Chapter 33 - Settle It Yourself

There was no caption for that post, just those three pictures. A minute later the post went viral, people were discussing what had happened furiously on all social media!

The fact that Alex was wearing the other jewels that completed her ring made Ethan's fans doubt that she was the one who copied Aria's ring, but rather the opposite. Also, the video at the restaurant that the customer had posted shows in some way that Alex was being bullied by Aria's mother, even if they could not really hear what the conversation was about. They came to this conclusion when they saw Alex remain calm throughout the conversation, even when Aria's mother threw water on her.

On their side, all of Alex's fans called out Aria's fans to apologise for their cursing and name-calling!

Before Aria's fans responded, another post from Alex shocked the entire social media, not to mention the entire country. It was about the certificate of authenticity of her jewellery set, stating that the brand CANDIDE had made this single set exclusively for her. 

The caption of the post read, "Why would I copy other people's rings when I have my own?". 

This was the ultimate proof that Aria was the one who had made an exact copy of Alex's ring to pretend she was the one in the pictures with Ethan.

The comments on those posts were all about how shamelessly Aria tried to steal someone else's picture just to look like she was with Ethan! That was too pathetic! People laughed at her and called her "the queen of copycats". Aria's fans were very disappointed, as some of them already left the fandom and were ashamed for cursing Alex and blindly believing in Aria.

When Alex returned home, she was happy and content. It felt good to see the two Porter ladies lose their cool so easily. Truth be told, the moment Sheila talked about her mother, she knew what was going on. Sheila gossiping about her mother was nothing new, so she did not take it to heart.

Besides, she was not twelve anymore, she had heard those kinds of words from Sheila too many times when she was young. Too bad for her, because Alex knew what kind of woman her mother was and did not let Sheila's words get to her.

Besides, she always knew that the woman her father loved was her mother. If he had not been so greedy, she could have loved him a little.

Meanwhile, Fidelia was busy managing Alex's WhatLife account, which was flooded with fans asking questions about what had really happened. The response of their little show was really good, the Ocean Eyes were reassured, knowing that their artist had not done what Aria's fans accused her of, but rather the opposite.

They were sure it was Alex in the pictures, and now that she made Aria pay for her actions, they were very pleased and proud! 

On the way back to her car, Aria, who was on her WhatLife, was suddenly attacked by a lot of nasty comments calling her an impostor, asking her to apologise to Alex, or comments criticising her company PRICELESS for not managing well their artist.

Her mother's behaviour was also the focus of numerous comments. People complained about her and stated that she thought she had everything right because she was rich. They could not stand her arrogance and condemned Aria for bringing her to a professional meeting.

The situation was already very bad for her. Her scandal was getting more attention than the scandal she had staged to humiliate Alex. She was hopeless and didn't know what to do anymore, but for her to apologise to this other daughter of her father was out of the question.

She was already tired of people calling her many names. She'd always been the centre of attention, but not like this. Besides, she used to have a lot of fans, but now their numbers were dwindling by the second.

Her mother assured her that everything would be okay because her father would fix it. 

At the same time, Leila called Fidelia to see how things were going before looking at what was hot on WhatLife. It was all about Alex being praised for how she had handled the problem and for not being rude to Aria's mother after the way she had been treated.

Knowing now that the girl, Ethan was dating was Alex, his fans praised him and said that he had found a beautiful woman with brains for him. Leila was very pleased with the way they had handled the problem. Now she was anxious to see if Alex would really sue Aria and how the Porter family would react. 

Still, on their way back home, Aria, who was on the verge of tears, received the call from her brother. 

"Are you stupid or something? What have you and mother done? Our stock prices are plummeting and now the company is a mess!" Shouted Clyde angrily as he watched their company slowly become nothing in the blink of an eye. 

"Brother, it's not my fault! It's mom..." Aria began to sob, looking dejectedly at her mother.

"I am telling you that you need to fix this problem! I don't care if you have to beg for it!"

After Clyde interrupted the conversation, Sheila was distraught. PRICELESS was what meant the most to her husband. He had sacrificed a lot to make the company such a great one. If he was not sick, he would still be running the family business, but now her children were about to bring it down. 

When they reached their house, they were quite frightened because they knew the behaviour of Alan and knew that he could become violent when he was angry. 

When they entered the house, Alan was waiting for them on the couch in the living room. The atmosphere in the room was cold and quiet, so quiet it gave you goosebumps. With one look, you could see the anger on his face.

Before they could even say a word, he looked at them silently with his arm crossed.

"So now even the mother gets a kick out of making a fool of me in front of the whole world?" said Alan quietly, his voice cold.

"Father, it's not mother's fault, it's that devil Alex's fault! She was so disrespectful and so rude!" Aria, who was scared, stammered and tried to find a way to direct her father's anger elsewhere.

"She was just ignorant like her mother..." added Sheila.

Alan was getting even angrier! The person standing in front of him made him sick. He already knew that Alex was the owner of CANDIDE. What he did not know was that RoyalStar had poached her. 

When he asked Clyde to contact her and told her to sign with them, he wanted to get her to come back and try to merge CANDIDE with what he had stolen from her grandfather back then, but RoyalStar threw a wrench in his plans. So he wanted to use the promise of marriage between the two families and marry Aria to Eliott, even if he knew the promise was meant for Alex. 

And now the one he was going to present to them was making trouble day by day. He wondered why his children were so stupid and irresponsible. 

"So you think it's reasonable for a grown woman like you to behave like this in a public place? What were you thinking? That she would be as stupid as you and fall for your ridiculous schemes? " Alan exclaimed, looking contemptuously at his wife.

Sheila also lost her temper, why was he praising this bastard girl? "What are you saying? At least I tried to get something done. It's your illegitimate daughter who's causing trouble for us, so take care of it yourself!"

"Who told you to mess with her! Do you think she's as stupid as your daughter? She's the smartest of my kids! Your girl is so stupid that I really wonder if she's mine!" Alan grinned, looking at his daughter with such hatred.

Aria felt hurt hearing her own father saying those words, she could not take it anymore and started crying, "Dad, how can you say that! I am your daughter! She is the bastard! "

Alan just laughed, "You are the bastard! I was married to her mother when I had her! Who knows what your mother was doing then and with whom? You started this thing, sort it out yourself by tonight!"