After Aiden left, Alexa sat back down and started to sip her drink calmly. Just now, she kissed him because she needed to keep up with the facade of a happy couple as a lot of eyes were on them.
A few moments later, her phone beeped and she took it out of her purse. It was a message from Nora. Alexa sighed in relief. She was getting bored out of her mind.
[Hey, how is the party going?]
'I thought you were coming,' replied Alexa.
[I'm sorry, I had an emergency.]
'I understand… the party is so-so.'
[You aren't enjoying yourself? Have you put a stop to that kind of lifestyle?]
'Not quite, I'm just trying to get used to those people's infuriating glares.'
[Who said it was going to be easy? Although I have no idea why you're hiding your identity, I'd advise you not to get into anyone's bad side. I'm sure Monica's cliques won't let you off for marrying Aiden.]
'Who are those? I've not seen any of them yet.'
Suddenly, after Alexa dropped the message, a voice intruded her harmonious space.
"Look who we have here, the duck thinking it has become a Phoenix because it married into a wealthy home."
"Right? It's her shamelessness and audacity for me."
Three ladies in glamorous dresses with shawls over their shoulders approached Alexa with drinks in hand. From experience, Alexa knew they were there to create a scene, so she ignored them and continued to chat away with Nora. She didn't want to get caught up in their childish mess. After all, Aiden already told her not to cause trouble.
Unfortunately, the ladies didn't come all the way there to be ignored.
"Hey! Are you ignoring us?"
"Is it because you're married to Aiden, you now think you're better than us and can keep us quiet? Huh?"
"Maybe she thinks that her husband has any power in Society."
"You talk of Society. He doesn't even have an opinion in his own family. Everyone treats him like trash and he has no guts to fight back."
"Right? Wasn't that why Monica abandoned him on the altar and this gold digging bitch jumped on the opportunity as though there were some monetary benefit in marrying a loser?"
With her eyes still on her phone, Alexa replied casually, "If you know so well there was no monetary benefit in marrying my husband, then why are you bothered?" she looked up from her phone and continued with a taunting smile, "are you jealous?"
"Wh– why will I be jealous of you?!" one of the girls owned it immediately and retorted with a fierce glare.
Her reaction caused Alexa's brow to raise and her smile grew wider. It seemed the lady was indeed jealous. Alexa gave the lady a once-over. She was barely 20 years old. She scoffed and turned her attention to her screen and advised.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are around 19-20. Aiden is 15-16 years older than you, that's not very ideal, considering how judgemental your society is."
"You're barely older than me!" the lady yelled, looking pale after her inner desire was laid out in the open.
"4-5 years is not 'barely', dear. Who knows if you'd live past 6 months with how obsessed you are with someone else's husband," Alexa looked up at the lady and beamed.
"You– you…" the lady stomped her feet and dashed out of there like a child.
Alexa watched her flee with her tail tucked in between her legs and clicked her tongue, "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. She's such a baby," Alexa sighed, shook her head and continued chatting.
After the young lady stormed out of the party, the other two finally shifted their attention to Alexa with the hopes of embarrassing her. Of course, they knew that their friend had a crush on Aiden, but didn't dare to let Monica find out about it. So, who the hell was Alexa to bring it up in public?
"What nonsense was that? How dare you tell a lie about Eli? She's Monica's cousin. How can she love Monica's man?"
"Did you hit your head or something?" Alexa got up, "if I stay here with you guys any longer, my face will be riddled with wrinkles."
"You— " the oldest among the ladies held tightly onto her glass of wine. Perhaps, if she wasn't at Chairman Clinton's home, she would have doused the drink on Alexa for talking back at her. How dare a commoner speak in her presence?
"Let's leave, Chairman Clinton might be here anytime soon," the last lady uttered, pulling her angry friend by the arm.
"Don't think this is over. I will— "
Alexa arched her brow and questioned, "Do we have something to begin with?" she sighed and took a sip of her drink, "don't be so hard on yourself. You're still so young. Enjoy life and make a name for yourselves instead of being a minion to someone who prolly has her life all planned out," she patted the oldest lady on the shoulder and added.
"Don't be mad or jealous that I married a useless man as you all call him. In fact, you should be glad that none of you would be forced by his grandfather to marry him. Moreover, he's out of market now."
The lady threw Alexa's hand off her shoulder and yelled, "Shut your disgusting mouth! Who told you he was ever in the market? He belonged to Monica and he'd forever be hers!"
Alexa sighed again. It seemed like she wasted her golden advice on some hypnotized babies, who would rather spend a lot more years of their lives being cringing sycophants to Monica.
How could she forget the life of the wealthy so soon? She used to have a lot of them fawning over her in the past.
"The nerves of the slut to steal Monica's man and still utter such bullshit!" the other one fumed.
Their little banter was starting to get the attention of a few, including Aaron, who seemed to be mingling with some business men.
"Hehe, I beg your pardon?" Alexa found their delusion very funny, so she couldn't help but chuckle. She was the first woman her husband kissed, and he told her on the altar that he was preserving his kiss for his future love, meaning Monica wasn't his love.
If she told them this, wouldn't they die?
"Who doesn't know that Aiden and Monica were soulmates? So what if she rejected him on the altar, did Aiden throw a tantrum? What if it was pre-planned between the couple?"
"... you just had to sprout up out of nowhere and steal Monica's man, you shameless gold digger. And let me sound a note of warning, when our friend returns and wants to claim her man, you better leave the spot quietly, otherwise, you'd leave us no choice but to make you leave the hard way."
"Hahahaha...." Alexa laughed boisterously then continued, "is that so? Then tell Monica she's always welcome to try. But to make it fair, add that I'm very protective of what I deem to be mine, so she should be careful."
Alexa watched the surprised looks on their faces and smirked before walking away from them. She felt the sense of satisfaction wash over her. It's been decades since she last had such a confrontation. It seems like there'd be more of those in the future.
"You— "
"Let her go. We can't harm her under Old Man Clinton's watch."
"Monica was right. This bitch is not so simple. Now that our doubt has been cleared, we need to inform Monica about it."
"I can't wait for the torment she'd be in. Hahahaha... It'd be fun!"