The guests gathered around to see what all the fuss was about. "Why would he marry such a woman?" one said. "What a disgrace!" said another. People started to gossip about them.
Meanwhile, Carla remained silent. She knew Zayn was avenging her.
Alia's hand was tingling from slapping Lola repeatedly across her already swollen face. The mother-daughter duo hugged each other as they burst into tears.
Shortly afterward, Alia wiped off her tears and asked, "Miss Brown, are you happy now?"
"Off you go." Lena waved her away.
Simeon went up to help them, but Zayn stopped them from leaving. "Did I say you can go?" he asked in an icy voice.
Lola shuddered. "What else do you want from me?" she wept.
"Zip it." Simeon tried to stop her from making another scene.
"Fine." Alia took a deep breath, approached Carla, and executed a deep bow. "Miss Wigston, I'm sorry for raising my hand at you last time. Please, let me atone for my rudeness."
She slapped herself continuously as punishment.
"Mom!" Lola bawled as Wenoma grabbed her hand. "Mrs. Stayton, stay out of it. You'll make it worse."
She could only watch and weep in despair at her mother's suffering.
Carla's eyebrow knitted into a frown. Although she had no wish to see Alia in such a plight, she couldn't forget how the woman had mistreated her children.
"Enough!" Simeon couldn't bear to see his wife in pain. "Carla, do me a favor. I'm pleading for your mercy. Please spare her."
His earnestness somehow appealed to her. "I think we should just let it slide, " Carla uttered softly.
"All this time, did she ever have mercy on you?" Zayn shot her a glare to shut her up.
A loud thud punctuated the silence. Simeon gasped in shock when he saw Alia lying on the ground.
"Alia!" He hurriedly pulled her into his arms.
"Mom! Wake up! Mom, don't scare me!" Lola shook her shoulder to wake her up.
"Send her to the hospital!" someone shouted.
Simeon immediately picked Alia up with Lola following closely behind.
"Mr. Giblo, Miss Wigston, please excuse me." Wenoma left.
There Alia goes again! Playing the same, old disgusting trick whenever she is in unfavorable conditions.
Carla turned around. The bystanders looked at her. They seemed to blame her for what happened.
It suddenly dawned on her. It was human nature to feel empathy for the weak, even Lola, despite her rudeness and arrogance.
They blamed Carla because she had talked Zayn into punishing the mother-daughter duo which put a strain on Alia and caused her collapse.
People would have rebuked her, saying she was the wicked witch and Zayn was not to blame for that incident.
The auction was still ongoing. Everyone returned to their seat.
As Zayn and Carla prepared to leave, she saw the pink diamond ring under her feet. She bent down, picked it up and passed it to Lena.
"Thanks, " said Lena with a smile on her face before she returned to her seat.
Carla stared at her while she walked away. It reminded her of how they used to fight over Harry back then. Lena was utterly fearless and bold, which sometimes would get on her nerves. However, Carla had never hated her.
After all those years, they finally met. Although they didn't have a chance to catch up, Lena hadn't uttered an unkind word to Carla. On the other hand, her cousin, Lola who was more like a sister to Carla tried to set her up repeatedly.
I guess that's human nature.
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