Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness novel Chapter 124

Every time she thought Emily was out of the picture, the woman always popped up again, like some persistent weed that wouldn’t die in spite of the elements. And the actress never seemed to run out of schemes, too; each one was always different from the last.

"Melinda?" Leo snapped his fingers in front of her face. "What’s wrong? Where have you drifted off to?"

"Oh everything’s fine," she quickly replied. "I just remembered something." She was never one to voice out her struggles and her burdens. And in light of everything that happened to her in the past five years, it wasn’t easy for her to share her secrets.

Lucky for her, Leo was not the type who pried. He kindly accepted her vague reason and left it at that, then took the reins of the conversation and began a new topic. Soon they were in avid discussion again.

The party was dwindling, and a lot of the other guests had already left. At this point, Melinda and Leo were talking about stories of the ancient scholars, and what was meant to be a little chat turned into an animated intellectual discourse. Both of them were intelligent, after all, and matters regarding history had a special place in the hearts of such people.

Meanwhile, from the other side of the room, Yulia could only stare and seethe with envy. She didn’t know what to do. Since she couldn’t catch the gorgeous man’s attention, the least she wanted was to wrench him away from Melinda’s clutches.

She had been keeping a close eye on the two, looking for the perfect opportunity, the perfect timing, when they might slip and act as though they were secret lovers. She would pounce on them then, and publicly accuse them of adultery. 'Let’s see what that bitch is going to do then!'

"Yulia, won’t you come with me to meet some new friends?" So rapt was her attention at her sister-in-law and Leo that Emily’s sudden appearance at her side startled her.

When Yulia turned, she saw that Emily and Queena had both risen from their seats. The auction was now over, and the host was saying the closing remarks on the podium.

Since Emily organized the event, she would no doubt be up there later as well. And since she had especially invited Queena as an esteemed guest, and indicated so in the program, the older woman would be saying a few words, too.

The actress was looking at her expectantly, and Yulia pulled herself together. "Sure. Why not?" Emily was sure to have a wide social circle, and it wouldn’t hurt to establish new connections.

As they moved from the tables to approach Emily’s acquaintances, Yulia turned to cast a last glance at Leo and Melinda. The man was patting her sister-in-law gently on the head, smiling down at her sweetly.

The scene made Yulia’s blood boil, and she wasn’t able to stop her expression from morphing into that of absolute fury.

Her gaze remained glued to the couple across the room, and in her distraction she bumped into Queena rather forcefully as the older woman tried to walk past her.

"Yulia, what the hell are you doing?" the madam hissed, and Yulia snapped back from her daze. Just her luck to incur the woman’s wrath as well in the same night.

She knew that if Queena was provoked, she could make her life utterly miserable. She paled as she tried to think of a way out. Her eyes darted back to where Melinda was.

"I’m so sorry, Aunt Queena. It’s just that I was shocked to see Melinda being so intimate with that gentleman over there..." She drifted off on purpose, and turned her head to the object of her statement.

Naturally, the other women turned towards the same direction.

"I’m to blame as well, Aunt Queena," Emily interjected. "I think Yulia tripped on some of the cable wires on the floor. I should have made sure nothing was in the way of the guests."

Yulia shot the actress a grateful look, but Queena’s eyes were still trained on her daughter-in-law. Melinda had had to adapt dramatically in order to survive in the Gu household, and so she developed a keen sixth sense when it came to threats against her.

At the moment, she could sense a stare that was shooting daggers at her nape.

She turned to find the three women glaring at her. 'What now?' she thought. But since she knew she had done nothing in particular to antagonize them, she resumed her conversation without dwelling on the matter.

Those women were always mad at her for something or other anyway.

"Don’t cover up for her, Emily," Queena was saying at that moment.

"I'm all seeing the same thing right now. Aunt Queena, that Melinda has gone too far. You can’t just stand by and watch her flirt with another man. She is going to make a cuckold of your son! What will people think of our family? It will be a huge scandal!" Yulia stated in an angry voice.

She was not above playing dirty, after all. She was determined to bring Melinda down, and she would enlist all the help she could get from anyone she could convince.

As much as Queena disliked her daughter-in-law, though, she wasn’t particularly fond of her husband’s bastard either.

Seeing the older woman take time to contemplate, Yulia gave Emily a pointed look. The women’s minds were in sync again, as the case usually was when it came to plotting against Melinda.

"Aunt Queena, shall we go over there and take a look at the situation?" Emily suggested, lacing her voice with some hesitation to hide her bubbling anticipation at the trouble that was unfolding. Her acting skills were really very useful.

"Aunt Queena, please go and look into it," Yulia prodded. She was running out of patience. She wanted Melinda to be put to her place, which was anywhere but the spotlight.

This seemed to persuade Queena at last, and the three women strode over as one.

The spirited discussion stopped as the women loomed over Melinda and Leo’s table. They weren’t stupid; they both immediately recognized the cruel intent in those three pairs of eyes.

Leo rose from his seat and greeted them politely, "Hello, Madam Gu, Miss Bai, Miss Gu."

Melinda rose as well, but only greeted one person. "Mom."

Queena sneered at them. "We are at a public event. We should be careful with our rendezvous, don’t you agree?"

People were starting to throw curious glances at them, and despite her words, it was the women’s approach that caused the scene, not Melinda and Leo’s animated conversation.

It didn’t occur to her, of course, blinded as she was by her prejudices. All she could think of at that moment was how easily her hard-earned reputation was crumbling because of some lowborn woman who married into the family. Her fury grew.

Before anyone else could say anything, Leo had stepped forward towards the women. "I’m very sorry for my carelessness. It’s all my fault. I will bear the responsibility."