Chapter 1197
Emilia didn't show up at the banquet because her belly was already too obvious.
Before leaving, Marcos came back with Laura and asked Lainey to go with Laura.
It was quite normal for a man of Marcos's status to have more than one wife.
And the only reason he asked Lainey to bring Laura to the banquet was that he wanted to make things official with her and to the public.
Lainey almost retched at the order yet she didn't dare to refuse.
Aleigha chose a gown that was brought over by Adrian, which was quite fashionable yet simple.
It was a pure black skin-tight gown, which barely covered half of her back.
Aleigha looked elegant and her figure was gentle and beautiful, especially her delicate and tender neck and her back.
This gown was almost tailor-made for her.
Samantha also wanted to go and plead with Charlotte for a long time before she got her approval.
She especially went to Aleigha's room to borrow a golden dress. It was also a quite simple and elegant dress.
Yet she had to put on a mink scarlet so as to be so-called "noble".
She only ended up looking like an upstart, causing Lainey to mock her all the way.
It was the first time for Laura to participate in this kind of activity, every move she made seemed to be filled with extreme caution.
The whole Gardner family took two cars to get to the venue.
Lainey insisted on getting in the same car with Laura and Aleigha, which made Aleigha hide in the passenger's seat.
Laura was sitting next to Lainey, and she looked very nervous. On the contrary, Lainey put on a pretentious act as though she was quite close and intimate with them, asking all around. Aleigha clearly knew what she was up to, knowing that she couldn't be that nice since Laura practically stole Lainey's husband's doting.
She had to be 120% careful today.
She was not afraid of Samantha's blatant squawks, what worried her was that Lainey could be secretly planning something.
The banquet was held in the Woods family's yard.
When they arrived at the place, Aleigha got to know that the theme of this banquet was a charity auction for children suffering from autism.
Charlotte's necklace was part of the auction, which she wanted to hand over to Windy herself.
Her initial intention was that she would buy it off with the highest bid so as to do a good deed. What she did not expect was that the necklace would disappear. She was very disappointed.
The replacement she offered could not compare with the necklace at all.
Windy had been waiting at the gate of the hall. When she saw the female guests of the Gardner family coming, she had a gratified smile on her face.
Charlotte was in a bad mood. She pulled Samantha forward, made a few short and simple introductions, and went in.
Aleigha followed closely behind Lainey, who insisted on taking Laura's hand and walking side by side. The latter didn't dare to make a move too bold as to pull back her hand. "Mrs. Woods, it is my utter honor to be invited to your banquet. This is Laura, the mother of Marcos's precious son."
Windy was stunned for a moment, then she said with a smile, "Welcome, come in."
After the two of them entered the room, Aleigha walked up to Windy and greeted them.
When Windy saw Aleigha's dress today, she couldn't hide her surprise.
"Mrs. Woods, I have something to talk to you about. This way please." Aleigha told Windy about the loss of Charlotte's necklace.
Although it was shocking, Windy was still patient and waited for her to finish.
"Mrs. Woods, I'm sure you've heard about what has happened recently in our house."
"Now that the necklace suddenly disappeared into the thin air, I'm afraid something else would come up. All I ask of you is that you play along later."
Windy nodded and looked at Aleigha with burning eyes. "Good girl, since you believe in me, I will oblige."Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
"I'll do whatever you need me to do, no matter what happens."
Aleigha smiled faintly. She said parted with Windy and entered the hall.
All the ladies who came to the banquet were unimaginably rich, of who Lainey knew quite a few.
Yet, unfortunately, and quite embarrassingly, due to the recent incident that befell Emilia, none of them felt like getting close to Lainey.
As for Aleigha, she attracted many people's attention as soon as she entered the door.
Lainey hated her to the extreme for she had stolen all the glory and applause that once belonged to her own daughter.
Her daughter's currently miserable
situation and morose state of mind
were all casued by Aleigha, or at
least that was what she'd like to believe.
But now, she was besieged from all sides. Marcos hadn't entered her house for many days because of Laura.
She wanted to take off Laura first
before coping with Aleigha. And
finally, she would reinstate her.net
status in the Gardener family so that Adrian would marry Emilia
That was her last wish.
At first, Aleigha didn't know Lainey's purpose. It was not until she got in the car that she suddenly realized something. The auction was about to begin, and the items prepared by the ladies were also arranged to be delivered on the stage. Charlotte disappointedly handed a spare diamond necklace in replacement.
She was not disappointed because of not being able to present the necklace but of the significance that the necklace meant to her. The female guests of the Gardner family were arranged to be at the front of the rows, which showed Windy's reverence for Charlotte.
The other ladies that were seated in the same row were the mayor's wife, some wives of local business tycoons. Lainey knew all of them. Yet no one seemed even interested in exchanging a few words of formalities with her.
As the auction began, Windy, the hostess of the house, naturally went up to introduce the list of the items being sold.
To everyone's surprise, Charlotte's necklace was on the list.
"What..." Charlotte was puzzled. Aleigha gently reached out to hold her hand and patted it gently.
She smiled calmly.
"Don't worry, at least the necklace is still there."
Her voice was very low, so Lainey did not hear it. All her attention was focused on the necklace being presented on the stage.
But she couldn't hide the smile at the corner of her mouth.
The auction began and Lainey was also one of the bidders.
Yet she didn't, in the end, succeed in buying anything.
The last item to be sold was the necklace. Everything had been going smoothly right up to this point. The smile was still on Aleigha's lips.
She was also waiting in silence.
All of a sudden, all the lights in the hall were turned on, and Windy suddenly left the stage.
Immediately, a wave of discussion went up in the hall.
After a while, when Windy came out again, there were two security guards and a police dog beside her.
"Ladies and gentlemen, something unexpected happened. The necklace of Mrs. Charlotte Gardner has been lost." Immediately, the crowd burst into an uproar.
"Lost? You mean stolen?" Lainey was the first to stand up and said in a loud voice full of righteous indignation. Aleigha didn't say anything. She held Charlotte's hand and looked at Windy calmly.
"In order to show fairness, I specially brought the hound here, and you can rest assured.
"They won't do any harm to anyone as long as you all sit perfectly still."
Windy ordered two security guards to lead the hound down.
"Aunt, could you please give one of your things to the hound to smell?"
Charlotte took out a handkerchief from her purse and handed it to the security guard.
The hound sniffed at the handkerchief and began to lower its head to trace the smell.
It was the first time that Samantha
had seen such a scene. She looked
like she was watching a good show,
but she thought in her heart, So
rich
dudes also steal?"
"Well, it's either a delirious rich dude or a dude pretending to be rich."
Laura was a little nervous. She cast an uneasy look at Aleigha and found that she did not look at her at all.
Lainey had also been keeping her eyes on Aleigha. She sneered and thought, "I'll see how you are gonna get her out of this now."