Chapter 35
Suddenly thrust into the spotlight, the manager looked at Katherine and the Amerys awkwardly. Even the staff all felt awkward.
How could they not know the designer of the products they had been buying? Furthermore, they had been slandering her and her friend since the moment they arrived.
“Why are you hesitating? Dahlia stared at him in annoyance. “Do you really wish them to steal the jewelry?”
“Well… This…” the manager glanced at Katherine again in nervousness. Would she report their unprofessionalism to their big boss? But scenes like these were usual here, and they were not allowed to step in the middle of the upper–class disputes except if they started fighting physically.
“Guards!” Dahlia shouted at the two guards stationed on each side of the elevator and commanded as if she were the boss of the company. “Throw these two lowly women out of here.”
Cherise laughed at Dahlia’s ridiculousness.
“Laugh all you want,” Dahlia snarled at her, looking more and more unladylike. “Wait till you get thrown off the building, and. I’ll see if you can still laugh.”
Cherise smiled, showing all her front pearly white teeth. “Do you know who the main designer for Angelworld Jewelry is?”
Katherine looked at her and knew what card her best friend was going to play now and couldn’t help but let out another bell–like soft laughter,
“Of course we know,” Polly was the one who answered with a snort, looking down at them. “Katherine Sterling, the second most renowned jewelry designer after Angel. Not like you lowlifes will know.”
“Katherine Sterling? Have you guys met her?” Cherise asked, and she was able to make her expression innocently curious.
“Of course not,” Polly scowled at her. “Do you think anyone can just meet her? This shows that you know nothing about the upper class.”
“Really? Is she so difficult to meet?” Cherise frowned and looked at Katherine as if she didn’t know this information.
Katherine let out a giggle. “I heard that’s the case. She doesn’t like to make public appearances except for high–profile
events.”
“But I heard she will make more public appearances now,” Cherise said thoughtfully. “Now that her best friend is back.”
“What are you talking about?” Dahlia scoffed. “Even your slutty friend knows it is so hard to her.”
meet
“Just saying,” Cherise shrugged as if her words earlier were just a fleeting thought, but then she asked curiously again, “Are you sure you haven’t met her, though?”
“You are really stupid, aren’t you?” Polly asked, insulting her for the umpteenth time since they met today. “How many times must my mom and I say that not even all the upper–class members had seen her?”
“Really?” Cherise’s lips curved up into a smile again. “Then I guess I must be more upper–class than you.”
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Hudson, who had been listening quietly, narrowed his eyes as he looked at his confident ex–wife and her friend.
He might never have met Katherine, but he had heard of her. Although he never really put too much thought into it, he had heard how seductive she was.
And then realization dawned on him as he sized Katherine up. She fit the description of Katherine Sterling to a tee.
But how in the world could his ex–wife become the best friend of the renowned jeweler?
And for Katherine to say that she was proud to be one of his ex–wife’s best friends was mind–boggling.
He opened his mouth to save his family from more embarrassment and humiliation but decided against it. This would be an excellent lesson for them to behave better in public.
“You? An upper class?” Dahlia and Polly laughed at Cherise like she was a clown doing a stupid performance.
Even Emely was biting her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing. She needed to maintain her graceful act, at least someone more graceful than this mother–daughter duo.
She couldn’t believe Cherise was digging her own grave in the Angelworld Jewelry store where every staff member had officially seen their main designer.
“Yes.” Cherise nodded. “Because I have met her many times.”
“Yeah, right,” Polly rolled her eyes. “Keep lying to herself ”
“But I have,” Cherise replied smoothly. “And you have, too,”
“What do you mean by that?” Polly’s eyes turned sharp but still couldn’t quite capture the meaning behind Cherise’s words while Dahlia started to have a suspicion.
Katherine spread her arms wide and introduced herself with a seductive flourish and cutting words, “I am Katherine Sterling, but I am sorry to say it’s not a pleasure to meet any of you.”
The room fell into a pin–drop silence before a shriek high enough to damage one’s eardrums was heard.
“How can this be?!” Polly looked at Katherine’s with her eyes nearly popping out of her eye sockets.
“Impossible!” Dahlia had the same expression but was more reserved.
Emely bit her bottom lip harder until she tasted the coppery scent of her own blood. She stared uugy- at Cherise. She didn’t want to believe it either, just like the Amery’s mother–daughter duo.
How? How did Cherise, the country bumpkin, the one person she had successfully driven away from Hudson, know someone as high–profile and influential as Katherine Sterling.
She herself had never been able to afford luxurious stuff if not for Luis or Hudson or even Dahlia or Polly now. But Cherise had actually become best friends with Katherine Sterling, and Katherine was proud of it, not the other way round.
Emely glanced at Hudson and saw him smirking in approval while looking at his ex–wife. Jealousy filled her entire being again. She had to do something. She swore to make Cherise suffer. She couldn’t lose Hudson to her now.
“You can ask the manager and staff if she is really Katherine Sterling.” Cherise smiled and gave the Amerys a chance to
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Chapter 35
prove whether they were lying or telling the truth.
Everyone turned to see the manager, who nodded to confirm Katherine’s identity. “Yes, she is Katherine Sterling, our company’s main designer.”
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“You must have taken bribes from them to say that!” Polly shrieked again, still not wanting to believe that it was true. She couldn’t stand the thought that Cherise was better than her, that she knew more influential people than her or her mother.
Feeling offended by their words, the manager told them off sternly: “Mrs. and Ms. Amery, we do not take such heavy accusation such as us of taking bribes lightly, nor do we like it when you keep insulting our main designer. Maybe it is you and your family who need to be escorted out.”
He was not supposed to be rude to VIP customers, but when they accused them of taking bribes, it would affect the company’s name and was intolerable. He was sure his big boss wouldn’t mind him asking the guards to escort them off the building for the sake of the company’s good name.
“Oh, you don’t have to escort them out,” Cherise waved her hand off. “They are still our VIP
customers, after all. And they are here to shop…”
She purposely stopped her sentence and cocked her head when she looked at her humiliated Amery’s mother–daughter duo, Emely, the mistress, who looked green with jealousy and was ready to combust at any moment.
“Except if they do not want to shop anymore,” she finished with a smirk.
“Shouldn’t we take away their VIP status?” Katherine asked Cherise teasingly.
“Nah…” Cherise shook her head and winked at her best friend. “We can still rake as much money from them. Why should
we do that?”
Katherine couldn’t help but laugh at her best friend, who had just a little bit of revenge in her own way. “You are right. Let them spend their money, and we’ll pocket it.”
“Who wants to be a VIP in a shop like this?” Polly practically yelled out the words, frustrated that she was being looked down at by the woman who had been serving her for three years, but Dahlia pinched her hands.
“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.” Dahlia turned polite. “Please, go ahead with your business first, Katherine. We’ll wait here and look at the catalog patiently to choose what we want to bu
“At least you still have some sense,” Cherise smirked at her, which nearly cracked Dahlia’s act.
Dahlia really wanted to slap Cherise, but she knew she couldn’t do that with Katherine here. She knew there would come a time when she could do it in the future. She didn’t believe Cherise, who was meek before, could be this confident when she
was alone.
Cherise felt it was enough face–slapping for today, so she turned to Katherine and went down to business. “Let’s see the collection.”
“Right. Let’s go, darling-” She linked her arm with Cherise’s and looked at the manager, who understood her look. He led them to the other room to inspect ‘True Love‘.
Once they were gone, Polly complained to her mom. “Why did you still want to shop here?”
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“Do you think there are any other jewelry that could match Angelworld’s?” Dahlia glowered at her foolish daughter. “Do you think your friends will still want to socialize with you when you wear something that’s not from Angelworld?”
At last, her mother’s words sank into her mind, and she knew her mom was right, but she still couldn’t contain her rage at being looked down on by Cherise.
She whispered to Emely, who had managed to get her act of being understanding once more. “I can’t believe that bitch knew Katherine Sterling!”
“Maybe Katherine met her since she’s with someone rich now,” Emely said, still trying to put it into Polly’s mind that Cherise was a mistress now.
“Yes, you must be right!” Polly seemed to have a light–bulb moment. “She must have manipulated Katherine in some way. That bitch! Let’s see what I’ll do to her the next time I see her alone!”
Dahlia, furious that her son just kept quiet the whole time, not even trying to help them, quietly scolded him, “Hudson, you should have helped us. We are your family, but you just ignored everything that was happening in front of you.”
Hudson, who hated his mother, didn’t hold back to bite back. “It should teach you to remember how to behave in public. You are a disgrace to the Amery family.”
“How dare you say that to your mother!” Dahlia whisper–yelled at her son.
“You just called Katherine Sterling a slut so many times. Think about it,” he reminded, and that successfully shut Dahlia up.
She frowned and quickly devised a plan to apologize appropriately to Katherine. She couldn’t get on her bad side. She was THE Katherine Sterling, for God’s sake, and she wouldn’t want Katherine to shun her if they met in the future. It would not be good for her reputation.
Hudson, on the other hand, was lost in his own mind. From Katherine and Cherise’s interactions, it seemed like Cherise Katherine’s boss instead of just her best friend. Was it because she was the personal assistant of the CEO of Angelworld
Jewelry?
This piqued his interest: Julian Alster, Logan Jennings, and now Katherine Sterlings. How was she able to connect with all the big names? There must be something about her he didn’t know, and he intended to find out.
Just as he was still mulling over his thoughts, the elevator dinged again, and this time, a man wearing a dark blue suit stepped out from it. He looked gentle, yet a dangerous aura emanated from him the moment he saw the Amerys.
