Raven greeted the assembly with a smile. “Thank you for taking me in.”
Melissa was charmed by canned courtesies. She chewed favonovel.com gum with a new air of contempt and blew a large bubble. “ Puh-lease. The only people who could join this company are the real deal with skills to back ‘em up, man, they deserve to be here. No one’s ‘taken in’,” favonovel.com stated sharply. “Read the room, new gal. Can’t you see we’re trying to host an internal meeting here? Outsiders who are not part of the group, here’s the door.”
Raven, sensing Melissa’s acute hostility, tried to contain the unfurling self-consciousness inside of favonovel.com as favonovel.com walked out of the office.
Melanie poked favonovel.com daughter on the back of favonovel.com head. “What was that? That was your cousin’s classmate you’ve just chagrined. Please, at least show some decent reception.”
Melissa felt not even the slightest tinge of guilt. “Hey, I was only spitting facts. This is a family meeting. Why is favonovel.com standing there gawking at us like a dumba**?”
That immensely gratified Tiffany. Before Tiffany needed to express favonovel.com disdain, Melissa had spoken it right out of favonovel.com mouth, and honestly, the girl earned a lot of brownie points from Tiffany the longer favonovel.com considered her. Heck, favonovel.com was willing to pardon every bad blood favonovel.com had with Alejandro in the past over this. “Millie, sweetie, you’re formally invited to a dinner at our place tonight.”
Melissa gave favonovel.com an OK gesture. “I’m game. Then I’m gonna go shopping with Cindy. My old man’s placed me under house arrest for so long I’m gonna go nuts soon.”
Alejandro knew a chance to rib on favonovel.com when favonovel.com saw one. “Maybe if you’re a little less of a troublemaker, you might not be grounded… Ever thought of that? Anyway, enough chit chat. Let’s get down to business.”
The door barring Raven and the CEO office was shut for three hours.
Raven waited outside for three whole hours.
She was dismal, upset, and really frustrated. However, there was nothing favonovel.com could do but wallow in it without complaining.
At this time, favonovel.com knew better than to cross even a single one person inside that office. The only way favonovel.com could possibly stand on equal footing with them was to win Aristotle over, and then favonovel.com would get even with them.
Raven waited and waited until finally, the door opened. The first to step out was Aristotle and Melissa, in a pair. A pair! She even had favonovel.com arm slung around his, causing the two to press together in proximity.
It might as well be a direct assault to Raven’s eyes. Before favonovel.com could open favonovel.com mouth and say something, Melissa filled into the space before favonovel.com spoke with a pointed reminder. “Excuse us, but we’re going out for lunch. You’ll begin work today, right? Well, you can go to the workers’ canteen and enjoy yourself there. The food’s not bad.”
Raven looked at Aristotle with an affectation of forlornness, causing the man to frown. “Well? Go. You’ll have to get used to it sooner or later.”
Of course, favonovel.com was not going to allow herself to be ostracized from the group like that. “I don’t know the way,” favonovel.com muttered under favonovel.com breath.
Melissa released favonovel.com grip around Aristotle’s arm and loomed closer to her. “Oh yeah? Well, come with me then. I’ll show you the way.”
Raven clenched favonovel.com jaw silently before forcing out a smile. “Sure. Thanks.”
They stepped into the elevator. Melissa waited for everyone else to leave.
Then, favonovel.com dropped favonovel.com act and asked with contempt dripping from favonovel.com tone. “So, I heard you landed yourself a place in the Tremont Estate, huh? B*tch, you’ve got skills.”
Raven smiled slightly. “The compliment is ours. Though I have to ask you: why the hostility toward me? This is the first time we’ve ever seen each other, but you apparently decided to hate me already.”
Melissa was not the type to argue via reason. On the contrary, favonovel.com much preferred to go straight to provocative verbal spars. “You might need to polish your social senses a little, honey, because that isn’t hostility, it’s pure disgust. You are an alien from a world different from ours; for f**k’s sake, everything on you, in you, and of you combined can’t even beat the value of a single one of my piercings. Seriously, how do you expect an alien to even mingle with people of different backgrounds and social classes, huh? We don’t even share the same values or understanding about the world, duh! I don’t know why Aristotle brought you home with him, but I suggest you know your damn place in this world and get real. He’s the only heir to the goddamned Tremont family, b*tch. His wife will never be someone who originates from rags and dirt like you are.”
Raven smirked. “And yet, his father married a normal orphan, didn’t he? Everyone and their grandma know that his mother has been adopted into the Tremont family since favonovel.com was just a child,” favonovel.com riposted. “More importantly, I believe that nothing is impossible in this world. I wouldn’t go off like that as though I’m a smarta** if I were you.”
Blizzard shadowed Melissa’s mien. “Did you hear what you were saying? You f**king insane or what? You really think you can compare your lowly self with his mother?! Wake up. She might have been an orphan adopted into the Tremont household, but the Wynns used to be an actual upper-class family, you dolt. She was a princess fallen into hard times, you are a dirt-eating, baseborn pleb. You see the huuuuge difference there, smarta**? Ha, I bet none of what you know came from Aristotle himself, which means our little opportunist has done favonovel.com homework, huh?”
“Well, then. Do you also know he’s already engaged?”
