“Evander is coming home. What are you going to do about that wench?” Madam Diane asked coldly, sipping her lemonade. She sat in the grand Lancaster dining room, her sharp eyes fixed on her husband, who busied himself with his breakfast.
“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” Mr. Lancaster muttered.
“You’re always running away from conversations like this,” she snapped. “It won’t do you any good. You know the reason he was forced into that marriage.”
“You mean the reason you pushed him into it,” he countered, voice low.
“The company would have collapsed otherwise. That marriage was the only way.”
“Now she flaunts it in our faces. And it’s Evander I pity the most—he’s the one suffering for our mistakes. We should have done better. You should have done better. You were his father.”
Mr. Lancaster’s spoon clattered against his saucer. “I understand, Diane. I’m working on a solution. Stop throwing it back at me every time.”
She gave him a thin smile. “Then find it quickly. You know how much I despise that woman.”
“You’re always clashing with her.”
“She makes me clash with her. She’s insufferable. If it hadn’t been for our dire situation, I’d never have accepted her as a daughter-in-law.”
“Madam, your bath is ready,” a servant announced.
“About time,” Diane sighed, rising gracefully. “I’ll be going shopping for the banquet. We must welcome Evander properly when he returns.”
“Do as you wish,” her husband muttered.
---
“I still don’t understand why the Lancasters would keep a servant girl in their home,” Talia Kingston sneered. “Looks to me like you seduced your way in.”
“Watch your mouth, Talia,” Arabella said, her voice calm but edged with steel. Sophie, beside her, gasped in shock.
“What did you just say to me?” Talia rose to her feet, her eyes blazing. “It seems someone needs a lesson in manners.”
“Manners?” Arabella’s lips curved faintly. “Perhaps it’s you who needs to learn how to stop spreading venom wherever you go.”
Talia’s smirk widened. “Careful how you speak to me. Or have you forgotten I have the power to see you thrown out of this school?”
“What’s going on here?” a professor entered, his tone sharp.
“Oh, nothing,” Talia replied sweetly. “Arabella and I were just getting along.”
“Let’s take our seats,” Arabella whispered to Sophie, pulling her away.
“You shouldn’t provoke Talia,” Sophie murmured once class began.
“She’s beginning to get on my nerves,” Arabella whispered back.
“Remember—we’re nobodies in her eyes. She could ruin you. And if she does, not even Madam Diane could cover up your records. They didn’t exactly enroll you here legally.”
Arabella sighed. “I know. I’ll be careful next time.”
“Good.”
But inside, Arabella was seething. Damn, I wish this day would just end.
---
When school was over, Arabella hurried to the waiting sedan.
“Done with classes, Arabella?” the young man inside asked.
“Yes, Third Young Master.”
“Good. Let’s go home then. Ethan will be back later—he has piano lessons. I can’t wait to see him.”
Arabella nodded, her face calm. “Of course, Third Young Master.”
---
That evening, Arabella collapsed onto her small, cozy bed.
“Rough day?” Maya asked from the doorway.
“Auntie Maya, you have no idea. If only you knew the battles I fight every day at college.”
“My Ara is strong. You’ll fend them off,” Maya said warmly.
Arabella sighed. “I didn’t see Mom when I came in.”
“She went shopping with Madam Diane.”
“Oh. Another party?”
“Yes—the First Young Master returns tomorrow. There will be a gathering.”
Arabella sat up straighter. “So I’ll finally meet him.”
“You will. But for now, you’ve got laundry to do.”
Arabella groaned. “Laundry again? I hate it.”
Maya chuckled. “It’s on the duty roster. But you can have lunch first.”
---
Meanwhile, in another city, the heir himself prepared to return.
“We’ll leave for my family’s estate tomorrow,” Evander Lancaster said coolly. His black hair framed striking red-tinted eyes, his godlike features hard as stone.
“Hmph. About time I met my mother-in-law,” Liora, his wife, smirked.
“I don’t need you clashing with my mother,” he warned.
“Don’t forget—I saved your company from ruin. That gives me every right to do as I please,” she shot back.
Evander’s jaw tightened. “I have an appointment with Father. He’ll want to see you tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Liora said smugly as she left the room.
“Should we follow her?” a bodyguard asked.
“No. Not yet.”
---
The next morning, Arabella lay in bed with a romance novel.
“I don’t want to get up,” she thought. But she pushed herself upright. Madam Diane has done so much for me. I should be grateful for this chance to study. Still… I need to do something about Talia. I can’t let her break me.
“Arabella!” Sophie’s voice called, tight with worry.
“What’s wrong?” Arabella asked.
Sophie handed her a phone. On the screen was a cruel post:
‘Arabella seduced the Second Young Master Ethan to gain control of the Lancaster estate. Is she a maid or a whore?’
Arabella’s blood ran cold. “What the hell is this? Ethan is going to be furious