Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride novel Chapter 1655

Arianne’s tone was as cold as steel. “‘Senior’? You mean the senior of the Tremont family, which by the way, I’m no longer a member of? What’s that got to do with me?” she sneered. “I had respected you and bent over backward for you on so many, many occasions back then that, now, if you’re trying to guilt-trip me on an imaginary inadequacy, you can call that off already. It’s not gonna work. Besides, if we’re tracking records, then you were the one who never cared for me at all, weren’t you? But, of course, we’re not in-laws anymore, so you should probably drop the whole ‘respect your elder!’ angle while we’re in a professional setting. Remember, this is a company gathering—it isn’t a private tea between you and me to air grievances. Let’s have some class, shall we, Mrs. Leigh?”

Arianne was practically expelling breaths when she enunciated “Mrs. Leigh” for emphasis. Shelly had no interest in preserving Arianne’s dignity and reputation, so Arianne had no obligation to hold back punches either. She would love to see if Shelly had the guts to announce herself as Mark’s birth mother right there and then, since Mark’s nature and temperament would definitely not brook a mortifying transgression like that.

In other words, if Shelly was too much of a milquetoast to announce it, then she better be prepared to remain as plain old “Mrs. Leigh” forever.

Mark slapped the surface of the table with just the right amount of force. “That’s enough. Let’s eat.”

Sylvain let out a breath he had been holding and passed Arianne a piece of napkin. Her hand had barely grabbed hold of it when she heard an unambiguously tearful sniffle from Shelly’s direction. Worse, it was so loud that everyone present in the room heard it.

God, what Oscar-winning act was she pulling off this time?

Seeing Shelly bursting into tears made everyone ogle Arianne with traces of disapproval in their eyes. The accusation was palpable—Arianne had made an older woman cry, and that was simply at odds with common decency.

With an unremovable grimace, Arianne ignored her and focused on her lunch. Someone out of the bunch would have come to the rescue sooner or later, she reasoned, which meant Arianne did not need to stick her hand into this muck at all.

Christ, she should not have come. It was a trap wearing a veneer of a lighthearted feast, and by attending it, Arianne had set herself up to be played by Shelly.

Frankly, it was not at all hard-to-understand what Shelly was aiming to achieve, since Saoirse had given Arianne enough tips as it was. Shelly was trying to eject Arianne from the company, and one of the most surefire ways to do it was to convince everyone in the company to see Arianne as deplorable and indecent. Combined with the reveal of their divorce, all Shelly needed was a little bit more spices and some time for things to ferment before—voila!—Arianne became the black sheep in the office.

This was just her first step.