Ara was already fed up with the fake tears Claire was shading, she wanted all this drama to be over with, Ara glanced at the direction of the restroom to see if her sister was coming, but there was no signs of her. So now she had to deal with this by herself.
Ara spoke calmly as if it was nothing to worry about the issue of the masquerade ball, "It's alright...I forgive you...now can you stop crying?" Because it was starting to irritate her somehow. She watched as Claire wiped out her tears with the back of her hands, if someone should see Claire they would think Ara had bullied her.
"Okay if you have forgiven me...Why not drink from the glass of wine I gave you?...It's of peace offering." Exclaimed Claire with a pitiful expression.
In Findara there was something they called peace offerings, when you want to ask for forgiveness from someone, you have to offer something in return, it could be anything, if that person should reject your peace offer, that meant they won't forgive you, but if they accept, then everything is okay, which was why Claire had brought the glass of wine as a peace offer for Ara, not knowing Claire had spiked the drink she was offering.
Ara had no choice but to drink from it, or else she won't see the end of this crazy show Claire was putting up, because she could already see some people looking towards their table, if she refused to drink it, they might mistake her as the bad guy. She stared at the glass suspiciously. However, Ara could not openly reject the offer, she picked up the glass of wine Claire had offered, she just wanted to drink it quickly and drop the distractions.
Claire and her friends were already rejoicing inwardly as they saw her pick up the glass of wine, now this bitch would disgrace herself and never show her face in public again, the spotlight would be only hers alone, Claire smirked a little at her own thoughts.
Ara held the glass before her mouth, but then...suddenly she felt someone knock onto her shoulder with a force from behind, it got the glass to slip out of her hand, and then it hit Claire right on the face, while the wine inside poured on Claire's body.
Ara quickly turned to see who had pushed her, but the spot behind her was empty, No one at the table saw anybody behind her, only Ara felt it, she turned back to the ladies at the table and saw Claire's head was already turning red, with an angry expression on her face, Eleanora and Catherine also looked shocked, to them Ara had purposely threw the glass at Claire, the guests at the front seat who were looking at them earlier also looked shocked at the turn of event, even Ara looked a little shock.
But there was nobody behind her, who could have pushed her?
Claire's face hardened with anger, "YOU-" Claire quickly swallowed her words when she saw everyone was staring at them. This could be another opportunity for her to make Ara look like the bad guy, Claire quickly put on her pitiful expression.
While Ara on the other hand was still shocked, suddenly a slipping memory flashed to her head, she remembered attending this banquet in her past life alone without her sister, and went back home...drunk? How? She wasn't the type to take alcohol which was a taboo for a lady...or maybe Claire had spite the drink?
Now everything made sense to her, Claire was trying to make her drink the wine, because she had spite it with God knows what, to make her do embarrassing things at the banquet to ruin her image in the high society. Like a panorama, scenes from the past emerged of her drinking the wine Claire offered, and then scene of everyone calling her names.
Ara smirked as she remembered everything that happened in the past, she turned to see all the eyes were on them.
Claire didn't say anything and continued to shed her fake tears, at that moment Luanda's angry face came into her view from far, while Eleanora and Catherine stood there frozen, they weren't expecting the turn of event.
Claire quickly took note of the situation, she didn't understand why Ara threw the glass of wine at her face, but Claire quickly came up with a new plan as she saw the people at the hall looking at them, she was going to make Ara pay for stealing her spotlight and for ruining her looks and face, Ara had dared to mock her by hitting her face with the glass. The humiliation she received from this bitch was too much for her to back down now.
At the sound of Claire's crying voice, the hall had turned dead silent, but now murmuring voices began to fill the air, everyone's attention turned to Luanda who was approaching them to see what was happening.
When Luanda arrived at the scene, she saw her niece crying with a red bump on her forehead, with wine dripping from her face, Claire looked so pitiful, Luanda's face hardened with anger as she looked around the ladies at the table, Eleanora, Catherine, Ara, she could see that it no small issue that Claire a noble daughter was crying like that,
"What is going on here? Who did this to her?" Asked Luanda with a displeased look on her face.
Claire was the first to answer with a choked voice,
"Aunt Luanda...I came to apologize to lady Ara...with a peace offer, for something I did wrong to her, but...She angrily threw the glass at me...I was just..." Claire couldn't finish her words as she continued to cry, her eyes were wet with tears as she covered her mouth with both hands, Luanda gave a handkerchief to Claire in an attempt to soothe her,
"Oh dry your tears my dear...stop crying."
"Yes, mother lady Ara had angrily threw the glass at Claire, and said some mean things to her, Claire had only meant to apologize with the glass of wine." It was Catherine who spoke with an accusing finger pointed at Ara.
Claire wiped her tears away with the handkerchief offered to her, then she pretended to hold back her sobs, and watched her cousin defended her.
The crowd all turned to Ara, Luanda glared at Ara with a cold look than before,
"Lady Ara, is that true, how could you do such heartless thing to Claire?" Luanda asked with a cold voice.
Eleanora and Catherine's expression turned happy at the direction the event was turning to.
Ara held her ground even though the people at the hall were looking at her with accusing faces. Then Ara looked straight at Eleanora, Catherine, and Claire in front of her.
The reason why she didn't remember this incident was because she was still relatively young here, in the future where she experienced hardships after her family was killed, the memory of drinking spite wine was gone, which was why she couldn't remember such incidents. Ara wasn't good at defending herself in situations like this, if only she could wield her sword here, Ara would have made Claire confessed to her stupid act without a single hesitation.
Then she would cut off that stupid face of hers just to teach them a lesson to not mess with her ever again, had that person not pushed her, she could have been in God knows what situation. Who could that person be? She would worry about the person later when she was done here.
However, Ara didn't have time and strength to explain to all these people about what really happened, because she knew they wouldn't believe her over the infamous Luanda's niece, Claire was using her fake tears to play the victim, Ara would deal with her later, but they could go believe whatever they want to believe,
"You already believed her...why are you asking me?" At Ara's calm question, the crowd started to murmured again.
"I told you she did it on purpose, just because I asked her to forgive me." Exclaimed Claire with a choked voice.
"Yes, she was jealous of Claire's beauty, that's why she threw the glass at her to ruin her beauty." Accused Eleanora.
"Oh my! I never knew the young lady of the Boxton family could be so dark hearted." Came a murmur from the crowd.
"Yes, and she looks so innocent, one would never think she had such evil mind."
"Humph! She was just jealous of the kind and innocent Claire, and here I was comparing them both, she is not even fit to sit close to Claire."
"And look at that dress she's wearing, so old fashioned, I can't believe I found it beautiful."
The crowd suddenly found Ara distasteful as they spat hateful words at her, seeing Claire's pitiful expression they couldn't help but dislike Ara more as they looked at her.
They even went as far as downgrading her attire which they praised earlier as they looked at her like a villainous lady who was filled with jealousy for Claire.