Chapter 176 - What A Waste
Lina didn't plan on letting Elaine have the upperhand. Not here. Not in this place. Not in the future. Never.
So, Lina wiped the hatred in her eyes. Instead, she forced out a gasp, her eyes growing wide with worry. She could see Elaine gloating on the inside.
Lina instantly grabbed onto Elaine.
"Oh, Elaine," Lina exasperated, surprising the other woman. "Are you alright? I'm so happy to see your dress is fine."
Elaine's eyes grew wide. She let out nervous laughter. "Thank you."
Lina placed a hand on her chest and let out a dramatic sigh.
"I'm such a clumsy person, my apologies," Lina said to the crowd, offering them a sincere smile.
The crowd slowly nodded at her words and began to disperse, going back to the conversation. It was just a chair toppling over and two friends exchanging a discussion. What was there to look at?
Only the young heirs and heiresses understood the show bound to go down. So did Lina, who wasn't blind or stupid. She saw Elaine's heel on her dress. Thus, she pressed her shoes upon Elaine's floor-length gown.
"You, what are you doing—"
"Release my dress," Lina said. "If not, well… Let's just say, no one is leaving this spot."
"Hah…" Elaine sighed. "I don't understand what the problem is. I just had a slip of my feet."
Elaine stepped back, but realized her mistake. Instantly, her dress was pulled down. She flashed her bra to the public and the crowd of classmates saw her white lace bra. Instantly, her face grew red.
Lina pretended not to see. She simply turned on her heel and prepared to stalk off, whilst Elaine fumbled to get her dress in place. She glanced down, and saw her white gown was sullied with a footprint. Reused shoes.
Lina suddenly remembered who's daughter Elaine was. Oh dear. No wonder why. She wondered why Elaine was particularly rude today.
"You whore," Samantha spat out at Lina.
Lina didn't even bother to rebuttal. She wasn't the one who flashed a crowd of classmates. As she prepared to walk off, Samantha continued her assault.
"After spreading your legs for? Everett and Kaden, are you here to steal Atlantis?" Samantha demanded.
Immediately, the crowd fell silent. Their old classmates quickly began to whisper with each other in disbelief. Lina was a Yang! Did Samantha have a death wish?!
Lina knew what trap this was. Samantha wanted to embarrass her in front of these high-profilers. It would be repulsive if she used her family name and connection to get out of this mess. No more hiding behind daddy's legs. No more crying in mommy's arms.
"Didn't Elaine's mother do just that?" Lina asked, batting her lashes.
Then, Lina stalked off, ignoring their pale-stricken faces. Elaine's father was the director of the publishing firm that called her a two-timer, who had opened her legs to not one, but two heirs. She remembered Kaden had ruined their family by publishing photos of the director's wife's adultery. It had swept the publishing world by storm, ruining the family so much that they had to resign as head of the company.
With just six words, Lina was able to single handedly win this argument. Six words were enough to embarrass Elaine into silence and send Samantha fuming for a rebuttal.
Without another word, Lina strutted past the crowd of onlookers. They were heirs like her, but useless ones. She didn't see a single oldest son or oldest daughter in line for inheritance. And even if there were, she wouldn't associate herself with them.
Lina remembered the faces of everyone that bullied her. And that was 95% of her schoolmates.
"What a waste," Lina muttered under her breath.
Lina recognized many of the useful faces here. Unfortunately, she knew who they supported. Her Second Uncle. Wordlessly, she approached the dessert table, but hesitated at the sight of the sweet treats.
There, Lina overheard a conversation. When she raised her head, she saw it was the class president.
"What do you mean their car broke down?" She hissed into the phone. "Papa, everyone is waiting for music and you're telling me they can't come? What am I going to do?"
Lina's brows shot up. Now that she paid attention, she realized there was a lack of music. No wonder why…
"Krystal?" Lina suddenly called out.
Krystal jumped at the interruption. Her head whipped around like a child caught with the cookie jar. She forced a smile and quickly hung up the phone.
"Lina?" Krystal said. "Wow… you've changed so much!"
Lina wondered if she really did change that much. She felt the same. Her clothes were a looser fit, that was all. She didn't even think she was fat in high school. But all of them wore extra-small whilst she was one of the rare people that wore a medium.
"Thank you," Lina stated.
Krystal nervously tucked her hands together. She didn't know what else to say. She could only awkwardly laugh.
"D-did you hear?" Krystal said.
"Unfortunately," Lina stated. "I came here for dessert, so it wasn't intentional."
Krystal wryly nodded her head. "It's my fault, you know. To get on Atlantis' good side, I volunteered to bring one of the world's best choirs here… but now their car hasbroken down on the highway."
Lina could imagine how nervous Krystal was right now. Atlantis was going to be the chairman of one of the largest medical suppliers in the world. His net worth was going to skyrocket. Everyone would be trying to get on his good side. Krystal included. And these heirs had a lot of groveling to do. Especially with the mistakes they had committed in their youth.
"Atlantis' good side…?" Lina echoed, knowing this technique helped to continue the conversation.
"Yes… As you remember, I didn't do anything to put a stop to people bullying him even though I was the class president," Krystal mumbled.
Class president.
Lina's eyes flashed. She remembered well. Krystal was a straight-A student, destined for the most prestigious universities in the world. Krystal was horrible with confrontation, but was a great mediator. It also helped that she was part of the Student Government. Which only meant… she had a lot of friends. Friends that were useful.
"Speak of the devil," Krystal cursed, her eyes going wide with disbelief.
Lina turned around. She was shocked to see who it was. With a crowd of people eager to talk to him, Atlantis was making his way to her. Everyone tried to strike up a conversation with him along the way, but he did not stop. His destination was her.
When Lina caught Atlantis' gaze, his eyes lit up. He glanced over at her outfit and smiled a bit. Lina nearly dropped dead in disbelief. White suit. This man was in white. If she didn't know any better, she'd think they were matching on purpose. White tuxedo and a white dress. What was this? Their wedding?
"Lina!" Atlantis addressed.
Lina cursed inside of her head. Maybe she should've just stayed at home with Kaden. She forced a smile on her face.
Every man here wanted to talk to him. Every woman wanted to curry favors. He ignored all of them, all but her.. When the entire world tried to get his attention, he only wanted hers.
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