retreated to the vacant seats a row across the aisle from Elena. But even though the mechanical privacy partitions between the pods were raised to their maximum height, the exclusive first-class cabin wasn't entirely soundproof against the sordid noises within.

​For the rest of the journey, Elena had to actively suppress a wave of nausea building in her throat. The deliberately exaggerated whispers, Chloe’s shrill, piercing giggles, and Liam’s occasional muffled groans still drifted clearly into her ears. Every single sound emanating from behind that partition filled Elena with profound disgust.

​"Oh, Liam, you're magnificent... Poor fat girl, she must be so desperate for you to touch her," Chloe's provocative voice drifted faintly through the partition.

​"I can't even stomach looking at her, Chloe."

​"Am I the only woman who can give you true satisfaction, Liam?"

​"Of course, darling. Because you are the only woman I will ever desire," Liam's voice returned, faint but dripping with smug satisfaction.

​A repulsive man. A cheap woman, Elena thought bitterly.

​Her fingers clamped tightly around the edge of her page, crumpling the paper slightly under her strength. Yet, she refused to let a single crack show in her armor. She stayed anchored in her seat, continuing to read and tuning out the toxic noise around her with an extraordinary display of mental fortitude.

​Two hours dissolved into the ether, and the seatbelt sign flared to life with a soft, melodic chime. A message from the cockpit announced that the aircraft was beginning its descent toward Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

​Suddenly, the distinct, high-priority ringtone reserved exclusively for the Harrington family blared loudly from Elena’s phone.

​Bzzz... Bzzz...

​The phone resting on her tray table illuminated the cabin, displaying a live video preview of a beaming Lady Elizabeth.

​Elena cast a sharp glance toward the partition across the aisle. In that exact fraction of a second, the heavy sighs and spoiled giggles from Chloe died instantly. The cabin fell into a dead, suffocating silence.