Chapter 50 ENGAGEMENT PARTY XV

         Staring at all the maid's pitiful faces made El even angrier, and she frowned at the thought that they were all denying the fact that they had seen, or taken the bracelet. One of them was lying to her, but who among them?

        She stood up from the sofa, and they trembled even more as they heard her walk closer to every one of them.

        "If no one saw, or took the bracelet, then how come I can't find it in my room?"

        No one answered, they just kept trembling. El massaged her forehead slightly, still standing. She wanted to punish them to bring out the truth, but when she thought of punishing seven people for the sin of just one person, she hesitated. 

       "I want that bracelet found before sunset," she ordered before walking out of the room.

          El walked to the dining room for breakfast. She could hear her stomach growl as she approached the room. When she got there, everyone was present except Ethan and Isabella, while some others left on her arrival.

        She knew it was just a coincidence, but somehow she felt bad that they left on her arrival. She walked to the table, and sat close to Chloe, greeting everyone left at the table before turning to her meal, which she ate.

      Soon, everyone else left one after the other, except Chloe who was still eating.

        "Why is everyone leaving so soon?" El asked Chloe, taking a bite of her bacon.

       "The question should be why you're coming for breakfast so late." 

      El sighed. She should have realized that interrogating those maids would take a lot of her time for breakfast. No wonder she felt so hungry when she left them to come to have breakfast. "I had something to take care of."

       "With Ethan? Cause only the two of you didn't show up for breakfast. Even Isabella who left this morning stayed for breakfast before leaving."

      "Isabella left the mansion?"

        "Yeah... This morning. According to my furious mum, she said she couldn't continue to take the humiliation Ethan keeps giving to her." 

       El felt weird hearing those words from Chloe, mainly because it was her fault that Ethan and Isabella were having issues. It felt like she was the mistress coming into their relationship, and that feeling sickened her.

       "What did she expect, coming in between two married people? Was she thinking Ethan would open his arms for her, and receive her?" Chloe scoffed. "What a joke."

      "Uhm... Chloe, I don't think you should be saying things like this..."

      "Oh please, El. I think the only reason why she feels there's a need to be in this mansion is the filthy lies Aunt Amelia and my mum keeps feeding her. She has no right to be here." Chloe paused to look at El's doubting face. "I know Ethan and she had something in the past, but that's years ago. Now, Ethan has a wife, and it's very wrong to come in between a couple. It's a good thing her pitiful manipulations don't work on my brother."

        "My God, Chloe... The only reason you're saying things like this is cause you're not putting yourself in her shoes. Do you know how terrible I feel knowing that whatever they had before had probably not ended, and I can't define their relationship?"

       "And you think it's okay for Ethan to disrespect you with her just because they had something before? You're his wife for crying out loud and she doesn't have any right to come into this place and insult you this way." Chloe sighed disappointedly. "You have to know your right here, El. It's upsetting you when you act like you're nothing to Ethan when you're legally married to him and giving Isabella more grounds here."

       Chloe stood up from where she sat and walked out of the room.

      "Chloe... Don't get mad..." El pleaded with a sigh as she walked out of the room. She never meant for her to get upset because of her.

.

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       Outside a huge mansion, a black Ferrari arrived at the front of the building with four convoys behind. Ethan stepped out of the car and walked into the building without looking at the bodyguards, and the butler who welcomed him. 

       "Mr. Grayson, the young prince is in the living room with the rest of the other young masters." The butler said, walking directly behind Ethan to direct him to where his master is waiting for him.

         On getting to the room, his friends were sitting on the couch majestically, chatting amongst themselves.

        "The almighty Ethan Grayson is finally here." Aiden was the first to spot Ethan, and the other two turned to look at Ethan when they heard what he said.

      The butler bowed and left them, while Ethan walked inside.

       "You don't look so good," Matt teased. "I wonder who had the guts to provoke you." He added playfully.

       "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere opening people's guts or something?" Ethan asked nonchalantly.

      "Ouch," Matt held his chest playfully as if Ethan's words hurt him. "You are in a bad mood."

      "I bet a hundred thousand bucks that my sister-in-law has something to do with this," Aiden said with a grin, and they both laughed.

        Ethan walked to the couch that Liam sat on and sat close to him.

      "I thought you weren't coming?" Liam who had been quiet asked staring at Ethan who seemed busy with his phone. His question made Ethan put down his phone as he stared at Liam's curious face.

       "I had to leave the house. I couldn't bare to spend another second there."

        "What happened?" Liam asked nonchalantly.

       "Eleanor lost the bracelet I gave to her and she feels indifferent about losing it."

       "You're with it, aren't you?" Liam asked further, shaking his head as he rolled his eyes at Ethan's action.

        "Of course, Ethan is with it. Does she know it has a tracking device on it?" Aiden asked, making everyone turn to look at him. "Cause no woman would want her every movement to be monitored by her husband."

        "I don't think so..." Matt cut in. "If she knows, she would have confronted Ethan about it. You know how our sister-in-law is."

      "I wouldn't be so quick to say that if I were you, Matt. Our sister-in-law is as sly and smart as a fox." Aiden grinned. "If she wasn't, how could she be able to handle Ethan the way she does? We have to give her some credit 'cause no woman can stand up to him like the way she does." Aiden teased, and they all laughed, except Ethan who didn't find what they said funny.

       "You all know I need to always keep an eye on her, knowing what has been going on lately."

     "Am I imagining things, or is Ethan caring about someone other than himself?" Matt asked, looking around perplexed.

     "And he's even explaining his actions to us," Aiden added. "It's only been a month and he's already changed so much. His old man is right. Bringing a woman into his life is really changing this cold-hearted monster."

      "You mean bringing Eleanor." Matt teased. "She's becoming more interesting with each day passing by."

     "I couldn't agree more," Aiden added with a grin.

       "You dimwits are so useless to me right now," Ethan said irritated.

    "You know, you could just get her something else that she can't take off so easily," Liam suggested.

      "Finally, someone with an actual brain," Ethan said sarcastically.

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       Isabella was escorted to the living room of the mansion by a maid to see her sister sitting there with her laptop. Whatever she was doing on it was important, she could tell from how her face looked extremely serious.

       "Maddy!" Isabella called out, walking up to her as she dropped her laptop to hug her. 

       "You've finally decided to come home after staying over at the Grayson's for three whole days." Maddy playfully asked as she stared at Isabella who found what she said amusing. "Tell me, Issy, are your family of little importance to you?"

      "How can you say a thing like this? Who advised me to go over there for Ethan's engagement?"

      Maddy walked over to the couch and sat on it. "It's a good thing you went there that day, if not, things wouldn't have turned out the way it is now."

       "Well, that's true." Isabella walked to her sister and sat close to her.

       "I need every detail of how things went over there."

       "Well, you've already heard of the part where Ethan broke off the party for me..." Isabella started.

       "Yeah, I saw it on the news..." Maddy interrupted.

       "Everything went smoothly after that... Except for the fact that Ethan seems to have grown a little bit attached to Eleanor."

         "Eleanor?" Maddy smirked. "How come? They have been together for only a month, so why is he suddenly attached to her?"

       "Well, it's more like a..."

       "I don't want to know what it is..." Maddy interrupted. "What I do know is that she has to leave and I'm going to make sure of it."