“What a lovely surprise.” Florence was the first to break the silence between them, plastering her face with a sycophantic smile that Millicent knew very well “When could I have dreamed I would have two of the loveliest young women in High Society grace my ball? Oh, Alessia, darling, it's been so long since we've seen each other. You look stunning, as always.” Austin’s mother approached, running her hand through Alessia’s long and strawberry blond, almost red hair.“Thanks, Florence. It's always great to come here. You throw the best parties.” Alessia laughed “Although, I hear the real action has been happening outside of the galas thanks to your son, right?” “That… It was nothing more than a misunderstanding. It's a shame you heard about that horrible episode from the wrong people, but as soon as I have some free time tonight, I promise I'll tell you what really happened.” Florence forced a smile, clearly eager to end the conversation “Anyway, it's great to have you here, my dear. A
If Jasmine's goal was to make an impressive entrance, she certainly succeeded, because many of the guests several feet away from where they stood had turned their necks to look at her. Perhaps not only because no one expected Austin's mistress to attend an important event like that, but also because she hadn't chosen a dress that was the least bit discreet for the occasion, with a long dark red skirt covered in sparkles and a large ruby necklace on her neck that would not let her go unnoticed in any way. On her face, there was a convinced little smile, as if just by being there in front of Millicent she had already won something.However, that confidence only lasted until the moment when Florence seemed to recover from the shock.“What…” she panted, furious “What is this woman doing here, Austin?!”“Mom, I…” Austin stuttered, his gaze at Jasmine not at all soft or romantic “I… I don't know, but I promise I'll sort it out right now.” he growled, lunging at Jasmine to grab her arm. “I
“You look quite adorable, you know?” Isaac murmured in her ear as they danced, making the skin on her neck crawl.“Huh?” she asked, trying again to put her thoughts aside and focus solely on dancing.“The way you look whenever you say something to put Austin, that girl, or anyone else in their place. Your cheeks turn pink and you become lost in thought, as if you were in disbelief at yourself for having managed to do this.” he said, with an amused tone and more detail than she expected “Or… Maybe you were really upset to see your ex-fiance and his mistress still together?” His good-natured expression gradually disappeared after each word.“Of course not!” she growled, disgusted by that thought “I may be far from having forgiven him, but all tha
“Mother…” Dante muttered, clearly surprised that this woman had come to him first.“What a lovely family reunion!” Florence said, either unable to read the tense mood in the air, or just ignoring it so she could focus on gaining Emma's favor “You see, Emma? Your son just wanted to talk to you. Aren't you glad you accepted my invitation? I said that besides talking about the business proposal my husband has for you, we could all get together. The Bianchis are yet to become one family with the Carnbys, I tell you…”"Get out." Emma cut her off, her voice still thin and merciless as Millicent remembered, even though she hadn't seen that woman since she was a toddler.“What…?” Florence stammered, trying to maintain her posture.
“What do you want?” she growled, not at all friendly, as the Carnbys surrounded her, cutting off any path she had to get out of there.“Please, Millie, don’t be so harsh with us.” Florence asked, approaching cautiously as if she were a wild animal “We just want to talk to you and this is the first opportunity we've had to do that in weeks. But clearly a room full of people was not the right place.”“So you guys decided to wait until the perfect time to get me alone, away from my family?” She crossed her arms against her chest.“You’re looking at this the wrong way, Millicent.” Evan sighed “I know what Austin did was terrible, but you've been like a daughter to us for a long time. Even before you started dating our son. Don’t you think that should be enough for you to consider giving us just a minute of your time?”“I thought all this time would also be enough for your son to have some loyalty, but apparently, I was wrong. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”“Austin made a mistake that he will r
“Millicent!” Florence was the first to gasp, holding Austin's shoulders as if afraid of what his reaction would be to Millie's words “Did you even hear yourself? What do you think your parents would think if they heard you saying something like that?!”“You will regret standing by Isaac just to get to my son, Millicent.” Evan growled “He’s going to use you and abandon you the first chance he gets…”“The idiot you treat like your only son has done much worse.” Millie replied “Why not give the other one a chance? Besides, if you guys hate Isaac that much, then just seems like another reason to trust him.”“You… You fucking bitch…!” Austin shouted, breaking free of Florence's hands with a violence that wasn't
“I think this sums up the changes that Ms. Poulin has asked to be made to the scripts approved so far.” Millicent said to the team, taking the slides she had prepared for that meeting off the projector “I ask you all have the utmost perfectionism when making these corrections. Remember, it wasn't easy to convince Mrs. Poulin to give us a vote of confidence. We need to prove to her that we are capable of meeting her expectations if we really want to receive her confirmation to begin pre-productions…”“Thanks, Miss. Bianchi.” Austin cut her off, clearly irritated after being forced to spend so much time just listening to her talk “As the leader of this project, I will take over from now on. After all, I'm sure that if Mrs. Poulin has finally decided to be a little less merciless towards us, it's because the requests I made to her have taken effect. So you can be sure that I will be able to do it again if nec
It was still impressive to Millicent that she had wasted so much of her life worrying about what other people were thinking about her. Now that she had simply accepted most of her co-workers thought only the worst about her, everything seemed easier and more predictable. Still cumbersome, no doubt, but much easier.“Look at her, thinking she rules over all of us, just because Austin’s brother is here today.” one of the secretaries grunted, probably not even imagining that Millicent could hear her from where she was in the break room “So, What does it matter if this man has money? It's not like he owns the company! I've heard people on the team comment that his frames have caused even a gentleman like Austin to lose his temper lately. I hate knowing we're all in the hands of arrogant idiots like them and that woman, Pauline or something. She thinks that, just because she has a few Oscars at home, she can walk around like she owns everything and everyone.”“Well, it seems like she’s been
Hello, everyone! First of all, I'm really sorry for the lack of chapters yesterday and today. I caught a cold and, as much as I tried, I couldn't concentrate enough to write. As soon as I'm feeling better, which I hope will be soon, the chapters will be back as normal. I hope you can forgive me :(I really hope we can see each other tomorrow as normal! Thanks to everyone who reads this!
“You look quite confused.” Isaac chuckled, causing Millicent to blink slowly, looking up from his laptop screen so she could look at him.“Well… I feel confused, to be honest.” She shrugged her shoulders “Why exactly are we looking at a junkyard website?” As if the two needed a moment to absorb that information, their eyes turned to the colorful website that Isaac had placed there. It was quite rudimentary and clearly hadn't been through the hands of a professional programmer. The colors would hurt anyone's eyes, the font was weird and there was terrible visual pollution, especially because there were hundreds of pop-ups showing old cars on the screen, all with photos without any resolution.“It doesn't look very promising, I know. But it will be much more useful to us than all those spreadsheets, I guarantee it.” Isaac scrolled down the site, revealing more and more poorly taken photos of old and pre-owned cars that would probably benefit more from recycling than from being sold in t
"Leave me alone." Isaac's uncle growled, but Millicent was too worried to be intimidated.“Oh, my God. Here, let me help you.” She used all her strength to pull him up, placing him back on his wobbly legs until she could make him lean on her like a crutch “What are you feeling? Where is Dominic? We should call an ambulance.”“No ambulance shit. This is normal. And Dominic is visiting his girlfriend at her work or something. Now leave me alone.”“Mr. Carnby, you are bleeding! There is no way this is normal!” Millicent gasped “You can’t just stay like that at home. You need to go to a doctor and make sure this isn't a hemorrhage or something. Come on. I’m going to leave you sitting on the couch and wake Isaac up so we can take you to the nearest hospita
“Gosh, my brain feels like it’s going to melt if I have to look at one more financial graph.” Millicent sighed closing her eyes before collapsing on Isaac’s bed, exhausted “I think we should take a break.”“Austin didn’t even need to put in the way for us to get this data for so long.” Isaac grumbled, laying down by her side and pulling her close “Comparing all these charts would drive anyone crazy before any discrepancies could even be found.”“Well, I guess that’s the reason we have such a large Finance Department. Worrying about every detail of the money coming in and the money going out is not easy.” she tried to joke, but Isaac obviously didn't miss the concern in her voice.“You couldn’t convince that stupid old man to tame his daughter?” he snorted, as if he was just as annoyed by Jasmine's situation as she was.“He spent the entire afternoon avoiding me and when I finally managed to catch up to him at the end of the day, all he did was whine about how his wife might even die if
“So, I present to you the new junior supervisor of the Finance Department, Jasmine Easton.” As she watched Mr. Davis present Jasmine in front of practically all the employees in that wing of the offices, Millicent had no other reaction than clapping her hands without any enthusiasm. Around her, few people imitated her, as most were just shocked and with their mouths wide open, staring at Mr. Davis as if they were waiting for the moment when he would say it was all just a big joke. However, he just remained there, frozen behind Jasmine, with his haggard and exhausted expression, as if he hadn't slept in days.“Thanks for your words and for trusting me with a role like this, Mr. Davis.” Jasmine smiled the biggest smile Millicent had ever seen her give to anyone “It's always exciting to see how this company values the good work of its employees. I hope that, just as I got my chance today with a lot of effort, everyone else will too, someday.” She ran her disdainful gaze around the enti
"Shit!" Ugo cursed, turning to Isaac and Vincent with extreme impatience “Did you want time to think about whether you're going to be cowards or not? You just got it. I will let you know when our next meeting will be, where I hope to receive the answer I am waiting for.” he threatened “Just teach your boy that the only safe side of this story is by my side, Vince. You, better than anyone, know this.”“Uh… Boss…” the security guard gulped “We… We also have another situation. It appears that a… Guest arrived earlier than expected. And he wants to talk to you.”"Guest?" Ugo's eyes darted towards Isaac and Vincent, clearly worried about who it could be "Who?"“Open the door, Ugo.” a deep voice sounded from the other side of the armored door, standing out even through the noise of the music blaring downstairs “You said you would welcome me with honors if I returned to America. I'm waiting.”“Nikolaev?!” Ugo grunted, surprised, and Isaac noticed his uncle tense up on his side “Shit. At a ti
“Are you talking about killing Massimo Bianchi?” Vincent questioned coldly, pretending to lean on Isaac's shoulder so he could straighten up on the couch, a silent warning for him to control his reactions "Do you even know what that would entail?"“I see you’re still pessimistic, Vince.” Ugo laughed, lighting a cigar and taking a long drag. “But, hey, don't be like that. My father and grandfather made big bets while they were alive, too. The world is a question of knowing where exactly to invest your efforts.”“But they both died in the retaliation of those high stakes, right?” Isaac’s uncle raised an eyebrow, managing to perfectly maintain his posture, as if he was actually in Ugo’s game and thinking about the matter “Are you willing to pay the price and want to convince us to be too?”“Do you think I would go into this if it wasn’t a good plan? I'm not a crazy dog like my father and brother were. I have brains and I don't let a detail or a slight offense become a fight between fami
Jasmine Easton was Fiona's granddaughter.While reading the message that Millicent had just sent, Isaac couldn't say he hadn't already suspected that before. And not just because those two women had similarities in appearance that could go unnoticed due to all the plastic surgery on Fiona’s face. The truth is that there seemed to be a pattern of behavior in everyone who was raised among the Greco, even if not directly. Apparently, there was a tendency for them to become insane or acquire that Machiavellian personality. It wasn't as if they were all intelligent, as Fiona's granddaughter was certainly not an example of genius, but she had clearly inherited her grandmother's greed and abilities to make other people's lives hell.“And are you really going to keep Davis’s secret?” he typed back to her quickly “This would be a good opportunity to prove to everyone that Jasmine has been manipulating this situation from the beginning and not just to keep her own job. Plus, I'm sure your father
“I already told you that nothing about what your grandmother told you about that day is true!” Mr. Davis sighed, and Millicent didn't even have time to recover from the shock of what she had just heard, when he continued “I never had anything to do with the fact that car rolled over with Sylvia in it. You know very well she was unstable even before you were born. She was the only one who jumped on the wheel and caused that accident…”“And you want me to believe that neither of you were disappointed when you found out that I had managed to be born, even after that?” Jasmine growled and, even though she couldn't see Mr. Davis's face, Millicent knew the answer just by the fury in Jasmine's next words “You fucking bastards! If you didn't want to have a daughter to be responsible for, you shouldn't have gone around fucking around in the first place…”“You know very well that it was just one night! A single night that was completely planned by your grandmother!” the man grunted, as if only