Ariel's comeback

“Are you OK, honey.” Kan smiled down at me softly, and lightly pecked my brow.

“Ohiii.” The minister's wife brought her purse up to cover her face as she blushed. “Don’t they remind you of when we just got married?”

The minister looked uncomfortable as he smiled and nodded.

“Pay him no mind. I like that you both are expressive, just like western couples. I think we are way too uptight down here.” She smiled at me.

I bowed politely, and smiled.

“There should be no shame in love.” Kan said in our local language, and the other couple standing next to us nodded, along with the minister and his wife.

I smiled again, and said nothing. 

“It’s nice for you to finally reveal your wife to the public.” The short stocky man said. “On Mõshon’s 52nd anniversary at that,”

Kan and I bowed politely to the man. 

I ignored the look he had been shooting me. 

President secretary or not, we would have problems if he did not keep his hands to himself before this party was over.

“And she is so beautiful.”

I faked a blush, and brought my hands to my lips, the typical fashion of us local wives,

“Thank you.” I bowed to him.

“She is.” 

I froze as I heard Blaine’s voice. But I quickly amended my expression, and looked up again.

“Ah. Tucker. Where is your wife?” The minister’s wife asked as she looked around.

“Mrs Inoue,” Ophelia said, joining our table. 

Everyone turned to look at her in surprise. 

Trust Ophelia to do the wrongest things. She did not deem it fit to refer to anyone in their honorifics. 

I made great efforts to keep the smile that was forming on my face.

If she continued behaving like this, I would have less and less people to challenge me when I began with her.

“Ophelia Turner.” The minister’s wife said her name in full, the smile disappearing from her face.

Blaine smiled uncomfortably.

“Blaine,” Kan said, cutting the ice, charismatic as ever. Then he turned to Ophelia, took her hand and kissed it. “You look as beautiful as ever, Mrs Tucker.”

Looking at him, no one would have an idea that we were all enemies.

“Thank you.” Ophelia gave him a broad smile that Kan and I knew was fake.

“So Ariel is the woman you have been keeping from the public,” Blaine said, moving to stand beside me.

“You actually do know each other.” The President's secretary's wife said, “I thought she looked familiar, the girl who was reported to have gotten pregnant for you.”

“Honey.” Her husband practically jabbed her, his face reddening from shame.

I held my head high and stared all of them in the face for the first time, daring anyone to say something insulting.

“Ariel here is my wife.” Kan said in a caustic tone, that he softened with a smile as he stared at the woman.

I smiled politely at them again as the table at last moved on to other topics.

I waited till it was polite enough to leave before I excused myself to the restroom. 

There, I tried to catch my breath as I stared at my silver dress in the mirror. 

I did not spend all this time making careful plans with Kan to ruin it now.

I had to keep my temper in check, especially around Blaine. It was way too early to show my trump card. 

I had just stepped out of the restroom when I saw Blaine standing there, just as I suspected he would.

“Mr Tucker ,” I said with a polite smile.

“How could you do this to grandpa? That man trusted you with shares he had guarded jealousy all his life.”

I said nothing, and just stared at him.

“How could you run off to the Sullivans with his shares?”

“There were no terms stating I had to act a certain way. They are mine, to do whatever I please with them.”

“What?” 

“Have you found his murderer?”

“What?” He repeated.

“Have you found the person who murdered your grandfather?” I said, walking closer to him. 

Kan told me the maid who saw me that night fighting with Ophelia had turned up dead that same night, beside the old Mr Tucker.

Reports said she killed old Mr Tucker and then committed suicide. The Tuckers believed she had been having an affair with the old man. 

But Kan and I knew Ophelia probably caught the girl telling the old man what she had seen, and murdered them both.

“Everyone knows who killed Father ,” Blaine responded. 

I smiled. 

“Mr Tucker , you have bigger problems on your hands than my shares.”

I started to walk past him, back to the party, when I felt his hand on my arm.

“Where is my son?”

I looked in his eyes, my fury beginning to rise. But I regulated my emotions quickly and wore a smirk on my face.

“Do you see him anywhere?” I asked in a mocking tone, looking around.

“Don’t test my patience.” Blaine ground out through his teeth.

“Oh. What will you do?” I squinted in his face, deliberately clicking my tongue annoyingly. 

“Hit your chairman’s wife? In case you have not caught on yet, Mõshon finally has just one chairman after fifty years, and it’s not you.”

I could not help giggling as I pulled my arm out of his grip. 

His face was satisfying to see.

“Where is my son?” He yelled in my face, finally regaining his ability to speak. 

Kan appeared from behind me, and shoved him off.

“Back off.” 

Blaine looked at him angrily and shoved him back, and they got into a struggle. 

I stepped back and watched them fight, till their assistants appeared and pulled them apart.

“Where the hell is my son?” Blaine shouted as his assistant tried to calm him down. 

I smiled, turned around and walked right into Ophelia.

“Whatever you are up to, stop it now.” She said.

I shrugged. “I might, if you beg me to,” I responded.

“Are you crazy?” She yelled. “You really think I will beg you?”

“Oh, you will.” I could not help the laughter bubbling in my chest. “Before twenty-four hours are over, you will kneel. And beg. And cry.” I drawled.

This was all now amusing.

I tilted my head at her, and walked away.

***

“Does it hurt?” I asked, closely inspecting the light scratch on Kan’s face as we waited at the door for house slippers.

“No.” He smiled at me. “How did tonight feel?”

“Great. But I think I will find tomorrow even more satisfying.” I responded, stepping out of my heels into the soft slippers a maid placed in front of me.

Kan chuckled behind me. “Did you see their faces when we walked in? They are probably dying of anxiety at this moment at the thought of what we might be up to.”

“They know.” 

I turned to him in the living room.

“They are probably just thinking of a way out now.”

Kan walked to stand in front of me, and placed his hand on my back. 

“But they won’t find any.” He smiled, bringing his face close.

“They won’t,” I repeated. 

Not after we had carefully checked the share transfer document for holes again and again all these months.

I closed my eyes as Kan brought the tip of his nose to lightly run it down my neck. 

“You looked angelic tonight.” He whispered, holding my waist more firmly now that he saw I was not resisting him.

“Thank you.” I responded as I began counting in my head.

One. 

Two.

Three

“I need to rest for tomorrow.” I stepped back just as his roaming hands rested on my hips. 

He had had enough feel for one night.

He looked up with frustrated eyes. 

I looked away. 

This is what he wanted, had insisted would be the nature of our marriage. It was not my fault he fell in love at the exact point I stopped hoping for more.

“Maybe we can have a drink?” He made an effort to sound calm. 

Oliver’s cry rang out. We both turned at the sound of it.

“I’m sorry.” I smiled politely at him, and walked off to the nursery.

I took my son from the nanny, and let her off for the night. 

He went quiet in my arms, and stared open-mouthed at what I suspected was my glittery eyeshadow. 

“You little faker.” I nuzzled his soft cheeks and neck. 

His delighted shrieks and laughter warmed my heart.

“So all your tears are gone now, huh?” I smiled at his sweet giggles. 

I stared into his gray eyes, thinking how lucky we were that he had inherited my mother’s blonde hair.

Ophelia turned away from Blaine’s piercing gray eyes as she heard clear footsteps walking down the hallway toward the boardroom where they all sat.

The bitch walked in. 

She sat at the head of the table, where Kan Sullivan was supposed to sit, right across the table from Blaine.

“The Tuckers must have guessed, and the Sullivan’s are aware. But as for the non-family members here, Mõshon is no longer a 50/50 owned company. The Sullivan are now the major shareholders of the company,” Ariel said.

Everyone at the table began to whisper and steal glances at Blaine. 

Ophelia looked at her husband, but he was just staring at the bitch across the table from him.

“And as such, there is only one chairman.” Ariel said, and signaled to one of her assistants. 

The bastard actually walked, and took the chairman plaque sitting in front of Blaine.

“How dare you? Is this even legal?” Ophelia said, standing up, unable to keep still anymore.

Ariel smiled her dark smile and shrugged. 

“Sue me. But before then, we will only acknowledge one chairman.”

“Who is still not you?” A man at the table said. “Shouldn’t your husband be here?”

The bitch took on that pretentious, humble look.

“Of course, I would never assume. I am sorry if you all take offense.” She stood up, and bowed.

Then signaled to her assistant again, who distributed prints around the table.

“Kan does not enjoy these things, he has assigned me the acting chairman on the days of his absence.”

To Ophelia’s horror, everyone around the table was nodding.

Was this a prank? Ariel would be her and Blaine’s boss?