His 181St Second (Laverne and Marina) novel Chapter 143

Chapter 143

Mallory bit down on her lip, still in shock that Marina and Daron were actually engaged.

“Marina, you and Daron…” Mallory began, but the rest of her question died on her lips.

She faltered, too nervous to get the words out.

If Marina gave her a straight answer right then, Mallory would be put on the spot.

She took a deep breath and changed the subject.

“You and Daron seem really close,” Mallory said.

Kara shot her a look of disdain. “What’s it to you?”

Mallory’s face fell at Kara’s sharp retort. Just as she was about to fire back, Chloe Grant’s voice rang out.

“Wow, it’s really lively here today,” Chloe said.

Mallory glanced over and quickly made her way toward them.

“Alice, Chloe, why did you get here so late?” Mallory called out.

Chloe glanced at Mallory, then looked over at Joyce with a teasing smirk, her eyes full of obvious mockery.

“Cousin? Joyce, since when did you have a little cousin tagging along?” Chloe teased.

Joyce smiled softly, her voice calm.

“She insists on calling me that. I just let her be,” Joyce replied.

Chloe chuckled, obviously dismissing Mallory.

Mallory’s aunt had been Joyce’s father’s mistress for years, and even after she finally married him, nobody in this crowd ever really respected her.

But Mallory was determined to break into their circle, so even when she got humiliated, she just had to grit her teeth and take it.

Chloe linked arms with Joyce and walked right past Mallory.

Joyce glanced over in Marina’s direction.

As soon as she looked over, the socialites sitting with Marina and Kara on the sofa all stood up together and greeted her politely.

“Ms. Milner, Grant,” they called out.

Joyce smiled and nodded in response.

Chloe, on the other hand, looked down on their behavior. In her eyes, they had no backbone, just always trying to cozy up to people with status.

But out of the corner of her eye, she noticed there were still two people sitting on the sofa, which caught her attention.

She recognized Kara right away.

11:32 Tue, Dec 30 JR

Chapter 143

Kara had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. The Gross family only had one daughter, and she’d been showered with love and attention her whole life.

But as for the other girl, Chloe had no idea who she was.

But that outfit the other girl had on looked really familiar to Chloe.

“Joyce, didn’t you say you already snagged that dress? So how come she’s the one wearing it now?” Chloe teased.

Chloe motioned for Joyce to check out Marina’s outfit.

Mallory spotted a chance to jump in and quickly moved closer, murmuring under her breath.

“Chloe, you might not know her. That’s Ms. Marina, the younger Miss of the Finley family. She was my high school, Mallory said.

“Daron’s the one who brought her along,” she added.

As she spoke, Mallory stole a nervous glance at Joyce.

Joyce’s smile stayed the same, not a hint of change on her face.

Chloe, though, looked genuinely surprised.

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She’d been back in the country for five years, and she’d never seen Daron bring a woman to an event like this before. She gave Marina a curious, but not unfriendly, once–over.

Marina noticed Chloe’s gaze and gave her a polite smile in greeting.

Chloe arched her brow, honestly surprised that Marina could stay so composed and didn’t bother trying to suck up to them.

After all, given how things are for the Finley family these days, they wouldn’t even get invited to sit at the same table as this crowd.

Seeing Chloe’s curious gaze fixed on Marina, Joyce grinned and said,

“If Daron wanted it, I had to give it up for him. Who knew it’d end up on Marina?”

Chloe just said “oh” lightly, then added, “I heard Marina and Daron were classmates.”

Joyce nodded. “Not really sure, I haven’t talked to them much.”

Mallory chimed in, “She probably only got that dress because Daron and Elnora used to be classmates, so she asked Daron to borrow it from Chloe for her.”

That would explain why Marina looked so uncomfortable earlier when she was trying to say she wasn’t involved with Daron.

And Daron looked pretty irritated when he was talking to Kara earlier.

Turns out, Marina was just using Elnora and Daron’s old classmate bond to get favors from Daron.

Daron was just being polite because of his history with Elnora, so he didn’t want to expose Marina’s real intentions.

Chloe couldn’t help but laugh at Mallory’s ridiculous theory.

‘Does she even know who Daron is?‘ Chloe thought, a little amused.

‘Like he’d ever lower himself to ask Joyce for a dress for Marina just because of some flimsy classmate bond.

11:32 Tue, Dec 30 JR

Chapter 143

What, does she think he can’t afford it? Or that he doesn’t have the status to get that dress on his own?

No wonder the Gill family never really pays Mallory any mind. She’s honestly just hopeless.”

Joyce could steer her any way she wanted with just a couple of sentences.

Chloe never felt the need to correct people, so even though she saw through Joyce’s intentions, she didn’t call her out.

She just smiled at Joyce and said,” Come on, let’s go sit and chat.”

The Grant family and the Milner Family still had ongoing business projects, so they had to maintain their cordial relationship for the sake of mutual interests.

As for everything else…

Chloe thought, “The rest? I’ll just treat it like watching a show.”

Joyce kept her smile and walked over to join Daron.

Kara took Marina by the hand and got up, heading for the sofa next to Daron.

She’d definitely caught what Daron said just now.

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