Even after several days, Lizzy’s lips were still swollen. It seemed that the slap she had given herself had been quite effective.
Ariella felt a sense of pride in her own strength.
After all, when she thought about it, she was always the winner when fighting over a piece of bread with other children at the orphanage.
As the kids returned home with bloody noses, young Ariella would demand, “Forgive the wicked!” She had been scolded by Kaia for saying such things.
“Oh my, Arrie. Did you come to apologize to me?”
Lizzy tilted her head and asked in an innocent voice. Although she must have been quite surprised by the sudden visit, her nonchalant response was truly impressive.
“Of course not. What a grand dream you have. I just came to see if you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“I’m going to the ball tomorrow with Aaron as my partner.”
Ha, Lizzy scoffed as if it were ridiculous.
“Why would I be worried? Do you think the prince would still be interested in you now?”
There was no need for her to moderate the conversation either. With the maids all gone, there was no need to pretend to be nice.
“Hahaha! Arrie, did you really hear correctly that day? If you did, you wouldn’t be under such an illusion. What was it you said? That he looked like a beggar on the street, as thin as a skeleton? Or that he had no taste?”
Thus, Lizzy even mentioned ‘that day.’
Her intention was to tear Ariella’s pride to shreds, but Ariella’s expression remained calm.
It was only natural.
How could she feel humiliated by a man who was trying to win another woman’s body when he didn’t even love her? Thinking of what that man had done to her, she felt rather pleased.
“Isn’t that right, Lizzy?”
Clicking her heels, Ariella walked over to Lizzy’s bed.
The bed where her fiancé had clutched another woman’s chest and cried out her name. Thinking of it made her want to laugh in disgust.
Leaning down slowly, she whispered a secret in a low voice.
“He always wanted to have me.”
It was a thought that had once made her shudder. Yet, Ariella spoke it with great pleasure.
“But I refused, and that upset Aaron.”
Lizzy’s pupils trembled slightly.
She had never been interested in Ariella’s body from the start. Aaron had said that right here on this bed.
Even as she smiled pleasantly at those words, deep down she knew the truth. That Aaron was not that kind of man. He must have been desperate to have Ariella, who acted so haughtily.
“So that’s why he chose you.”
“…What?”
“The reason he chose you, and the reason he called out my name while clutching that clumsy body of yours. It’s all because of that.”
Her condescending gaze swept over the deep valley exposed by Lizzy’s low-cut dress.
“I didn’t give it to him; you offered it.”
So easily. The secretive whisper scratched at her insides.
Lizzy’s violet eyes blazed with fury.
Ariella had just insulted her. She had said she had given her body away like a harlot.
At the same time, she was subtly threatening her. If Ariella were to allow Aaron to have her body now, his feelings would change.
“Ha, how could you not feel ashamed looking like that and coming here…!”
Lizzy sneered at Ariella. It was absurd that she was acting so confidently, as if she were the world’s femme fatale, while even the indoor dress she wore was utterly ridiculous.
Even if Ariella were to give everything up and seduce Aaron, he would not easily fall for her.
After all, Ariella’s appearance was far too crude to satisfy Aaron’s aesthetic sense, and the tower she had built over the years would not collapse so easily. Right now, Aaron liked the cute and lovely Lizzy very much.
However, a fleeting sense of fear began to rise in her heart.
Could his feelings truly last forever?
Even after a month, or a year. Would he really only look at her?
The sound of grinding teeth echoed in the room.
“So what? Are you trying to sell your body like a harlot now? When you don’t even love the prince?”
“It’s funny that you mention love. If someone gives their body to someone they don’t love, then what does that make you?”
Ariella smiled as she watched Lizzy raise her voice at her.
Lizzy did not love Aaron. She was just using him.
Ariella knew this better than anyone. The Lizzy she knew was not that foolish. Just by the fact that she did not believe Aaron’s feelings would last, it was clear.
“Are you treating me like a harlot right now? The future Princess of Bedford?”
Furious, Lizzy shot up and yelled.
