One Night Stand Gone Wrong

Arielle was leaning against the counter while her espresso brewed when Emma arrived.

“You! Make me a cup of coffee!” Emma ordered Arielle like she would order her servants at home.

For Emma, her employees were nothing better than her servants.

Being the oldest child, the only child for the first five years, and the only girl in the family, she had been excessively spoiled. No one in her family corrected her attitude as it went from bad to worse as PGI flourished.

Emma’s grandmother was the only one who would not tolerate her behavior, even with her husband speaking on behalf of the kids.

Perhaps, Emma and Thomas had different personalities despite being siblings because of their grandmother.

Thomas had stayed with his grandparents since he was young because he disagreed with his elder sister, which led to constant fights. Emma would avoid anyone in the family who tried to discipline or contradict her.

Hence, Thomas lived with his Grandma rather than his parents.

Arielle ignored Emma’s unreasonable demands and her derogatory tone. She pretended as if she had neither heard nor seen Emma.

Emma and Sophia were not the first rich spoiled brats she had encountered, and she knew the best way to deal with them was to ignore them. She could never be as shameless or as unreasonable as them, so arguing with them was pointless.

Nobody had ever ignored Emma before. Arielle was the first, except for her boyfriend, who had dumped her for a poor young thing.

Emma could not tolerate the blatant disrespect. She bellowed, “Did you not hear me?”

Arielle continued to ignore her.

Emma grabbed her by the shoulder and tried to slap her. Arielle held her hand before she could manage and stepped away after releasing her hand.

“Did you want anything, Miss Payne?”

Arielle nonchalantly asked as if she wasn’t ignoring Emma or almost slapped.

Emma was seething in anger in the short time.

Unable to take it, she picked up the cup of freshly brewed espresso and toppled over Arielle without a word.

Arielle sidestepped, but her hands were not that lucky.

“This should teach you to be respectful, you bitch. Now get back to work. Don’t even think of getting away from work.” Emma left with her chin held high.

Arielle poured cold water on her arm and went directly to a hospital, unconcerned with Emma’s words.

On her way to the hospital, she called Thomas’s assistant, John, and asked him to get her the CCTV footage for the pantry.

Thomas called her a few minutes after she received the CCTV footage.

“Where are you? Are you okay?” Thomas was anxious.

“People’s first hospital. Emergency section, burns unit.” Arielle succinctly replied and hung up.

Thomas felt an ache in his heart at her cold tone. He only texted her – “Get treated and wait for me. I will be right there.”

Thomas asked John to handle the remaining meetings on his agenda as he went to see Arielle.

When Thomas arrived at the hospital, Arielle had just finished bandaging her severe burns.

Thomas paid the fees and drove her to a teahouse to make her feel better. He was embarrassed and did not know what to do.

They had been eerily quiet on their way to the teahouse.

Arielle asked to be seated in the open area instead of a private room. It would require them to act professionally, but Thomas did not question her even though he minded.

They had tea calmly without talking. The silence was getting to Thomas.

“Does it hurt?” Thomas asked, unable to take the silence anymore.

“Tell me about Emma!” Arielle ignored his question.

“I am sorry that you were hurt. You can deal with Emma any way you want. I swear I won’t interfere or take her side.” Thomas said with conviction.

“Thank you!” Arielle was touched.

“Emma is older than me by five years. She thinks it gives her the right to lord over me and Alex, our younger brother. We never agreed on anything.”

“When I was young, I never felt like she loved me. She treated me only slightly better than the servants at home.”

“She was insufferable, so I threw a tantrum and asked to live with my grandparents. Grandma wouldn’t coddle Emma or enable her bad behavior, something my parents simply ignored. Emma avoids Grandma. As such, we never really bonded.”

Thomas tried to explain to Arielle his equation with his elder sister the best he could.

“Grandpa passed away when I was 20. He had been battling cancer for years by then, and, well, let’s just say it was a relief for him. But it hit grandma and dad pretty hard. Dad retired, and Emma took over the company.”

He paused for a while before continuing, “Dad was not the best when it comes to management, but he was fair, just, immune to flattery. Despite not advancing rapidly, PGI did well and was stable under his care.”

He looked annoyed as he added, “Emma is the opposite. She is neither fair nor just. Despite being smart and having naturally good business acumen, she is prone to flattery, vain, and disdainful of people of a lower class than her or poorer than her. Everyone she had hired is a worthless bootlicker.”

Thomas took a sip of his tea and, heavily, sighed as he added.

“In the past five years, I have only cleaned up her mess. The people we have fired in the last three months were her leftover lackeys. That is why she hates you. I can’t read her thoughts, but she sees that as a slight on her honor and her birthright as a Payne.”

Arielle nodded. She got the complete picture that she needed to understand their equations.

“This is just the beginning of their threats and attacks.” She said, pointing at her bandaged arm.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I am afraid so,” Thomas admitted.

“Well, then, I gotta fight my battles. I hope you will support me without making things obvious.” Arielle sighed.

“You have my full support. If you can help my sister and get her to drop from her high horse, I would be even happier,” Thomas added with conviction.

“It’s settled, then.” Arielle smiled. Her smile quickly faded as she saw Sophia entering the teahouse.