Today is the birthday of the eldest daughter of Oliver Smith, chairman of the Smith Group.
As we all know, the Smith Family has two daughters, Ava, the standout eldest, and Olivia, the bratty one.
The most favored member of the Smith Family is their eldest daughter, Ava, who has a big birthday party every year. The 30th birthday party is as grand as an 18th Bat Mitzvah.
There were a lot of people here, mostly business people with "money," "power," and "profit" labeled on their heads, and most of them were young and single newcomers.
The purpose of the unexpected arrangement should not be too obvious.
Ava has a high education and a valued family; their own conditions are very good, a variety of halo plus body of the Smith family princess this year has been thirty, so far single.
She is not anxious to get married, but Mr. and Mrs. Oliver are anxious.
In the past two years, birthday banquets have been trying to gather all kinds of new single people from all walks of life, and instead of birthday banquets, they are more like matchmaking banquets.
In addition to the young talent, a number of female guests also came.
There were famous ladies representing their families, elegant noblewomen attending banquets with their husbands, and beautiful entertainers from the entertainment industry for the bigwigs to show off.
An occasion for men to gather, talk business, seek profit, climb the ladder of friendship, brag, and kiss ass.
Women gather on occasions in the cold and windy weather, all wearing the top luxury brands of spring and summer models, showing exquisite curves and devil bodies.
Career-minded people expand their networks, vain women flaunt their men, and others scout for rich tycoons.
Bored groups of three or five hiding in nooks and crannies to chat about gossip.
"Tsk, look at that Ava, seducing men, tempting men, fooling around, what is it? It's just an adopted daughter; she really thinks she's a Rapunzel."
"Ah, Ava's an adopted daughter?"
"You don't? You're not from Cedarburg proper?"
"I am, but I grew up abroad, and I just returned home not long ago... Ava's really an adopted daughter, isn't she?"
"The Smith Family has three children, the oldest son Elijah Smith Olivia, who is biological, and Ava, who is adopted."
"I heard that Ava's biological father died in a warehouse fire, and then I don't know what happened to her mom, but anyway, when she became an orphan, the Smith Family adopted her."
"Why did the Smith Family adopt her?"
Not many people know the answer to that question, said a certain young man next to her who had just tasted the cake.
"This I know: Ava's own father was Oliver's classmate; after Oliver inherited the family business, Ava's own father followed him and was his right-hand man. The relationship is good and deep. Oliver felt pity for Ava, so he adopted her."
The words fell, and there were sighs.
"Then the Smith family is also too good to this adopted daughter, I heard that Oliver has been concentrating on raising his son and Ava all these years, and the two graduated into the Smith Group, only Olivia didn't go, and I heard that she started her own business and opened a photography studio."
"Oliver's wife usually only takes Ava with her when she goes out, and she mentions her daughter by saying how wonderful Ava is, but she rarely mentions Olivia."
"Ava is so good. She has been in the Smith family since she was twelve, raised for almost twenty years, and is no different from her own children."
"It's only Olivia's own fault for being ill-tempered and willful... What's Olivia got besides that face?"
"With her beauty, she took down the Johnson Family Noah early and will soon be the Johnson Family mistress, how awesome."
"That's right, the Johnson family's position can't be compared to the average person. Don't look at all the powerful people who came today; none of them can compare to Liam's position."
"Indeed, Ava wants to marry better than Olivia unless, of course, she marries the one from the Johnson Family."
The one from the Johnson Family.
Without mentioning names, the stoned sisters and girls tacitly thought of someone at the same time.
"You mean ...."
Bang--
"Ah!"
A sharp, ear-piercing crash suddenly sounded in the hall, accompanied by a terrified female voice, and everyone subconsciously looked for the sound.
At that look, they all froze.
...
Olivia didn't want to make a scene tonight.
Olivia didn't want to make a scene; being mercilessly stabbed by Liam in the car was too painful for her to mess around; she just wanted to eat and drink and fill the bloody hole in her heart with food.
And she'd taken Emma's Money. Any more fooling around would be too uneducated. Seven figures have some dignity tonight.
As it turned out, she didn't cause trouble, but it came to her.
Liam is surrounded by a crowd for a toast, and Olivia is dragged away by Emma as a tool person to act out her sisterly love with Ava in front of the crowd.
When the play was over, she glanced at Liam, who was talking to someone, and knowing that he would be a while, she turned and went to the second floor, ready to go back to her room and lie down for a while to sober up.
She's just had a couple of drinks and a little on top of it.
As she turned the corner into the restroom, someone came running out, and Olivia was just about to dodge when her shoulder was hit by someone so hard that she stumbled two steps backward, holding on to the wall before she was able to stand still.
The white, diamond-filled, square handbag fell to the floor, its zipper open and its contents scattered.
Olivia rubbed her shoulder and lowered her eyes, her gaze falling on the crystallized emerald earrings at her feet.
At first glance, the earring looked familiar, and she was about to bend down and pick it up when a hand took it away first.
Olivia looked up and froze.
"Sophia?"
Suddenly, after seeing Sophia, Olivia's first thought is of Liam... Liam brought her here?
The thought was dismissed again just as she started.
Impossible; Liam had protected Sophia so well that outsiders didn't know about their relationship, and there was no way he could have brought Sophia here for an occasion like this.
Because here she is.
Right now, she's a vicious woman in Liam's eyes, and Liam is afraid that she'll bully and aggravate Sophia, so he's reluctant to bring her.
Sophia had stuffed everything on the floor into her bag in the time she'd had to freeze, standing up with the bag and putting the earrings she'd clutched in her palm in there as well before returning her words.
"Ava invited me."
Olivia remembers at this point that Ava and Sophia are college alumni, that they get along well, and that inviting Sophia over for Ava's birthday seems, well, reasonable.
"You ..."
"I have things to do, so I'll go first."
Olivia had only just opened her mouth when Sophia was already running out the door with her bag, her feet in a hurry as if she really had something urgent to do.
Olivia watched her back and didn't go after her, she was going to have a nice chat with Sophia, but not today.
From the restroom, Olivia went back to her room and played two games, the third of which had just started when there was a knock on the door.
Tonight's hand is not good; in front of two consecutive losses, the mood is depressed, stepping on slippers, angry to open the door.
Here comes Nanny Mia.
Seeing Olivia's face not look depressed, Mia didn't dare linger and finished her sentence in one breath.
"Ava lost her earring; Emma asked me to come up and ask you, have you seen it?"
Earrings?
Olivia slowly narrowed her eyes and suddenly asked, "Emerald earrings?"
Mia was busy nodding her head, "Yes, it's an emerald; it was a birthday present from Emma to Ava.
"Said it was left by her grandmother and was too valuable for Ava to wear tonight.
"Just now, Ava's dress was stained with wine, so she changed her clothes. Emma said that the dress matched the earrings, so Ava was ready to wear them. Who knew that the box was empty when she opened it?"
A relic left behind by Grandma.
Olivia finally realized why the earring that had landed at her feet had given her a sense of familiarity.
It's from my grandmother. One earring, one bracelet. Smith Family heirloom. It's an antique.
On her deathbed, Grandma instructed Emma, "You pass the bracelet to your daughter-in-law and keep the earrings for Olivia."
Emma said to put it on her on her wedding day.
Now, Emma gives the earrings to Ava.
As Olivia follows the nanny downstairs, Ava is sad about losing her earrings, and Emma takes her by the shoulders and whispers soothingly; looking up and seeing Olivia, she's busy asking:
"Where are the earrings?"
A slightly questioning voice, like she's determined that Olivia took the earrings.
Olivia glanced absently at Sophia next to Ava and met her sheepish gaze, hooking her lips without much expression and turning her head to check with Emma first.
"The one Grandma left behind?"
Seeing Emma nod, Olivia lifts her chin toward Sophia.
"You bumped into me in the restroom about a half hour ago ...; take it out yourself, or do you want me to help you?"
Sophia's face changed and she exclaimed, "Olivia, what do you mean by that? Do you mean I stole Ava's earrings?"
The people around them were busy chatting, and few paid attention to the movement over here, but Sophia's sudden, shrill, and agitated voice quickly drew a lot of stares.
Liam, surrounded by people, heard it too.
As she followed the watching group, Sophia was doing her best to incriminate herself, unzipping her bag and turning it over, its contents falling to the floor.
There are no earrings on the floor.
"Olivia, I know I'm lowly and no more honorable than you, but I have a backbone of my own, and I won't covet anything that isn't mine, let alone steal it."
Sophia is sweet-looking, lean and petite, and her pearl-adorned lavender evening gown is conservatively curved, lending a touch of girl-next-door plainness.
At the moment, her eyes were red, her pale face raised slightly upwards, her spine straight, and the humiliation and vulnerability in the corners of her eyes were silent indictments of Olivia.
Olivia is a strong-faced beauty with delicate and voluptuous features and a tall figure. Her dress was chosen by Emma tonight and changed only when she came to the Smith Family. She is a sister model to Ava.
It also happens to be a purple color; unlike Sophia's conservative and bland, she is a highly designed smoky grey purple gown, strapless and waisted, with diminutive curves, siren-like, sexy, and flirtatious.
A petite and fragile girl next door, a cold and noble rich woman.
It looks like Olivia is bullying Sophia.
The disdainful sneer on Olivia's face and the disdainful arrogance of her superiority make Sophia even more pathetic.
In the stalemate between the two, Sophia pursed her lips again and spoke, "Do you want to search me?"
It's humiliating, but Ava says it's the only way to get Olivia and Liam to make a clean break.
So Sophia is willing to put up a fight.
With trembling fingertips, she tugged her dress down, her left shoulder exposed, revealing a large expanse of white, smooth skin.
That's when Liam came rushing out.
He took off his suit jacket and draped it over Sophia, taking her hand and yanking it back, completely shielding it behind him, his handsome face tinted with anger, his stern gaze sweeping over Olivia.
"Olivia, don't you go too far!"
Olivia stares intently at the hand he's holding Sophia in, her brow furrowed in speechlessness.
"I went overboard? What did I do? I just told the truth, and she got all excited. She went through her bag and undressed herself."
Olivia pointed to the bag on the floor, "She did have an earring in her bag when I saw it; I'm not lying; there's surveillance in the house."
Sophia collided with her at the restroom door. The angle of the security camera doesn't allow for a full view, but you can see a little bit.
Olivia gets someone to pull the surveillance, and Ava steps in at that moment, saying that the home surveillance went down yesterday and she hasn't gotten anyone over to fix it yet.
What a coincidence!
Olivia suddenly turned her head to look at her, her sharp gaze tinged with scrutiny.
Ava smiled gently and generously as if she hadn't seen her questioning.
"Olivia, those earrings were a birthday present from Mom.
"I know you've always liked it, ever since I was a kid; I don't fight you for anything you like; take the earrings if you like them; don't wrong the innocent."
Emma had already begun to suspect Sophia a while ago, but now that she heard Ava say that and remembered where the earrings had come from, she thought it was more likely that Olivia had taken them.
"Olivia, those earrings go with Ava; I'll get you another one, so stop messing around, give them back to Ava, and apologize to Sophia."
Olivia's eyes skimmed over the crowd and looked straight at Sophia behind Liam, sneering at her tearful appearance.
Sure enough, the child who cries gets candy.
On the contrary, she has never been a crybaby since she was a child.
As the accusations continue in her ears and the murmuring continues, Olivia beckons asks for a glass of champagne from the waiter and slams it hard in Ava's direction.
Dare to frame her.
Okay, don't have a birthday.