Chapter 86
Andrew and Fiona were both furious.
‘Stella is getting more and more out of line. She won’t agree
things difficult for us?‘ they thought.
to marry Troy and insists on marrying Jordan. Isn’t she just making
go to Stella’s birthday
Anna said, “Mom, Dad, Max, why don’t we party? We haven’t celebrated her birthday in the past three years, so it’s natural for her to be upset. Let’s go today and help her calm down.”
Fiona looked at Anna, her heart aching. “But what about your birth”
Anna slipped her arm through Fiona’s. “You’ve already given me a gift, and I’m really happy. Let’s just say we’ve already celebrated. Besides, I want to make things better with Stella.”
Fiona’s heart ached even more. “You always end up being the
“No, Stella’s the one who’s sacrificed more,” Anna replied.
one to make sacrifices.”
Andrew sighed, “If Stella were even half as thoughtful as you, we wouldn’t have to worry so much.”
Anna’s lips curved into a smile, especially when she caught the way Max looked at her, like he was saying, ‘This is my sister, and I’m proud of her.‘
Anna knew she had outshone Stella once again, and in her parents‘ eyes, she now had an even better image.
The more she acted like this, the more they would favor Anna when they went to Stella’s birthday party.
Stella wasn’t really a fan of these gatherings, but for the company’s sake, and because she knew how much it meant to Jordan, she didn’t just go through the motions with everyone.
More importantly, Stella needed to build connections with everyone here, since she was planning to make a life for herself in this place.
Someone came up to Stella and whispered in her ear that the Hayes family had arrived and wanted to come in, but since they didn’t have an invitation, they were waiting outside.
Stella wasn’t surprised. Even if she didn’t know the exact details about the Hayes family, she could more or less guess what was going on.
These were all the people who mattered in high society. Since everyone was at Stella’s birthday party, it was only natural that no one showed up at Anna’s.
Jordan seemed to know about it, too. He came over to Stella and said,
don’t want to see them, I can ask them to leave.”
“Anyone who comes is a guest. How could I turn them away? Let them come in,” Stella replied.
Jordan’s eyes grew thoughtful as he looked at her, and then a faint smile appeared on his lips. ‘Yeah, Stella definitely has her ideas, he thought.
As soon as the Hayes family arrived, the four of them came over to Stella, all smiles.
“Sorry, Stella. We’re late. I hope you don’t mind. The traffic was terrible; otherwise, we would’ve been here much earlier, Fionz
said.
Stella turned to her mother with a smile. “So you didn’t really want to earlier?”
come. If you knew there’d be traffic, why didn’t you leave
Max got angry and was about to point at Stella and yell, but Fiona quickly stopped him.
“Yeah, when we were leaving, Mrs. Hayes wasn’t feeling well. I told them to go ahead, but they wanted to wait for me, so we ended up being late. We’re really sorry,” Fiona said.
Stella let out a cold laugh and wondered, ‘They’re actually using Grandma to put pressure on me!
“But I heard Anna’s throwing her birthday party at another hotel today. Did you only rush over here because nobody showed up at hers?” Stella said with a sly smile.
Everyone knew all about the Hayes family’s drama, and now that there was some gossip to watch unfold, of course, everyone wanted a front–row seat.
Seeing the Hayes twins at odds like this, people couldn’t help but tut and whisper among themselves.
Fiona’s face clearly soured, but after all these years, she knew exactly how to keep her composure.
Fiona smiled, “Yes, we were actually planning to throw a joint birthday party for you two, just like before. But we didn’t expect Jordan to host one for you on his own.”
She turned to Jordan, “Jordan, this is really on you. Why didn’t you let us know about any of this?”
Stella’s expression darkened immediately. “Are you blaming Jordan? Don’t forget. Every single birthday party we had growing up was always centered around Anna.
“Jordan knows all about that. He felt bad for me and wanted to throw a party just for me. What’s wrong with that?”
Most of the guests were people who had known the Hayes family for years, and they all remembered how Stella was overlooked back then.
So, no matter how good Fiona was at spinning a story, her excuses just didn’t hold up.
“Still, we’re family, aren’t we? What Jordan did just isn’t right,” Fiona said, her tone full of blame as she looked at Stella and Jordan.
Stella slipped her arm through Jordan’s and looked straight at her family. “Why did Jordan do this? Maybe outsiders don’t know, but you all do, don’t you?
“You tried to force me to marry Troy, and my brother even handed me over to him himself. After all that, how could my possibly see you as family?”
Everyone froze in shock. ‘What?‘ they all thought. ‘No way, Max actually went that far?‘
husband
Fiona was especially worried about Max’s reputation. He was good–looking and capable, and she was still hoping he could marry a nice girl someday.
If people found out about what he’d done, no one would want to marry him, and the Hayes family would have no one to carry on the family name.
“Stella, I know it’s your birthday, but don’t you know there are things you should and shouldn’t say?” Fiona said, putting of the tone of a mother lecturing her daughter.
Stella didn’t care about it at all. “Then let me ask you, Fiona. Have you really always known what you should and shouldn’t say
Fiona’s expression turned downright gloomy, especially when she noticed quite a few people pointing fingers and whispering about her.
Seeing the situation was getting awkward, Anna quickly stepped up and slipped her arm through Stella’s.
Anna smiled, “Stella, I know you’ve got a lot of hard feelings about the family, but we’re really not here to argue with you.
“We haven’t celebrated your birthday even once in the past three years, and this time, we genuinely want to make it up to you. Max, you got the birthday present ready, right? Come on, hand it over.”
Anna kept shooting Max meaningful looks. Before coming here, Max had told himself that, yeah, they’d messed up sometimes, and all they needed to do was just apologize to Stella and give her a gift or something.
But the way Stella acted just made Max furious. Still, seeing Anna trying to smooth things over, he swallowed his anger and followed her lead.
Max grabbed the bag and handed it over to Anna.
Anna took the box and handed it to Stella. “Stella, this is a present from all of us. Happy birthday, I really hope things start looking up for you soon.”
Anna’s face was all smiles, like she was really trying to make things right with Stella.
Stella had to hand it to Anna. Her acting skills were top–notch. She really deserved the title of Best Actress.
But Stella didn’t take the gift. She just gave the bag a casual glance and repeated in a flat voice, “A present for me?”
Anna nodded, motioning for her to take it.
But Stella just said, “Your whole family?”
Fiona and Andrew seemed to realize what she was getting at, but Max was furious. “Stella, don’t twist my words.”
Anna quickly jumped in to apologize. “Stella, I didn’t mean it like that. You misunderstood me, I was just trying to say-”
“No need to explain. I already know. The day Jordan asked me to get my passport, I realized I’d been erased from the Hayes family. That was when everything became crystal clear to me,” Stella said.
AD
