Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness novel Chapter 128

Queena had made the decision not only to mend her relationship with her daughter-in-law, but to strengthen it. Melinda shared the same goal, and the next few days saw the two women bonding over the littlest things.

They grew close enough for the older woman to joke once or twice that Melinda had become her sworn daughter, with Jonas coming a close second to her in terms of Queena’s affection.

One of the activities they often enjoyed together was shopping, then later sitting at cafes. Yulia had done her best to thwart their mother-daughter outings, but was always shut down by Queena.

At first she thought the Gu madam was only acting on her feelings towards her husband’s bastard, but seeing the way she interacted with Melinda gave Yulia a sense of foreboding. Queena was becoming Melinda’s ally.

What started as malicious jealousy on her part became a paranoia that ate at her greedy heart, and she soon found herself scrambling to contact Emily so they could do something about it.

To her disgust, she couldn’t reach the actress’ phone no matter how many times she called.

This went on for a couple of days, until Yulia finally found a report on the internet saying Emily was off to some remote location in the mountains for a shoot.

She must be in some place without reception, which was why Yulia’s calls couldn’t get through. She threw her phone on the bed and stomped downstairs to cool her head.

She found Nelson, Melinda, and Queena in the living room as she descended. Her sister-in-law was holding out a piece of clothing to her grandfather, and Queena said something that made all three of them laugh. The scene only stoked the fire of envy that burned within Yulia, and she strode over to where they stood to join in on their conversation. "You seem to be having fun," she said as she approached, and her tone effectively hinted at what she was feeling. "What do you have here?" It was a coat with exquisite embroidery.

In her desperation for attention, coupled with the riot of ugly emotions that ran rampant in her heart, Yulia yanked the clothing from Nelson’s hands with more force than necessary.

The fabric was ripped.

She stared at the piece of clothing with horror. An awkward silence fell into the room for a couple of beats.

Then the two elders burst into action simultaneously, Nelson abruptly pulling the clothing back to him, and Queena turning to Yulia in visible anger.

"You—"

Before she could start berating Yulia, however, Melinda had come in between them and put a reassuring hand on her mother-in-law’s shoulder. Yulia turned away bitterly.

Nelson was glaring at her granddaughter. This coat was supposed to be a present, and he hadn’t even had a chance to wear it yet, but this rude, foolish girl just appeared out of nowhere and ruined it.

"Grandpa," Melinda said, her tone gentle. "I have been looking at embroidery projects recently, but I never got to actually doing it.

Would you mind if I make an experiment of my skills using your coat?"

She smiled at the old man as she reached for the piece of clothing. He let her take it.

Once again Melinda was salvaging the situation, and doing it with grace and class! Although he was still feeling sullen, Nelson would never think of ruining her efforts by staying cross.

"All right, you can do whatever you want with it. But be sure it turns out beautifully, or I will be very unhappy."

He gave her a conniving little smile then, to show her that he knew what she was trying to do.

Melinda returned the smile and only nodded. Beside them, Queena was sporting a pleased little smile herself, feeling rather proud at how her daughter-in-law handled the predicament.

Yulia only hung her head in shame, and nursed her fury in silence.

It was then that Gavin interrupted them, "Sir, Madam, the post has arrived." He handed various envelopes to the two, mostly invitations to parties and some other events.

A hefty number of them were addressed to Nelson, and the others to Queena. Melinda, as usual, received none.

Nelson only grunted and waved them away. He never liked socializing. "You can take care of those for me," he told Gavin. "You know what to do."

Queena had opened one of the envelopes, and was reading through its contents. It was from Emily, an invitation to a party.

The actress included a postscript saying that she missed Queena and apologized for being so busy with her projects that she hadn’t come by lately.

Involuntarily, Queena’s eyes darted towards Melinda. Her daughter-in-law still wore a little smile on her face as she folded Nelson’s coat in her arms.

She was the very picture of gentility. Her gaze then drifted to Yulia, who was glaring at the stack of invitations with obvious avarice. She never received invitations either.

Once again Queena was reminded how different Melinda was from Yulia and Emily, and felt a sense of security that she was making the right choice with her recent change in associations.

"Gavin, please refuse this invitation for me as well," she instructed, handing the post over to the butler with an air of nonchalance.

Melinda caught sight of the invitation’s sender as it passed hands. She breathed an inward sigh of relief.

She couldn’t deny that she had worried about what might happen if Queena decided to spend some time with Emily.

She had been so easily fooled before, after all. Melinda feared that the past few weeks of her gaining her mother-in-law’s favor would all go to waste once the actress resumed her manipulations.

Still, she wasn’t expecting such a ready reaction. And she wasn’t the only one. Yulia had also seen who sent the invitation, and could not believe she just witnessed a swift and firm refusal from Queena.

To think that she had been counting on Emily to end Melinda’s recent days of bliss. She had to talk to the actress as soon as possible.

She finally reached her that night, and both of them were in a very foul mood. It would seem that Emily had already received the rejection of her invitation.

"Why didn’t you warn me you were going to disappear to some godforsaken place with no reception?" Yulia spat over the phone.

"Don’t you know that all this time that you were gone, that bitch Melinda had been sucking up to Queena? And now she’s successfully gained her favor!"