"Wow, who's that woman?"
someone's voice suddenly asked. Ximena body's stiffened at the sound. But the embarrassed look on
her face was gone as soon as it came. She went back to picking food from the buffet as if nothing had
happened.
"Wow, wow..." A woman cast a look at Molly and moved her mouth to the direction of Ximena. "A
sparrow will never become a phoenix. Well, someone must have felt happy for having caught herself a
rich man in exchange for her body."
The group of women that she was with started giggling when she finished talking. Their laughter was
that of mockery.
Molly frowned. She looked at the group of women, and then at Ximena, who was standing casually by
her side and was picking a piece of mousse cake into her plate. She was acting like she didn't hear
anything.
Molly admired her for her composure and courage. Stay calm in the middle of a storm! That is not easy
at all! How do we take cruel words with just a grain of salt? Ximena definitely knew how. Molly turned to
look at the women again. They were enraged by the fact that Ximena was just ignoring them. Their
face twisted into a grimace.
"Ximena, what a bitch!" One woman sneered, "What does it feel like to be a snake stealing Aaron from
Vivi? It must be nice to be the other woman, huh!"
Then Vivi, probably, piped, "Just let it go. It was no one's fault. I lost him and that's that..." Her voice
was soft and weak as if that was all she could muster out. Her eyes were welling up with tears. It was
obvious that she was the one that got hurt the most in the love triangle that was her, Aaron, and
Ximena.
As if they didn't hear Vivi at all, the group of women just started talking badly of Ximena and Aaron.
Ximena was just right here and here they were talking so cruelly about her. Ximena, however, graceful
as ever, remained calm. She wasn't looking directly at them but she could definitely hear everything.
Molly looked at Ximena, who had just tightened her grip to the food tongs in her hand. As someone
who knew nothing about what was happening, Molly knew to suspend her judgment until further notice.
But for some reason, she didn't believe a word those women said about Ximena. Even if Ximena had
been the other woman - for sure that wasn't the only side of the story. Her relationship with Brian was
complicated. Ximena might have her reason as well.
Molly turned to study Vivi, who looked quite naive and pure. But that might have been what she really
wanted the people to think of her. For some reason, Vivi reminded Molly of Becky who hid under the
pretension of naivety but was really wicked on the inside.
"That's enough!" Molly finally cried, "You're in public. Please be careful of the words that you choose to
say. This isn't the time or place to be inappropriate."
"And who are you?" A small girl in a white dress said as she measured Molly up and down. Then she
continued before Molly could answer, "Well, I guess it's true, birds of the same feather do really flock
together. She got herself another sparrow too! So you must like taking men away from other women
too, huh? "
Her words stung Molly. She was feeling both ashamed and enraged suddenly that she lost her ability to
speak.
"Yes, I seduced Aaron. Do you have a problem with that?" Suddenly, Ximena turned to face all the
women, speaking up for the first time, "I seduced Aaron because I could do it. I'm his type. If I lost my
lover to anyone else, I'd never show myself to the winner because I would be ashamed so. It's pretty
bold of you to show up here. Because it's such a pity that you would be stupid enough to do that."
"You..."
By the time Ximena finished speaking, every single one of those women were fuming. Ximena
managed to insult everyone. Vivi's eyes were red from tears. She couldn't speak as she was trying.
Ximena was staring directly at Vivi's tear-stained face and said coldly, "Vivi, stop crying. It gets you
nowhere. Stop continuously proving to me that you are really weak. I bet you do this everyday. Aren't
you tired of it yet? It's becoming part of you! Haven't you figured it out yet? No one's buying your
innocent act. I wonder where you got that. Your parents? I pity you, Vivi. Really, from the bottom of my
heart."
"Ximena, what did you say? You're a slut!" One woman shouted furiously. She raised her hand as if she
was going to slap Ximena on the face. But she stopped before her hand could even get near Ximena's
face. All of a sudden, she couldn't see anything anymore and her face had been slapped with a pice of
cake.
Molly had to keep herself from laughing at the sight of the woman's face smothered with colorful cake
icing. It was definitely a hilarious scene, especially at a cocktail party such as this. She felt nothing but
admiration for Ximena's courage. After all, this was Aaron's cocktail party and, as the hostess, she was
brave to do such a controversial thing while some other women would have just ignored them. Ximena
wasn't one to back down. It might have been rash, but she was doing it to protect herself which Molly
highly approved of.
Hyped up by Ximena's bold act of courageousness, Molly felt her body vibrating with an urge to fight
back. Everyone kept their reactions in check though. She watched as the Vivi's group grimaced in
response. She was so caught up in the moment that she hadn't noticed that a larger group had already
circled around them watching the fight.
"Ximena, take your anger out on me, not my friend," Vivi offered as more tears welled up in her eyes.
They were brimming to the end as if they were set to all come crashing down any minute now, "I may
have lost Aaron but you have no right to insult my parents. They have nothing to do with this. They just
supported me like any parents would do to their kid. You've got some nerve..."
Her tears finally fell like rivers as she trailed off.
Vivi was cunning in that way because no one had heard how they insulted Ximena and Molly, and now
that people had gathered to watch the scene, here she was making Ximena look worse. What's more,
the people even saw Ximena slap a piece of cake into one of Vivi's friends. The crowd was buzzing
when Vivi started talking about her parents. Now the people were judging Ximena and were taking
Vivi's side, pitying them.
It seemed that everyone had some idea about Ximena's past with Aaron because, unlike Vivi and her
friends, Ximena was new to this crowd. Of course, these other rich people were going to side with their
fellow rich people who, in this case, was Vivi.
"Ximena, weren't you originally dating Aaron's brother? So, what? You just left him out of nowhere so
you can slide into Aaron's bed after finding out he was cut off by his family? You're nothing if not a
whore, Ximena!" The woman with cake on her face cried furiously.
"Madam, if I were you, I'd be at the restroom by now cleaning myself up. You look awful," Molly said
simply. "Please stop yelling. You look crazy. Is this what your parents taught you? The people here may
choose your side because they already know you and they think you're a well-mannered girl. But let me
tell you, those who don't know you will think you're the exact opposite."
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