Chapter 158 Lydia v/s Vivian
They all laughed, while Jonathan squeezed Liliana’s waist. He could see the suffering of the 9 years old motherless child who had also lost her father, and her home and was forced to live with an abusive stepmother and stepsister.
Liliana understood his gesture and added, “Lydia and Rose are very easy to read. They are vicious, greedy, thrive on other’s misfortune, are easily jealous, lack all moral compass, and don’t have all that much brain. They are petty people who can be read, dealt with, and manipulated easily. But most importantly, they were always fated to be doomed. We are just delaying it for our amusement.”
Jonathan smiled helplessly at her simple gesture of consoling him.
Liam was paying attention to everyone, a habit from work. He was happy to see them getting along so well.
He could also see some sparks between Vincent and Alice as they bickered and very subtly competed.
What worried Liam the most was James and Mariana’s interactions. He knew the joke and scuffle between those, but they seem to be treading dangerous waters.
Henry added after he had finished laughing, “Why do you say as if it was a lot of fun? It must have been hard for you.”
Liliana shrugged, “It was very fulfilling. I was sure they were not capable of harming me in any way. I could have had them disappear from P city without a trace but I wanted them to pay for my mother’s sufferings, so I waited. And to be honest, at that time I was going through some lessons, and staying in front of them served as a great way to learn how to keep a poker face.”
Mariana seconded her, “They are very easy to trick. I can guarantee they never managed to one-up Lil. The only time they had succeeded was with her marriage, and that was only because Lil was in love with him. It was more like Lil giving in for Jonathan’s sake.”
Jonathan’s face clouded at her words, so Liliana laughed, “Worked out fine though. We are together and we have two lovely kids and Kyle. I was honored to have been acquainted with Kyle’s mother.”
Jonathan heaved a sigh at her words. She had really gotten past their past. It was time he did the same. It all ended well for them and fate had always been in their favor. He should also get over his guilt at the petty wrongs that Lil had suffered and move on ahead together to a brighter future.
Alice asked, “That proves why you don’t take the Apices seriously, but why do you hate Vivian so much?”
Mariana’s eyes were full of anger thinking of Vivian Stone.
She took a deep breath before she explained, “Vivian is smart. She has a high IQ and EQ. Not anything comparable to Lil, of course, but she was smart and a good actor. She faked being the gracious classmate who wanted to groom the young prodigy and framed us multiple times. If not for Lil seeing through her tricks, she would have succeeded in getting us expelled several times. And each time, she used someone else as a scapegoat.”
Liliana could see the resentment on Mariana’s face as she added, “Mer used to idolize our music teacher and she was quite open about it. But Vivian sexualized it in the most perverted way. We were able to resolve the misunderstanding and prove Mer’s innocence but the damage had been done. She left the class and never stood in front of the teacher due to embarrassment.”
Mer added, “She had always been nasty. Our GK teacher used to be very strict and I was quite bad at it, while Lil was good at it. She used it to separate us, create misunderstanding between us, ruin Lil’s image in front of the teacher, and on and on. As soon as we jumped a year and became batchmates with her, she spent every passing minute plotting against us.”
Liam asked, “I never understood why you jumped class. I get Lil’s reasons but you are definitely not the type.”
Mariana did not know whether to laugh or cry at that while the others sniggered, “Why? Thank you for the compliment!”
Liam shrugged as she glared at him, “You know what I mean.”This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.
Mariana just shook her head in helplessness, “Well, Lil used to tutor me because she did not want to be alone.”
Henry exclaimed, “That’s it?”
Mariana shrugged, “To be honest, she simply did not want to bother playing friends with other people. As you may have noticed, our friend circle is pathetically small.”
Liliana cheered, ‘touche’. She was never bothered with that.
Liliana had always been aware of her special identity and knew it was quite bothersome to find real friends, besides it was impossible to ascertain that those friends would remain loyal throughout the end.
Getting acquainted with Henry, Jennifer, and Liam had always been a lucky coincidence and she was grateful for that.
But that did not change her fundamentally taciturn personality.
Jonathan was the same, so he smiled at that.
The friends continued their chit-chat as they finally understood where Mariana’s grudge against Vivian had stemmed from.
Both Mariana and Liliana had avoided the other thing that Vivian had caused, but that was for a show and it would ruin the surprise reveal if they mentioned it just like that.