A Night of Desire

With everyone offering their congratulations one by one, Clara Grant had no choice but to put on a smile and thank them all individually.

Meanwhile, Chloe Grant watched from the sidelines, staring daggers at Clara Grant, the center of everyone’s attention. She was so furious she wanted to snap the pen in her hand.

’Even at my most popular, I never had this kind of attention. At most, a few people would flock to me. But now? The entire class is running over to fawn all over her.’

’No, if they could, the entire school would probably be lining up to curry favor with her!’

’Clara Grant, hah! What’s she so proud of? So what if she married Seth Quinn? The more glamorous her life is now, the more humiliating it will be when he divorces her!’

’Autumn Shelby is no pushover! I’ll just wait and watch her become a laughingstock!’

’But it was one thing for the others to do it. Even the few who were supposedly my best friends, the ones who helped me make trouble for Clara Grant at every opportunity, had eagerly run over. They sure have some nerve, not at all worried she’ll just give them the cold shoulder!’

As these thoughts ran through her mind, Chloe Grant spoke up coldly. "Juno Croft, Cecilia Lee, Melanie Lowell, what are you doing getting in on the action? You really think a few words of blessing will make her forget the past? Hah, so naive!"

Only after Chloe Grant spoke did Clara Grant realize that Chloe’s old cronies were also among the people crowded around her.

The girls Chloe had named looked embarrassed for a moment, but they were all savvy. They had been friends with Chloe because they felt she was valuable.

But now, the valuable one was obviously Clara Grant, the wife of Aegis’s president!

Who to befriend and who to make an enemy of—any discerning person could see that, right?

However, they wanted to get on Clara Grant’s good side without openly offending Chloe Grant. So, Cecilia Lee smiled faintly and said, "It was all just some minor squabbles between classmates. Clara is the bigger person. Besides, we’re all classmates. Shouldn’t we all be united and friendly?"

Melanie Lowell kept her lips pursed and remained silent, but the ever-outspoken Juno Croft chimed in, "Exactly! We’re all classmates. Clara won’t hold it against us, right, Clara? Hey, Chloe, why don’t you come apologize to Clara? Maybe she’ll forgive you, too."

The words had barely left her mouth when Chloe Grant—SLAM!—slammed her pen down on the desk. She shot to her feet, her chest heaving with fury.

"Apologize to her? *Me?* I’m the prestigious eldest daughter of the Grant Family, and you want me to apologize to *her*? Have you lost your minds? Do you even know who she is? Heh. By status, you could call her my sister, I suppose—we just don’t share a father or a mother. She’s an ungrateful viper my father unknowingly raised for over twenty years!"

"You see she married the president of Aegis, so you all scramble to kiss up to her. Just wait a while! When she gets kicked to the curb, you’ll all live to regret this!"

Perhaps because Chloe Grant’s words were so hard to process, the surrounding students stood stunned for a long moment before they snapped out of it.

What did Chloe Grant just say? That she and Clara Grant were sisters? She had always insisted that while they shared the surname Grant, they had never met before college.

Was she trying to claim a family connection now that Clara Grant had married into wealth?

Besides, while everyone knew their congratulations toward Clara Grant were tinged with self-interest, it was an unspoken agreement. Having Chloe call them out so bluntly plunged everyone into an awkward silence.

One student couldn’t resist speaking up, a smirk playing on their lips. "Chloe, I remember you saying you didn’t even know Clara until college. How come you’re her sister all of a sudden? It’s not right to just go around claiming people as family because you have the same last name, is it?"