Free Web NovelChapter 212: Swallowing her pride for her family
"How is everything going?" Daniel asked as soon as Elara entered the lavish room.
"You mean my revenge plan?" Elara asked.
She walked straight to where the man was sitting on the sofa, his body leaning back and relaxed. She was about to sit beside him when the man held her hand and pulled her to sit between his legs.
Heat crept up Elara’s cheeks since they still had some audience.
Daniel smirked at her expression and then looked at his people, who bowed and left promptly.
"I mean your preparation for our marriage," Daniel whispered in her ear, wrapping his hands around her torso from behind.
"It’s going well," she nodded.
"Nervous?" He asked.
"Should I be?" She asked with amusement.
The man’s lips twitched before he hummed vaguely.
"You should be. By marrying me, you’ll give me official rights to ruin you in bed, pleasure until you are unable to move, and your throat is sore from screaming my name until you remember nothing but me," Daniel cooed in her ears.
If he thought his sentence was going to scare Elara, he was wrong.
Elara smirked and locked her hands around his neck.
"And won’t that give those rights to me too?" She asked. Her words made his gaze darken.
"You are saying this now because you know all too well how much I am controlling myself before marriage," Daniel said.
Elara pouted.
"Does that mean if I want to do it, I’ll have to find another—" Elara, who wanted to tease the man, couldn’t complete her sentence when he pinned her down and kissed her aggressively.
"I never said I was a saint, baby. I am controlling because you are busy right now. I am kidnapping you after we get married to spend some time with you, which also means a couple of weeks-long honeymoon," Daniel confessed.
Elara’s ears turned red when she remembered the version of the honeymoon the man had in his mind.
"Trust me when I say I won’t let you wear even a single piece of cloth for the first three days," Daniel cooed in her ears, biting her earlobe sensually, making her heart skip a beat.
Elara hid her face in his chest, not having any retort for this one.
At the same time, Andrew sat outside the operating theatre, his heart beating quickly and restlessly, his hands covering his face as he prayed to the heavens above to have some mercy on his family.
"Brother, everything is going to be alright, right?" Carla asked, tears flowing from her cheeks, while Sophia sat at some distance expressionlessly.
It had been like this ever since she found out about her husband’s betrayal. All the pride she had shattered with that one truth, and she finally realized what it felt like to be at the receiving end of the betrayal.
It was karma indeed.
She was so happy, never caring about what happened to Elara or how people speculated about her son’s relationship with Beatrice and it smacked them right in the face.
The fact that not only Beatrice was the living proof of her husband’s betrayal, but also her daughter-in-law, was like a fish bone in her throat that she couldn’t swallow or spit out.
"Brother, please say something. I will work even harder. There are some gigs that I can take. It won’t pay much, but it would be something. We can still save our family, right? Hire the best doctors. Please call a special team," Carla begged Andrew, but the man just sat there, unmoving, his shaking shoulders the only indication of him being conscious.
He couldn’t think of anything. Beatrice’s words, her smirk, her declaration, and the ugly truth that he killed his own child were roaming in his head like a cursed chant that he would never be able to free himself from.
There was no forgiveness for the sins he committed. If possible, he was ready to die at Elara’s feet, but his family needed him right now to hold them together, especially when all the men in the family were down one way or the other.
He couldn’t just leave his mother and sister on the streets, alone.
It was half an hour ago when they received a call from the hospital that Williams’ condition had worsened. After the heart attack, the old man forbade anyone from his family to meet him, let alone talk.
They tried to reach him, but he didn’t. To him, his family destroyed the name he built with his hard work, and there was no forgiveness for that.
"Brother," Carla held the corner of her brother’s coat, scared and out of options on how to catch anyone’s attention.
Everything turned upside down for her.
Her father was in the ICU, unconscious with his dirty laundry out in the open, her mother was in a state of shock and wasn’t speaking to anyone, barely moving around like a corpse, her brother was betrayed from all sides, her grandfather was fighting for his life, and her friends? They were the first ones to leave them alone. freewebnøvel.coɱ
All the name and fame they earned left them the moment their house was auctioned.
She was left with nothing at all. The person she trusted, Beatrice, stabbed them in a way that they had no way out anymore.
As she watched her brother remain silent, she looked at her phone, which had a message from her manager, helping her out of pity.
She walked to the side and dialled his number.
"Hello?" She spoke immediately.
"There’s a gig available. The pay is ten times the market rate. I wanted to know if you would like to audition for it," The Manager asked. freёwebnovel.com
Carla’s eyes sparked with hope, and she nodded eagerly, only to remember she was talking over the call and the manager couldn’t see her.
"Why are you asking me? You know my family’s condition. Of course, I want to sign up," Carla said.
The manager paused, a little hesitant.
"It’s in Frost’s mansion," the manager said.
Carla paused. Her ego and pride would never have allowed her to perform or act like an entertainer for that family after what they made Elara go through.
But after their family’s condition, she was left with no choice but to swallow her pride.
"I will do it. They might not take me because of my past and what I did to their daughter, so please keep searching. Thank you in advance. I am grateful for your help," Carla whispered, her words shocking the manager.
She was one hell of a spoiled brat who never said sorry or thank you because she thought she was paying everyone apt for their job.
And for someone like that to show gratitude even when he hadn’t done anything for her... he finally understood what it meant for a situation to change and reform a person’s personality.
After the call, Carla didn’t waste a second and got on the bus to the place where the auditions were taking place.
She immediately spotted Gabriella outside, talking on the phone about how important this was to her and her daughter.
From what she heard, they were probably planning a big party for Elara to celebrate her win and securing the exclusive deal with the Marcos.
With humility in her eyes and keeping her posture polite and not too offensive, Carla swallowed her pride and walked forward to take the registration paper.
"Oh, Carla, what are you doing here? I mean, after what I heard from the news, didn’t your family hate Elara and hurt her? How could you even dare to show your face here? Do you have no shame?" Tiffany asked, her words catching everyone’s attention.
Gabriella turned at the sound of commotion and looked straight at Carla, who looked like she wanted to do anything more than shrink in her place and disappear.
The girl wasn’t even meeting anyone’s eyes.
For a second, she felt pity for her, but after remembering what they made her daughter go through, that pity turned to anger.
She stepped forward, ready to kick Carla out of the place because she knew this girl only meant trouble and was probably here to ruin her daughter’s big day.
However, before she could reach Carla, someone stepped in, and Gabriella paused when she saw it was none other than her daughter.
"What’s going on here?" Elara’s voice was cold, detached as she looked at everyone before her.
Carla flinched in her place, her body visibly shaking with nervousness and fear.
She feared Elara would throw her away and was nervous because she needed this opportunity to help her family pay the bills.
Elara looked at the back of the woman who wasn’t facing her, and a smirk appeared on her face.
"Well, well, if this isn’t the almighty Carla Lloyd," Elara said.
Carla turned around, her gaze trained on Elara’s feet.
She recognized the limited-edition heels, something she had always wanted. A memory flashed inside her head.
It was when she had wanted to discard her shoes. She had seen Elara wearing sneakers inside the house and had said she was embarrassing their family by being so poor.
She had thrown those heels at Elara as charity and asked her to wear them. The heels had hit Elara’s face and even made her nose bleed.
Then, rather than apologizing, she had blamed Elara for not catching them.
The memory made Carla’s lips tremble, and she fell on her knees.
"I am sorry," she whispered, her actions taking everyone by surprise.
Was Carla Lloyd, who always boasted about never apologizing to anyone, really on her knees?
