The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella) novel Chapter 1998

"People just love to nitpick these days." Kenneth set his smartphone down and turned to comfort his wife.

Meanwhile, at the other end of town.

"Son of a gun!" Beverly, seeing the trending news on her feed, was so furious she chucked her cell phone at her daughter.

Had Alma not quickly reached out to catch it, the phone would have likely smacked her right in the face.

"Mom." Alma was a little frightened.

"Don't you 'Mom' me!" Beverly couldn't believe how naive her own daughter was, "In broad daylight, with cameras everywhere, what do you think?"

"It's just I didn't expect that little tramp Serena to actually release the security footage. How dare she?" Alma fumed, shocked at how the once-simple girl had suddenly wisened up.

"Why wouldn't she dare?" Beverly glared at her daughter, "Last time, Martin got into it to defend her, and mistakenly hit you. This time, even if you did beat her up like that, the worst Martin would do is give a verbal warning. He can't really do anything to you. Serena must've guessed this, so she let the surveillance footage leak, to sway public opinion her way! She's grown a brain, knows to call an ambulance first to keep evidence for herself. Look at you, getting dumber by the minute! Even this little slip-up got caught!"

"Mom." Alma felt a bit wronged, "It was such a rare chance, finally running into her after I got beat up so badly last time, I was just so angry when I saw her."

Beverly's face remained stoic, silent.