Free Web NovelChapter 154: Party mess (4)
"Aurora!" Vincent called out to her, placing a hand on her shoulder to see if she was alright. He found her hunched over with her eyes closed. "What’s wrong?" He asked, ignoring the stares from others who were waiting to see his date. "Aurora!" He called again.
Like a snap out of a trance, Aurora instantly felt better when Vincent called her name again. She opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was the concerned look on Vincent’s face.
"Are you okay?" Vincent asked again when he got no response after the first time. "Is your head hurting you? Do you need to see a doctor?"
"I..." Aurora paused and waited to see if the pain in her chest was gone. After a moment of silence in the carriage, she replied, "I’m fine. Just nervous."
"Are you certain? You didn’t look fine for a moment there. You don’t have to force yourself to attend this party if you aren’t feeling your best," Vincent was more concerned about her well-being than going to a party that happened the same day every year.
"Then Victor would have stressed over all of this for nothing. I promise if I don’t feel good at aunty point during the night I will tell you right away," Aurora held up her pinky to make the deal. She was honestly going to tell Vincent if it happened again.
Vincent didn’t believe her but he still accepted the promise. He planned to watch her all night long to confirm that she wasn’t sick. "First sight of you being sick we are leaving here no excuses," he interlocked his pinky with her own.
"Okay."
"Let me help you out," Vincent held out his arm for her to hold onto and step out of the carriage. He closed the door behind her to allow the driver to take the carriage out of sight until it was time for them to leave. "Ignore everyone or picture them in their underwear. I hear that works wonders for some people." freeweɓnøvel.com
Aurora didn’t want to picture anyone here in their underwear because she wanted to sleep peacefully tonight. "I would rather not do the second option. Does Victor’s home have a witch spell too?"
"Yes. Most homes will have a witch spell on them. Only people who can’t afford the witch’s price or don’t like witches won’t have the spell on their homes. Then they’ll come to me about their business being spread around."
"It is weird to me how you all live for so long but still there are people who are still poor and others getting richer." It was a crazy concept to Aurora. Shouldn’t the majority of people be able to live comfortably at this point?
"Well, it’s no different from how humans are. Even though the people here live much longer, they still have things to buy daily to sustain themselves. Some work and save to live comfortably. Some borrowed money from those who had money, they made bad choices with that money and found themselves unable to pay off the debt. Some are being exploited for the money they owe so they have no chance to save money of their own. I have offered a solution to borrow the money from me instead but only a few families have done it."
"Why would they choose to borrow from someone else who will use them when they could just get it from you? Are you sure you are not going to use them too?" Aurora asked with a tiny bit of suspicion.
Vincent chuckled seeing that she was waiting for him to be revealed as the villain. "I proposed borrowing from myself to stop having so many people in debt. I wouldn’t be hunting them down to repay me a crazy amount so fast. I wonder how I appear in your eyes, outside of behind handsome, for you to think I would want to use my own people."
"I only asked that because it doesn’t make any sense. Do you mind if I..." She pointed to his arm she wanted to hold unto as they walked up to Victor’s home. People still on the outside were staring at her, talking amongst themselves and she couldn’t figure out why they looked shocked. Surely, they must have heard Vincent had someone staying with him.
"Brother, nice of you to grace me with your presence," Victor stated upon seeing the pair at his door. When he turned to get a better look at Aurora, he was stunned to see his mother’s necklace on her. "Is it really necessary for you to stake your claim on her like this? Everyone here knows that Aurora is with you."
"What do you mean to stake his claim?" Aurora asked confused as to what Victor meant. She looked down where she was holding onto Vincent’s arm kind of like her life depended on it.
"Not that Aurora, this," Victor pointed to the necklace she was wearing. "It’ll cause a lot of buzz at my party tonight. A lot of people know this to be my mother’s necklace because she wore it often. It was a symbol of the love between her and our father. She passed it down to Vincent and I don’t know why because we were all certain that there was no one on this earth to handle getting married to him. We were wrong."
"I see," Aurora replied, uncertain if she should still wear it. She wasn’t going to hand it back to Vincent after he asked her to protect it but it didn’t seem right to have the attention taken away from the birthday boy to her for simply wearing the necklace.
"Cherry is already here gloating at what she created. Vincent, I hope you aren’t planning to be glued to Aurora the entire night? She won’t be able to expand and make any friends if you are there to intimidate everyone who comes near. Cherry will be enough to keep an eye on her and I only invited people we are close to. But ugh," Victor got closer to Vincent to whisper, "Our uncle and his wife will be here tonight."
Vincent didn’t have to be told his uncle would be showing up tonight. Why would the man allow such a good opportunity to be near Vincent to fly by? He expected his uncle to attempt to get close to Aurora which was why he planned to keep her in his sight. "Happy birthday Victor," he patted his younger brother on the back. "How old-"
"Please don’t ask me that. I told Cherry to have anyone who asks me that question thrown out of the party. You don’t see me going around asking a lady her age or something about her appearance. I have manners."
"Happy birthday Victor," Aurora smiled.
"Thank you-Wait! Where the hell are my gifts from the two of you? The last thing I told the two of you was to make sure you get me good gifts for forcing me to throw a party I didn’t want in the first place," he looked in their hands for at least something small but there was nothing. He looked behind them to see if they had someone carrying it in for them but there was no one there. "Please don’t tell me the gifts are your presence or the fact you gave me money to throw this party."
"The gift is being delivered to your home in a few days away from prying eyes. It’s something you wanted but for some reason never bought. Thank me later when it arrives. Where did you say Cherry is?" Vincent scanned the room for the woman. He agreed with Victor that Cherry would be the best person to leave Aurora with.
He was certain he’d get pulled away from Aurora sometime during the night. Cherry would know best who to introduce Aurora to and who to keep her away from. Cherry might not look it to some people but she was an excellent fighter. She just preferred to show more time showcasing her dressmaking skills.
"Something I wanted but never bought?" Victor was still off to the side trying to put together what his brother had gotten him. He was certain he bought everything he ever wanted. "Give me a clue Vincent. I can’t wait for a few days."
"It’s not a good gift if you know what it is," Aurora told Victor. Vincent had informed her already what Victor’s gift would be.
"Found her. I will take you to be with Cherry," Vincent said to Aurora. She’ll have the opportunity to do as Victor said and meet new people. He saw many young women he didn’t mind her being acquainted with because he had good relations with their families and knew they wouldn’t look to harm her.
"We have to keep an eye out for Mari also. She said she would be arriving early and wished to stay with us." The deeper they got into the crowd of people the more stares Aurora got because of the necklace but Aurora ignored them just like Vincent told her. She imagined that as they walked, it was only her and Vincent there.
