Leah turned to Clarissa and noticed how disturbed she appeared. Trying to lift her daughter's spirits, she said, "Zane's flight may have exhausted him, and he may not want to reflect on personal matters right now."
Clarissa turned from his retreating figure and faced her mother. "I don't think he's exhausted. He's just being cold," she said softly.
Leah waved off her concern with a faint sigh. "Whatever it is, just get along with him. Our collaboration agreement with the Cassius Group expires soon, and we need to renew it. Maintaining a good business relationship with them is essential."
"So have fun, dear. Don't overthink it," Hudson added.
Clarissa nodded, exhaling with relief.
With an amicable smile on her lips, Leah wrapped her arms around Hudson, who patted Clarissa's shoulder. They both wore their usual perfect couple demeanor in public before they moved on, striding toward other elites to discuss business.
Meanwhile, Selina's eyes remained on Hudson as she watched him mingle with some elites alongside Leah. Her gaze shifted to Clarissa across the room; she envied society's acknowledgement of her half-sister as their father's daughter and Everett's only child.
Selina blinked, breaking from her thoughts the moment she noticed Clarissa waving at her. She hesitated, lifting her hand in the air, and waved back, both of them smiling genuinely at each other.
Clarissa stepped forward to approach her sister, whom she hadn't seen in a while, but her mother's soft voice called for her nearby. She hesitated for a moment before heading to join her mother and the group.
Unbeknownst to Selina, three bossy girls from the left side were approaching, realizing that her presence didn't match their exclusivity.
As Selina lifted a delicious dessert to take a bite, someone yanked it from her hand, causing her face to contort in confusion.
The girls sized up Selina with scornful glares, noting a sparkling necklace on her neck, but her appearance made them doubt its authenticity. They believed that she didn't fit their world of silks and diamonds; her presence was a shrink in their curated perfection.
A girl at the left remarked sharply, "Her scent is cheap, and everything about her is, too," prompting Selina to glance at their expensive attire.
The girl in the middle frowned, maintaining a condescending look directed at Selina. "You don't look like a wealthy lady. How did you get inside?"
Selina saw that these girls looked troublesome, and she wondered how she had attracted their attention despite her efforts to remain unnoticed.
Straightening her spine and adopting a neutral expression to project confidence, Selina replied, "Mr. Zane invited me, and I expect my presence shouldn't disturb you."
The girls let out a mocking laugh at Selina's bold claim, clearly seeing her as an outsider.
"That's outrageous!" the middle girl exclaimed. "You must have stolen someone's card and now have the nerve to lie about being invited."
"Someone as respectable and influential as Mr. Zane would never associate with a low-life girl like you!" another girl scolded bitterly.
"Maybe she's just here for free food," the third girl spat.
Those contemptuous words hit Selina's dignity like a physical blow, and she clenched her fists at her sides. Even if she was starving to death before, she had never attended an event just for a free meal. Neither had she begged for it.
"First, I didn't steal the invitation card from anyone. Second, I'm not here to meet your imagined scenarios. I'm here to celebrate Mr. Zane's return," Selina retorted calmly.
They refused to believe that Mr. Zane would invite someone as lowly as her to an event meant for elites.
The middle girl waved her hand dramatically in front of Selina's face, as if to ward off what she considered the stench of Selina's supposed lies. "What relationship do you have with Mr. Zane that would warrant an invitation?" she interrogated.
Selina remained silent.
"Who knows? She might be here to entice him into some transactional relationship that will elevate her pathetic life." Another girl sneered in response to Selina's silence.
"Unfortunately for her, we won't let her dirty trick work."
"We don't need to do anything because she's too ugly to even catch his attention."
They all chuckled.
Selina glanced past the girls, realizing that this conversation was harming her sense of belonging, and they seemed troublesome. Her chest burned with pain about how these girls viewed her beyond lowly. She didn't want trouble, knowing that arguing with them would only waste her strength and escalate into a fight.
Once things got heated, she was certain that everyone in the room would side with the troublesome girls since she was different. She didn't want to embarrass herself, nor did Mr. Zane.
Instead of replying, Selina picked up her purse and present as she spun around, intent on finding a quiet spot away from their troublesome intentions.
The girls exchanged mischievous glances. They didn't like Selina's presence there, and the thought of Zane being the one inviting her there irritated them. In a swift motion, one of them shoved a hand against Selina's back. The impact caused her to stumble uncontrollably as she fought to regain her balance.
It was too late; she lost her footing and crashed onto the table's surface.
Shatter!
The sharp clang mixed with a thud pierced the lively atmosphere, drawing curious and confused glances from everyone in the room.
For a second, the entire room seemed to freeze. But the ruthless whispers of the guests cut through.
"Who is she?"
"Can't you tell? She looks like a kid from a lower class,"
"Did someone bring a charity case?"
"Is she drunk or just desperate for attention?"
The guests exchanged amused chuckles, their disdainful gazes fixed on Selina's hunched figure on the floor.
"You have four eyes but could only use two. Watch carefully," the middle girl taunted.
The girls kept laughing mockingly behind Selina, their jeers igniting a surge of rage that boiled through her veins. She remained frozen, staring at herself amid the shattered glass and the ruins of her present. She grasped her dress, her fingers clutching it tightly like a soothing source to stay unfazed in the humiliating air threatening to swallow her.
Tears threatened to gather in her eyes, but she refused it, not even a trace of it. She wouldn't allow herself to look weak, like a plaything under their disdainful scrutiny. She wouldn't give them that pleasure.
Just then, Selina heard her father calling her name urgently.
"Selina!" Hudson called out.
Selina lifted her gaze and saw him storming in her direction, with Leah and Clarissa trailing behind.
When Hudson drew closer, he knelt beside his daughter and wrapped a hand across her shoulder, helping her to her feet.
"What happened? How did you end up in this state?" Hudson asked, his voice dripping with concern as his eyes scanned her body for a bruise. He breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that she was unharmed.
Selina locked her furious gaze on the girls. Their expressions had now turned neutral, as if clueless about the humiliation they had just put her through.
"They were angry because a lowly person like me attended the party. They pushed me," she answered, anger shooting through Hudson's calm demeanor, boiling deep in his veins.
The girls straightened their expressions into something serious.
"What do you mean, we pushed you? She's lying." the middle girl retorted, glaring at Selina as if that would make her swallow back her resolve.
Hudson's expression changed in an instant as he scowled at the girls. "What is wrong with you? Were you raised this way? Apologize to her."
"What?" the girls exclaimed in unison.
"We won't apologize to her. We did nothing wrong," the middle girl said defiantly.
"Don't accuse us when you weren't even here."
"Is there proof we pushed her?" another added.
"After all, she doesn't belong here," the middle girl mumbled.
Hudson raised a finger at them. "You little brats…" he trailed off, holding back his rage as he clenched his fist. "I will make you pay for humiliating my dau—"
"Hudson." Leah quickly interrupted, stopping him from proclaiming Selina as his child. "You can't act and speak recklessly in public."
She wouldn't let that happen, no matter what, not even a slip of the tongue out of anger.
Leah swept her gaze across the room, noticing the guests now casting curious glances about Hudson's connection to the girl. Everyone knew Hudson to be calm and reserved. No one had seen him this furious before over something.
"I'm sure this is a misunderstanding. Girls will be girls. Maybe someone bumped into another, which caused the accident," Leah said coldly, attempting to change the atmosphere.
Seeing Leah on their side, the girls nodded in agreement.
"You're right, ma'am. We barely touched her."
"She slipped."
Leah held her head high, shifting a grim expression toward Selina. "Must you always overreact to everything? You must learn to get along with people and not to cause them trouble with your clumsiness."
"Mother, Selina isn't clumsy, and neither is she a liar," Clarissa snapped, locking an angry gaze onto the girls. "This girl must have done it on purpose to humiliate her."
The girls frowned, glaring back at Clarissa.
Leah curled her lips into a slightly ridiculous smile. "No one will be interested in humiliating Selina because she has no face to save publicly."