Chapter 8: The Villains

Nina and the couple are now eating their dinner. Every person who looked at them thought that they are a happy family. Where the father arranges the food of his wife and daughter, the mother wipes the faces of her husband and daughter while the daughter is in charge to make her parents smile. Such a lovely harmonious scene. 

The three don't have an idea what the people around them think. They just continued eating and talking about their day. 

Nina was in the middle of cutting her steak when suddenly she saw a familiar high heeled boots when she glanced at the floor. She slowly raised her head to see the woman from the department store approach their table! So the Karen this woman was saying this morning is really her Aunt Karen?!

"Aunt Karen, what a coincidence! You are also here?" the woman enthusiastically said. Nina almost choked when she heard this statement. If she didn't hear this woman talking this morning, she might have believed her. 

"huh? Who are you?" Aunt Karen replied innocently. This question made the woman a little embarrassed. 

"Aunt Karen, I am Cherry, the daughter of Charlotte and Max Smiths" Cherry said confidently. Her mom is Karen's college classmate, she won't forget that. 

"Sorry dear, those names don't ring a bell." Aunt Karen said making Cherry flustered but Cherry will not stop because of that. She travelled for more than 8 hours just to see this couple. She knew that Hades will throw her out of his office if she will come there so she needs to approach  the base little by little. 

"Don't worry Auntie, I have a lot of time to tell you the anecdotes my mom told me when you and her were still in college, good thing you are here because I haven't eaten my dinner yet" Cherry shamelessly said and sat beside Nina without being invited. 

Nina ate the piece of steak that she cut and wiped her face. Then she called the waiter, Cherry thought that the girl beside her seemed polite, she even asked for the waiter to bring her a menu. Cherry will be good to this girl once she married Hades because she helped her approach her future parents-in-law

This careful thinking of Cherry didn't stay long because what the waiter brought was not a menu but a bill! 

The waiter here is already familiar with the couple and Nina, yesterday, the three were arguing who will pay for their dinner. The couple insisted on paying for the food but Nina declined and asked if the couple were looking down on her because she was an orphan. The couple immediately denied that so the both parties agreed to pay for their own food. So now, the waiter brought Nina's bill. 

"Aunt and uncle, I need to rest now, you know I've been tired the whole day" Nina explained

"Husband, I'm also tired so I will go with Nina okay" Karen said and took her purse, Cronos immediately asked for his bill and paid it. 

"Then I will send you aunt-" Cherry also said

"No, stay there, you haven't eaten yet right? And please, don't be so shameless, I don't really know you so stop calling me aunt" Karen irritably said. Her daughter-in-law has not finished eating her food yet but this shameless woman barge in and made Nina uncomfortable! 

Karen knew that this woman didn't just approach her to just reminisce about her college life. On her age, there are only two reasons why a young woman would shamelessly approach her. It's either they wanted to climb one of their company's projects or they wanted to climb her son's bed. And neither of the two will she approve! 

Aside from this, what if this woman will be another reason for her daughter-in-law to leave her son again in the future? Tsk, she will never allow that so while it's early, she needs to cut the bad grass. 

"Aunt I didn't mean to-" 

"I told you, I don't know you, stop calling me aunt!" Karen said then she grabbed Nina then Cronos just followed them. 

Cherry was left sitting, she can feel the mocking gazes of the people around her, she can't stand the humiliation so she hurriedly went out. 

She will never forget that girl! She knew that if that girl didn't ask to leave, Karen and her husband would still stay there and talk to her! One day she will avenge this humiliation she received because of that girl! 

"Nina, do you think auntie was fierce a while ago?" Karen asked Nina

"Yes" Nina honestly said "but I think being fierce is good. If you let other people feel that they can fool you, they will brazenly fool you until you lose all your patience and when that time comes they are still the ones who will act victims" Nina added. 

Karen felt so proud of her daughter-in-law, look, this is the girl she approved. A kind girl but will never allow herself to have the losing end. This is a girl that is more than good enough to be the next madam of the Clemonte clan. 

"That is right, at this age I already saw many types of people. Some will approach me with good intentions but most of them will approach me with hidden motives, that girl is just an example. You should know how to differentiate people with good and bad motives" Karen now is trying to give Nina a lesson about what she needs to do if she becomes the young madam. Karen believes that early education is the best education. 

Cronos didn't disturbed his wife's teaching lessons, see how great his wife is? Cronos really doesn't care about the mind works of other women. The only woman that he needs to know is his wife, so any case relating to any woman, it's his wife who faces those. Such a tough job for his wife. 

When the three went out of the elevator Nina saw a familiar man waiting in the corridor. 

The man was stunned for a while before he smiled. 

"Aunt, uncle" the man greeted "Ms. Nina" the guy added

"You know Nina, Ares?" Aunt Karen asked, she can smell a pig who wants to steal the cabbage of her own pig

"Yes aunt, she was just in my office this afternoon" Ares said. If the couple didn't know that Nina went to a law firm this afternoon and they also didn't know that Ares is a lawyer, they will think that Nina and Ares had an illicit affair. 

Nina didn't react to the words of the man in front of her, she just looked straight into his eyes while thinking what is the relationship of Aunt Karen and Uncle Cronos to the second male lead?! 

"Is that so?" Aunt Karen tries to hide her uneasiness, it seems like her son's position is in danger! Nina didn't even try to clarify the matter! "Well, in that case, I want you to know that I consider Nina as my daughter so you can start calling her little sister" Karen said with an underlying meaning that Nina is off limits, better not think of any nasty things! 

"Will brother Hades like the idea of having a little sister?" Ares smiled with also an underlying meaning that Hades doesn't like any girl to approach him

"oh, he will love to, especially if it's Nina" the battle of underlying meaning continues which means that Hades likes this girl so better stay far away from her

"oh, I think my mom would also like Nina to be her daughter" Ares said which means he also likes to chase Nina

Cronos felt that Karen is now very irritated with his nephew. This boy is the only son of his only sister so he can't help but to be tolerant to this boy. 

"Ares, why are you here?" Cronos asked to stop the battle of words of his wife and nephew. 

"My mom told me that you are here so I dropped by," Ares said. Cronos was a little bit startled, it seemed like he made a mistake but he can't just point out what was his mistake. 

"Aunt, Uncle I will go to my room now, good night" Nina smiled to the couple, totally alienating Ares, before going to her room. 

This action of Nina made Karen calm. Nina didn't even glance at Ares which means that she doesn't even take him seriously. 

Unconsentious girl, Ares thought, she didn't even glance at him. This made Ares even more curious of the girl. Does his brother Hades really like this girl? This will be the first time that Ares feels like wanting to take something from his cousin. 

When Nina was inside her room, she immediately went to her space and sat on the chair she brought there. Last week, she bought lots of stuff on the internet to make this space more comfortable. She bought a small mobile house that she can use if she wants to rest here. But she haven't bought a bed yet because her previous house is too small to receive a bed. Actually, it was also hard for her to put the mobile house inside her space, but because it was foldable, it was able to fit on her small backyard when the delivery man sent it. But she doesn't know how she is going to receive a bed, she thought of asking the delivery man to make it stand vertically on her backyard but thinking that the bed would be dirty, she erased that idea, anyway, she has a bigger house now. She can buy 4 beds at a time and ask the delivery men to fit two beds in one room, she will then move one bed on her space. 

Aside from the mobile hoise, she also bought chairs and table, she was thinking that when her child is old enough, she would bring him here where they can have more time together instead of the outside world. 

Now, Nina is thinking if she should lessen her interactions with the couple. Looking at the scene a while, the couple an the second male lead seem to be close relatives because Ares was able to know the couple's whereabouts through his mom. 

Speaking of Ares' mom, she is one of the early villains of the story. According to the plot, Ares' mom, Themis Clemonte, was the original wife of Peter Lexington, a business upstart. Themis was hopelessly inlove with Peter so her parents who spoil their only princess to death allowed her to marry Peter against their will. The parents of Themis was able to see that Peter was just a scum but because they loved their daughter, they blindly supported her but, as a century old clan, Themis' parents secured their daughter's future. 

Themis' father died of medicine overdose, the police officers didn't believed that it was a suicide as the Old Clemonte was very happy living with his wife so the case became a deliberate murder. Ares was already 13 years old at that time. 

Due to the incident, the last will of the old Clemonte surfaced making Themis and her husband shocked. 

According to the will, if the old Clemonte died of unnatural death and there wasn't a murderer named, the assets that was supposed to be for Themis, will directly go to his grandson Ares. Ares will only be able to move these assets when he turns 15 and instead of making Themis and her husband the caretaker of these assets, the old man gave the management to his first born son which also became the family patriarch after his death. 

Themis doesn't see anything wrong with the arrangements because she really doesn't like managing anything, but her husband became furious. 

As the days go by, Themis' relationship with her husband extremely plummeted, Peter seemed to always find fault about Themis then he will walkout and just come back after 2 to 3 days. Themis' mother also became ill due to the death of her husband and when her mother was near her death, she told Themis not to trust her husband, because according to her mother, Themis' husband should have been the main suspect for her dad's death but because they don't have enough evidence they remained quiet until now. When Themis asked the reason why would her husband do that, her mother just said that the reason was the same reason why her husband married her after saying those her mother took her last breath. 

Because of her mother's last words, Themis became suspicious of her husband, but she still doesn't have the guts to investigate him. She was afraid that the man she shares her bed with was the same man who killed her dad and indirectly killed her mom. Until one day, her brother can no longer sit still and hit her with reality. 

Her husband whom she thought was loyal to her was having a good time with another woman and a 10-11 year old boy who was a spitting image of him! 

According to the data collected by her brother, the woman was her husband's first girlfriend and her husband broke up with the girl before marrying Themis. But after almost 4 years with no contact, the two met again in private then for some unknown reasons, the woman left her husband and just last year, the two met each other again and it was a pleasurable surprise for Peter as he saw his son who looks so much like him, unlike Ares whose face was more inclined to that of the Clemonte's. 

The next data that Themis read was the prescription the same of her dad's medicine. It was under a different name there was also the ID of the man who bought it but what made Themis lose her grip was the cctv screenshot of his husband taking that medicine from the man! 

Due to the evidences she have, she made her husband and his mistress' lives a living hell, her brother helped her destroy husband's company. She didn't divorced him because she will not let the other woman become the wife, let her be a mistress forever! 

This continued for more than a year, Themis doesn't like to send her husband to jail because she was afraid that this will live a psychological shadow to his son, and aside from that, she wanted to make her husband feel like he has nowhere to go. Her husband wants the money and security her family can give, now she will take her husband's money and will never make him feel secured. 

Now Peter and his mistress panicked, they are now being chased by loansharks where Peter loaned, trying to revive his company, but it was futile. They thought that once they left this place, they can start a new life, but they were wrong, the loansharks felt that the family will escape so they chased them down which made  Peter nervous making him unable to control their car properly so he was't able to see that they are going to hit another car. 

The results was tragic, there where three deaths which include  Peter, his mistress, and the driver of the other car. And two injured, Phillip and a 14 year old girl. 

The accident was Phillip's main driving force to reach the top of the pyramid. He knew that this was an accident but he also knew that there was an invisible hand who controlled the whole scene, and these invisible hands belongs to his dad's legal wife, Themis Clemonte.