Lauren didn’t let go of Natalie even after giving the money to her.
Whenever she thought about it, she would curse Natalie, saying she was the bane of her life and that she wanted to kill her.
The next day, a maid gingerly knocked on the door and handed an envelope to Lauren.
“What’s this?”
Lauren looked at the envelope and quickly removed the face mask whilst rubbing the sticky essence onto her cheeks.
“A gentleman just gave it to me.He said it was an invitation to a party.”
Lauren sat up straight and snatched the envelope.
It was an invitation to a party held by the Larson Group.
“George! George! Come out and see what I received!”
Lauren shouted and ran to George, waving the invitation.
The man was happily playing with birds he raised outside the balcony.
George was submissive, but he was not a fool.
He took the invitation and carefully read it.
“The Larson Group? What’s going on? Don’t you think it’s strange? They would never invite the Quinn family to such an occasion.” It was precisely why Lauren was excited.
She gently massaged the residual essence on her face, thinking it would make her look young forever.
“Are you out of your mind? It just proves that our drama in the Larson Group has worked.Maybe they are holding a party, just to apologize to us.”
Lauren grinned dreamily as she thought about attending such a momentous party.
George wasn’t as blindly confident as she was.
He still couldn’t bring himself to believe they got invited to the party.
The party was held at Waterside Manor.
It was a private place exclusively offered to influential celebrities for conducting social events.
Before leaving, Lauren carefully dressed up and applied two thick coats of foundation on her face, hiding her fine wrinkles and freckles.
Cassie was also dressed in an extravagant outfit.
Only wealthy, influential people attended the parties held by the Larson Group.
Lauren felt the occasion was perfect to find her a good son-in-law.
All three arrived at Waterside Manor with great expectations.
“Mom, this place is huge!”
Cassie squealed with excitement as she looked at the splendid building in awe.
“Shush!”
Lauren grabbed her arm and leaned closer.
“Stop looking like an ignorant woman and degrading yourself, Cassie.After all, you are a wealthy diva.Straighten your back and look like a dignified woman.”
Cassie took a deep breath, held her head high, and tried to look like a majestic queen.
However, the next moment, the smile on her face vanished.
“Natalie is also here!”
All eyes turned to her.
The dark green satin dress clung to Natalie’s slim waist, accentuating her perfect features.
Her chestnut curly hair was coiled up with a wooden hairpin.
Her bangs elegantly swayed as a gust of cool breeze brushed against her.
The light makeup and pink lips seemed to brighten her face.
She looked breathtaking tonight.
Natalie stood out among the women dolled up with copious amounts of makeup and dressed in extravagant clothes.
Even Lauren was shocked.
She always knew Natalie was beautiful.
However, the woman somehow looked prettier with every passing day.She was an effortless beauty who exuded a natural charm.
“What the hell is she doing here? I’m going to slap her. You don’t know how she humiliated me in the banquet last time.”
Cassie was seething with rage as she remembered what happened to her at another party last time.She grabbed her dress and almost rushed toward Natalie.
However, Lauren quickly grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
“Don’t be impulsive. If you fight with her on this occasion, it will only ruin your reputation.” Cassie gritted her teeth and suppressed her anger.
Lauren used to be a social butterfly when she was young.She enjoyed dancing at balls and parties.
Many people knew her.
Soon, she began to chat with the other guests.
“Things aren’t going well.” “What’s wrong?” the lady beside her asked concernedly.
Lauren let out a weary sigh, feigning pity.
“It’s kind of embarrassing. You probably know my adopted daughter, Natalie.She is a heartless, ungrateful child.She has taken away all our money from our family.Now, she is leading a carefree life outside, neglecting me and her adoptive father.”
Many guests at the party were employees of the Larson Group.
“You mean Natalie Quinn? We know her.She works in the design department.She seems sweet and well-mannered.I didn’t expect her to be such an evil person.”
As they got into an animated discussion, Natalie walked toward them, grinning broadly with a glass of champagne.
Natalie walked past the crowd of guests in fancy clothes and strutted toward Lauren with an indifferent look on her face.
Natalie’s beautiful eyes turned cold, revealing all the disappointment and anger accumulated in her heart over the years.
Every time Lauren looked at Natalie, she wanted to pluck Natalie’s beautiful eyes out of their sockets.
“Have you ever shown kindness and warmth to me? You have humiliated and tormented me all my life, and now you call me ungrateful? That’s absurd!”
Natalie said calmly as if impervious to Lauren’s ruthless comments.
Lauren was an extraordinary actress.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
“We adopted you and raised you with great efforts, but you’ve always milked us for money.How does that make you a good daughter?” Lauren said, waving her hands dramatically.
Her dramatic performance in the Larson Group a few days ago had already attracted everyone’s attention.
Moreover, Natalie hadn’t explained herself to anyone.
Many people regarded her as an ungrateful daughter, and some even took videos on their phones.
However, Natalie didn’t care about what people thought of her.
“You abandoned me after Cassie was born.You sent me to the countryside to live with Hannah. You never cared about me.Hannah was the one who took care of me.She is all I have.I came to you because she was ill, and you promised to give me the money in exchange for a favor.I kept my end of the bargain, but you’ve been cheating me.Why are you creating a scene in front of everyone?”
Lauren wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and sniffed loudly.
“What nonsense! You’re just blabbering.” Natalie laughed, shaking her head.
“Your neighbors don’t know me, and my neighbors in the countryside haven’t seen you.I don’t even have a picture with you. You better think twice before lying.Do you have any evidence to prove that you raised me? Look, I don’t want to talk about the past.I’m grateful to you for giving me a shelter even though you all have loathed me.”
If Lauren hadn’t slandered Natalie in front of everyone, she wouldn’t have uttered a word about the past.
Natalie didn’t have a home that she could call hers.
It was just another place she didn’t belong, where she was abandoned by her “family” again.
Lauren looked around helplessly.
Natalie took out her passbook that had a record of the money George and Lauren had sent Hannah over the past twenty years.
She sneered at Lauren and threw it on her face.
“You were bragging about raising me and accused me of milking you all for money.But this proves how much you’ve really spent on me. You two have been giving only 200 dollars a month for the past twenty years — — not a penny more.
Is that what you call ‘raising me with every penny you have? You always take Cassie to fancy restaurants.One dinner of yours are at least twice or thrice my monthly expenses.Can’t you see the irony here?”
The crowd burst into an uproar.
Most of the women attending the parties offered generous tips.
They didn’t think 200 dollars was a good tip, let alone be a good monthly allowance.
