Chapter 101
After completing his meeting, George called Frost Manor’s butler to know the whereabouts of his mother and father so he could go through with his promise.
However, once he heard where his family members were, near the place where Elara’s contest was being held, he didn’t waste a single second and rushed to the company.
He found her in the said building, but when he couldn’t, he asked his secretary to look into the matter and walked inside the auditorium hall to see how his sister was doing.
But to say he was surprised would be an understatement, not because of her splendid singing, but because of the song she pulled.
With this song, Elara practically declared to the world that she was back, and those with a bit of knowledge of music would know she was the authentic voice behind ET, who disappeared four years ago.
“Elara,” George called.
Elara looked at her brother, standing behind Miss Ella, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the surprise on his face.
“Just one question. Why keep it hidden from me?” Miss Ella asked.
“Mom, let go. We will talk about this later at home. This isn’t the time,” George said.
His words were like oil to the fire building in Carla’s head, and when she saw George trying to pull Miss Ella away, everything became clear.
She didn’t want to let this opportunity go and immediately chimed in.
“Miss Ella, do you know her? Why are you taking her away, Mr. George? Your mom deserves to know of the girl who is trying to seduce you to get her things done,” Carla said.
Miss Ella turned to Carla at her choice of words.
Elara looked down at her feet before exhaling sharply. She wanted to tell her mother everything, too. When George informed him of his promise, she was ready to come clean to her tonight, but not like this, not before everyone.
“Who are you?” Miss Ella asked Carla.
Carla thought the woman looked at her in a new light because of her words, and she immediately smiled more widely. She didn’t hesitate to step forward and introduce herself.
“I am Carla Lloyd, Mr. Andrew’s sister. You must’ve heard about us,” she said confidently.
Most of the crew and outside people had already left, so the director also walked over to them, while the producer looked awkwardly between the influential figures.
“Mom, let’s go. It’s not worth it,” George held Miss Ella’s hand to pull her away.
“You came here running like you knew what was going on here. You were in this with her,” Miss Ella said, her eyes brimming with tears.
“And your dad? Did he know too?” She asked.
George shook his head.
“No, Mom. I didn’t keep it hidden from you purposefully. Can you please come with me so I can tell you everything?” George asked.
Miss Ella shook her head.
“No. You leave my hand this instant, or I might do something that I’ll regret later,” Miss Ella’s voice raised, and George looked at Elara helplessly, who had a cold expression on her face.
Producer Li, who had always seen Elara in a good light because of her voice and character, felt conflicted. Was it really like how Carla was portraying it? He wondered.
Miss Ella walked to her and raised her hand. Elara didn’t flinch.
Everyone thought she was going to slap Elara because she thought she was seducing George for real, but to everyone’s surprise, Miss Ella, rather than slapping Elara, caressed her cheeks.
“Why, my precious?” Miss Ella asked, the emotions in her eyes so deep that they made Elara’s heart tremble.
She wanted nothing more than to break into her mom’s arms and tell her every injustice she felt and suffered. She wanted to tell her mom that she was done hiding and wanted her to hide her in her arms.
However, she didn’t want to do it in front of everyone, not before the people who didn’t deserve her tears.
“To establish myself again,” she said.
Miss Ella took a deep, shaky breath.
“Miss Ella, don’t get softened just because of her innocent face. You know nothing about how conniving this bitch is. She had a habit of seducing men here and there,” Carla said, her gaze challenging Elara as she kept spitting nonsense about her, her anger fueled by her defeat.
“First it was my brother, then she went around and seduced his friend Trevor, and if that wasn’t enough, she even went around seducing Daniel Macros, and then your son George, who would do anything p>
Carla couldn’t complete her sentence when someone slapped her hard across the face.
The impact was so hard that she fell to the side, the side of her lips bleeding.
Everyone stood there, shocked, unsure of what to say or do.
Because the person who slapped Carla wasn’t Miss Ella, George, or even Elara.
“Caral!” Sophia and Beatrice rushed to where Carla was, while Elara looked at Daniel with arched brows.
The man jerked his hand before wiping it with a clean handkerchief, which his assistant immediately provided. He reacted as if he had been infected by some kind of lowlife virus just by touching her face.
“Mr. Daniel!” Andrew, who hadn’t been present earlier and arrived right at the time when his sister got slapped, raised his voice.
Never in a million years would anyone dare to touch a Lloyd like this, let alone raise their hand on them, but with Daniel, everything was different.
“You said you don’t raise your hand on women,” she said casually.
Daniel nodded.
“A woman who spits nonsense about another woman’s character and parades around like it’s her right to do so doesn’t deserve to be called a woman,” Daniel said.
Miss Ella looked at Daniel Macros in utter surprise before looking at George, who stood there like a guilty child who was caught hiding stuff under his bed, and the lady couldn’t help but shake her head.
“You three have a lot of explaining to do,” she said.
“Yes, Mrs. Gabriella,” Daniel said before he walked forward and stood before Elara.
“I will surely explain everything,” He stood protectively, his steady and cold gaze daring anyone to lay another harmful word towards her.
Andrew stood there, unable to move, when he saw the way Elara’s eyes sparkled when she looked at Daniel, the same way she had once looked at him. That familiar expression p>
The thought of her emotions changing made his heart clench painfully, and he walked to her.
“Elara, I am sorry about what my sister said,” Andrew said.
Elara was about to open her mouth to say that this wasn’t the time she had been so disrespectful, but before she could say anything, Miss Ella, a.k.a Mrs. Gabriella, tilted her head.
“Poor girl, were you living with such scum?” She asked.
Elara pressed her lips into a thin line. If her mother got a hint of what they had done to her, she would single-handedly destroy Sophia and Carla in the entire social circle and their business… Her father would do anything and call all his mafia connections to declare a mafia war on them.
“George, take your mother away. We don’t need more drama,” Elara said, and George nodded before he practically pulled her away.
Producer Li looked at Elara, who stood there through all the chaos, unharmed, unaffected, as if she were the eye of the storm, and he didn’t know why. Still, for some reason, he had been feeling that Elara’s background wasn’t as simple as she had shown in her biodata when she applied for the role.
“Elara—” Andrew started again.
However, Elara raised her hand to stop him from speaking.
“If you get the time, rather than wasting time on wandering around with your so-called secretary, spend it a little on teaching your sister to at least read the room. That lady who left would never hate me, not even in a million years. If she had bothered reading the room, she would’ve known.” Elara turned on her heels before leaving, her shoulders straight, her stance unapproachable.
Daniel swept his stern gaze over everyone before walking behind her like a godforsaken shield that would destroy everything before it would touch her.
Once out of the auditorium hall, Elara went straight to the parking lot, where Antonio must’ve been waiting for her.
She turned around and noticed how Daniel had left too, which was quite strange for someone who always persists around her.
When she didn’t find her bodyguard anywhere, she was about to pull her phone out to call the man when someone snuck behind her, held her hand, and pushed her into the back of a black SUV.
She landed straight on someone’s lap and couldn’t help but groan.
“What the—” She raised her voice in surprise, but stopped when she looked up, and her gaze met Daniel’s cold one.
“Your bodyguard got kidnapped by mine, and you, my dear, are coming with me,” he said with finality, leaving no room for any question or reasoning.
“But where are you taking me?” She asked.
“Somewhere,” he smirked, his gaze shifting to her cleavage.
“As much as I like the view, with your hand on my sensitive area, I don’t want you to call me a monster if I pull something,” Daniel said, and his words immediately made her eyes widen.
She quickly sat up straight as the driver coughed and pulled up the partition to give his boss and his madam some privacy.
Once it was up, the man looked at her.
“I raised my hand on a woman for you; don’t I deserve appreciation?” He asked.
Elara raised her brows.
“What do you want?” She asked rather than denying.
The man, however, didn’t reply. He just smirked and looked straight, his mysterious silence making her heart skip a beat.