THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 450: This One Has Been Taken!

Lauren chuckled, leaning in closer. "Maybe you should have told us you knew Ariel had a daughter with my cousin."

Kathleen’s face transformed, surprise mixing with a flash of indignation. "Your what? Don’t tell me that that asshole that abandoned her after having his way with her is related to you in any way. i swear, I’m going to kill him. Where is he?"

"So, you knew?" Cheryl interjected, amused.

"Knew what?" Kathleen asked amidst her anger.

"That Ariel’s already had a child and never told us ... and here I was thinking that as the oldest of all of us, at least I wouldn’t be the last to be called ’mom’... You must have been laughing at me all these while..."

"Quit your nonsense. We’re discussing something serious here, Lauren." Kathleen shot her a look, but her attention was quickly drawn back to Ariel. "Where is your cousin? Is he in this city?" Kathleen demanded.

"Janice, calm down. Things are not exactly the way you’re taking it," Cheryl said. " See, she took him to see Georgia last weekend. As we speak, they might have worked things out," she added with a mischievous smile.

This time, it was Ariel’s turn to be at the receiving end of Kathleen’s anger and Ariel shifted uncomfortably.

"Ariel, please, tell me the truth. What is going on?"

"N-nothing. I... I mean, George mistakenly found out about Georgia and insisted on meeting her and I just couldn’t..."

"Mistakenly found out? Wait... let me get this straight," Kathleen said with furrowed brows. "You mean... he never knew about Georgia."

Ariel nodded meekly.

"It appeared an overzealous but equally jealous friend of Ariel’s played a prank on both of them," Cheryl supplied.

"And George has been looking for Ariel all these years and just found her last week. He’s willing to restitute for all those years even though he wasn’t to blame for what had happened, but Ariel isn’t sure yet on what to do," Lauren quickly added in her cousin’s defence.

Who knows what Kathleen might do to George if she insists he is guilty and what sinister ideas he’d give Ariel to torment him with.

She’d seen first hand what she did to Shawn before she finally forgave him and didnt want one tenth of that to be repeated with her darling cousin.

To her greatest relief, she saw Kathleen’s gaze soften as she seemed to pieced it together.

As if Cheryl had also read Lauren’s mind, she said, "Seems Ariel might still have feelings for him as she now realised that George was also a victim of her friend’s jealous plot to keep them apart."

"That’s not true," Ariel denied and withdrew her gaze from where a particular direction she’d been staring at. However, she wasn’t fast enough as Kathleen had already seen her gaze going there intermittently.

Kathleen had seen Ariel’s pained gaze rest on a couple. But there was something strange about the two, while the beautiful blond haired woman dressed in a short silver strapless gown that barely got to her knees, was trying to get close to an equally handsome man whose features were not far behind from how handsome Shawn and Jason were, the man had an irritating expression as if he couldn’t wait to get away from the woman.

’Was he Ariel’s George?’ Kathleen couldn’t help but wonder.

She glanced back at Ariel who had again looked over at the couple and she saw her white knuckles clenched beside her sides.

"That’s George, right?" Kathleen asked, taking the three women by surprise.

Following Kathleen’s gaze, Cheryl mumbled a slow "Yes, how did you.. " But trailed off as she saw Kathleen directly march in the direction where George was standing with an unknown woman.

As a victim of the vices and manipulations of jealous and evil women, Kathleen, of course couldn’t stand one when she saw them.

The closer she got, the more familiar the woman looked and by the time she was close enough she had been able to establish the identity of the woman. She was one of Linda’s lackeys in the past. How did she get invited to the banquet?

The three women followed closely behind Kathleen and arrived just in time to hear the sharp rebuke of her voice. "May I remind you that this is a formal gathering and not a place for hookups?"

The woman who was about leaning close to George jerked upright and turned to glare at Kathleen. But the retort on her lips froze from the coldness emanating from Kathleen’s lilac eyes which had turned a deep shade of purple.

Also, the aura of her presence was so intimidating that the woman instantly broke out in cold sweat.

"I...I’m...excuse me," the lady said and was about to escape but was stopped by Kathleen’s voice.

"Next time you are looking for men to shamelessly seduce, choose your location wisely and also, look for the ones without labels... This one has been taken! And unless you want a repeat of what happened to your friend to happen to you, stay far away from other women’s men. Now get lost!" Kathleen ordered icily.

It took the woman some seconds to break out from the spell of that commanding tone but when she eventually did, she scampered away like a rabbit running for her life.

Kathleen watched as the woman scurried away, a satisfied look crossing her face. She turned back to George, whose expression was a perfect blend of surprise and awe.

Kathleen barely spared him a glance, crossing her arms as she addressed him with a steely gaze.

"You must be George," she stated coolly.

George, caught off-guard, managed a nod. "Yes, and you must be Dr Janice Wyatt. Ariel’s boss? Ariel told me about you... " His voice trailed off uncertainly as his gaze shifted to where Ariel stood, flanked by Cheryl and Lauren.

Kathleen raised an eyebrow. "Boss, yes, and someone who values her happiness. Which, I’ll warn you, is why I have no qualms about calling people out when they interfere in that happiness. I trust you’re here tonight with good intentions?" The threat in her voice was subtle but unmistakable.

George cleared his throat as he regained his composure. "I am," he said, his eyes momentarily flickering to Ariel. "I’d never want to cause her anything but happiness."

Kathleen studied him for a moment longer as if weighing his sincerity. Finally, she nodded and relaxed her face slightly. "Good. Just remember, I’ll hold you to that."

At this, Cheryl let out a small laugh, stepping forward to diffuse the tension. "Oh, Janice, no need to intimidate the poor man before Ariel. You might do a lot of damage to his self esteem."

Kathleen shrugged, unbothered, and then stepped aside, giving George a clear view of Ariel.

"I’m personally handing her over to you for the night, I don’t want to hear any complaints from her about you. I don’t deal kindly with snobs and heartbreakers. And... welcome to the party," she added over her shoulders as she moved away, taking Cheryl and Lauren with her."

"Let’s give them some alone time to sort themselves out." Kathleen said when Lauren and Cheryl showed the slightest hint of objection.

Talking about sorting out something, there’s someone I urgently need you to meet."

"Why do you sound as if it is a matter of life and death?"

"It is, pleae come with me before your husband shows up," Cheryl said and dragged Kathleen to one of the rooms in the building.