The party was moved downstairs. Waltz played from exotic instrument and people drank and danced on the large dance floor. The Celebrant had a seat of her own, seated with family members and close friends. Everyother person that wished to talk to her would have to find a suitable person to do the introduction.
Claudia was one of these people who had tons rallying around her, fawning and throwing compliments, including gifts to have her introduce them to Madison. How could Claudia not be experienced in evading such situations? She had been a socialites all her life so she naturally had a way of getting out of the situation. Plus her whole attention was on looking for Gisele. The party had started for an hour already but she had not seen the girl since then.
"Claudia You're looking gorgeous" Stacy walked forward with a beautiful young girl by her side.
The Smile on Claudia's face froze for a millisecond. She recognized the girl and her presence at this point was definitely a well planned trap.
"Aunty Claudia!" The girl's tingling voice rang out in not only her ears but the ears of everyone seated at that position. Sweet and melodious, as beautiful as her face.
Claudia gave a warm smile "Vera, long time no see. How have you been?"
"I'm good aunty. How has Aunty been too? I have missed Aunty a lot!" The Lively girl gave Claudia a big hug. It really showed how close she and Claudia was. At least that was what everyone looking at them thought but not what Claudia felt. The girl used to act friendly with her in time past but not this friendly. Something must have happened that caused the sudden need for increase in familiarity.
Using the interaction her daughter had started, Stacy turned and looked at Madison "Good even Mrs Jordan. Congratulations for your birthday" She greeted with a dignified smile. She might be the Prime Minister's wife but still was not qualified by the Vice President's wife as a close friend. She wasn't even amongst her list of friends. If Claudia wasn't here at this time, she would have no way of come to say hello directly.
"Thanks for your wishes. Mrs?" Unfortunately for her Madison didn't even know who she was. Her tone was distant and she didn't even know her name
"Philip. Mrs Stacy Philip, the Prime Minister's wife" Stacy gritted her teeth and reminded her who she was.
"Ohh. I hear the Prime Minister is out of the country. My regards to him" Madison said.
"most definitely Your Excellency"
When she was done speaking with Madison, she excused herself and went ahead to speak to Claudia. Vera still had herself plastered to Claudia and Claudia on the other hand did not have the heart to publicly embarrass her by avoiding her openly.
"Claudia, where have you been? I came quite early but didn't see you" Stacy asked in a friendly manner.
"Madison wanted a few of us to stay with her in the waiting room. I stayed there till the party started" Claudia replied. Jealous rose up in Stacy's heart, she was mandated to call the woman with honorifics but here was Claudia who called her by her given name. She wasn't even a member of the government but she had a status which was way higher than hers. Aside jealousy, such facts only made her determined to get herself tied with Claudia in ways other than friendship. She gave her daughter a look.
"Aunty Claudia, no longer like me like you used to" The girl pouted her thin lips. "You haven't even asked why I'm back or how my expenditure was"
Claudia's lips twitched. When had she ever asked in the time past?
"I thought Vera wasn't going to be back till the end of the year, why are you suddenly back? Did you leave something behind?" The girl was an art lover. She went ahead collecting high valued art pieces in hopes of starting her own gallery, also art seemed to be a huge muse for her designing career.
"I missed mother and Aunty so I decided to come back. I missed having tea party with Aunty and the fun things we used to do together" The girl replied in a joyful voice. Her expression really selling the idea of pure regret of missing something essential.
Fun things?
Claudia was stumped. Apart from occasionally going on spa treatments and maybe once or twice attending auctions together. She and this young lady had not really done anything together. She couldn't remember any fun thing they had actually done together.
Vera didn't dilly-dally "Aunty what of Bro Devon? How is he?"
"Yes Claudia, what of Devon? I don't see him around. Did he attend the party?" Stacy joined in asking. She had been looking around but the Young man didn't seem to be anywhere.
Claudia wasn't bothered by Devon's absence, she didn't even seem to mind that he was not here but hearing the two ladies mention him, her eyes furrowed lightly. Why were they suddenly so interested? A realisation settled in her mind. She looked at the young lady holding her hand and her eyes became even more distant.
This was all about Gisele.
The girl's mother must have told her about Gisele and now this girl was trying to mark her territory. Acting this close to her was only an act. She was right after all, this girl was just as superficial as every other girl she knew with ugly scheming hearts.
Gently she removed her hand from the girl's grip. "He should be somewhere around. If you'll excuse me, I just remembered I have to find my young friend. I want to introduce her to a few people" She said and walked away.
She wasn't lying, she really wanted to introduce Gisele to everybody she knew but the girl was suddenly missing. She was worried she might have lost her way somewhere. Perhaps she should tell the ushers, they could help looking for her. She left Stacy and Vera standing there with anger and jealousy showing in their eyes.
Somewhere in the building, Gisele stood at a balcony still chewing the desert in her hands. Like the white plate that had not left her hand since, so was the young man still stuck to her side. She had changed positions so many times but he just always ended following her to wherever she went.
"Seriously are you a glue or something?" Gisele asked frustratedly.
"You're so heartless. How can you think of ditching me and leaving me alone in this whole crowd all by myself?" The young man shameless pouted his lips and even scooched closer to her.
Gisele looked at him with an incredulous look. He was a popular actor and there had been tons of ladies that had walked up to speak to him but he always sent them away few seconds after and yet refused to leave her side. Surely if she wasn't here, he would be surrounded by ladies till he was almost trampled to death.
"Heavenly idol Gael don't you feel guilty? Ditching your humble loyal fawners to be with a lady? Is that how an idol should behave?" She asked contemptuously glancing at him from the corner of her eyes.
"It's especially because I'm an idol that I can't be with them. I would be a sheep in wolves den if I'm with them. Surely you don't have the heart to watch me go down that road right?"
Actually Gisele couldn't care less. If anything, she would wish he pretended to not even know her.
She ignored thee young man. At the same time she stepped aside to make a call. It was almost midnight and she wanted to be sure Mr Collins had uploaded the pictures like she told him.
Not too far from where she was. Devon was also on his phone. A cold look adorned his face and his grip on the phone gave an impression he would smash it anytime soon.
"Seriously How hard should this be for you guys! You can't even find a single girl?!" He roared into the phone angrily. The scanty folk around him gave him surprised looks from all angles but he was no where near being bothered by their looks. The line went silent for a few seconds, obviously his volumes were too low to hear the person on the other side. But whatever the person said had managed to calm his anger to some levels.
"Fine, go there first then tap the surveillance. I want feedback before midnight" He cut the call after saying this. Took a few long breath after that but it still was not enough to totally dispel the agitation he was feeling so he gulped the glass of wine in his hands at one go.
His phone rang again.
Chloe?
A reluctant glint flashed past his eyes then what looked like a seemingly exhausted expression took over his face. He closed the phone and slid it back into his pocket without picking the call. Sounds of his buzzing phone echoed in the room but he showed no intentions of picking it up.
He stood there in a state of solitude for quite a while before he turned to leave.