Chapter 34 - [Bonus ]My Jealousy Mislead Me

Aria felt really bad at this point, it was as if a hundred knives had pierced her skin and cut her slowly. She had always believed that her father would be on her side no matter what. 

She remembered when she was a kid and lived with him after his divorce from Alex's mother. No matter how she bullied Alex, he was always on her side, and Alex was the one who got punished. But now he was praising her so openly in front of them. And telling her that he was not even sure she was his daughter was just too much for her. 

She had never experienced all the things and feelings she had felt that day. Her mother embarrassing her in front of the entire nation, her brother blaming her for something he himself was a part of, and her father making her feel like a bastard daughter was just too much for her. It was basically the worst day of her life. 

She was beginning to regret what she had done! She thought it was the perfect plan to bring Alex down, and now she was the one being criticised and cursed on social media. She cursed her fans who quickly abandoned her even though they were the ones enjoying the drama until this morning. 

Until now, she felt she had done nothing wrong, that Alex deserved everything she had done! She felt that life was treating her unfairly harshly. And her father did not show the slightest intention of helping her either. She began to cry, ruining everything around her as she screamed that she did not want to apologise in public.

Alan was completely emotionless at that moment, thinking only of all the money he had lost and was still losing because of his daughter. He looked at her with a disdainful look and said, "I don't care what you have to do to settle the matter, even if you have to kneel in front of her, it's not my problem!". Don't drag PRICELESS into your stupid act of jealousy, and make sure you don't talk about that ring!!!!"

Aria felt like her world was falling apart, did she really only have this one option? She never thought that one day she would be the one to publicly apologise to someone! She had had many people apologise to her before, sometimes just for fun, but she could not believe that one day she would be forced to it herself. "I'll do as you say, dad." She said hesitantly, looking at her father with a deceptive look. 

"You will certainly do as I say! Call your brother to set up a little press conference for you. And do not screw things up again! This is the last chance I am giving you!" Alan began in an icy voice, not even looking at her.

Meanwhile, Alex and Fidelia happily arrived home, looking forward to Aria's decision. While she waited, she received a text from Eliott

Eliott: Hi beautiful, well done, I just saw your little piece...

-Alex smiled sweetly: Thank you.

-Eliott: Is that all you have for her? I mean, you should just crush her completely!

-Alex shook her head with a smile: If she does not ask for forgiveness tonight, I will...

-Eliott thought she was being too nice: Okay, I'll leave you to sort it out for yourself.

-Alex: But I need your help with a thought!

-Eliott smiled: What can I do for you?

-Alex: Do you have a little time tonight?

-Eliott: For you, I will have all the time you need!

-Alex smiled: Can you pick me up at 9:00 pm? I want to take Ethan out for a little dinner.

-Eliott a little sad: How can I say no when my girlfriend invites me! See you tonight! Lots of kisses.

After they finished their conversation, Eliott was a little sad. He wanted her to be interested in him, instead, she wanted to see the character he was playing. But could he really blame her? After all, he was the one who played the part of Ethan to her, the good and always smiling rich actor. He sighed, thinking again of how she always smiled when they were together, well, when she was with Ethan. 

After some time lost in his happy memories of Alex, he remembered her asking him to help her with something, and concluded that she had asked him to play Ethan to help her. A rare smile formed on his face, as he was glad to be someone she could ask for help.

Christopher, watching his friend's mood change because of a few texts, was shocked without knowing it. Was it really his friend who was smiling like an idiot! What had happened to the iceberg? He was really curious about the person who made this cold friend of his smile like that.

Feeling Christopher's gaze on him, Eliott gave him a "What?" look. 

Christopher shrugged with a smile, "Nothing, our iceberg seems to be melting." 

Eliott gave him a cold smile before saying, "Cancel my dinner tonight!"

"What, you can't do that, this is an important meeting! This business is really good for us!" Christopher waved it off.

"He's the one trying to make a deal with me, he can wait..." 

"I worked so hard for this..." Christopher nudged his friend, looking like a child who had been wronged.

"If you want to buy this little company so badly, you can close the deal yourself! I have a date with my future wife!" Eliott shrugged his shoulders.

At 7 p.m., on her father's instructions, Aria asked her brother to prepare an emergency press conference. By the time everything was prepared, it was already 8 p.m., but despite the late hour, many reporters were at PRICELESS waiting for Aria's explanation and announcements. 

When she finally showed up, they were all excited. Many of them had been waiting for this arrogant princess to fall, so they were very happy to see her so discouraged. She had a bare face, looked pale as if she was sick, wore a black long dress, sunglasses, and had her hair tied into a bun as if she was attending a funeral. She looked very different from usual, and even the reporters were shocked when they saw her like this. 

After taking her seat, she grabbed the microphone, "Hello everyone, I am PRICELESS model Aria. The discussion about model Alex and I's fans has caught the world's attention lately. For taking some of the public attention and causing inconvenience to everyone, I would like to deeply regret and apologise to everyone who has been affected by this, especially Miss Alex Michell.

I am very grateful for the support and love my fans have shown for me. At the same time, I sincerely apologise for my behaviour over the past few days. I let them down by lying to them and inciting them to tarnish Alex's image. I am even more sorry for Alex, who was dragged into this controversy by my jealousy and arrogance. I faked those pictures because I was angry and wanted to make her pay for taking away one of my endorsement and because I was jealous of her being with Ethan, whom I admire greatly.

So I also apologise to Ethan Fans for misleading them. I am not proud of what I did. I was blinded by my anger and jealousy and hurt people around me. I also apologise for my mother's behaviour. She was only trying to protect me and in the process hurt Miss Alex Michell, for which I apologise to her.

I hope everyone can give me another chance, especially Alex because this is the last time something like this will happen."

After saying all that, she bowed and waited for the reporters to ask her questions. The questions were tough, asking if she was not ashamed? If she knew Alex personally, and more importantly, why she had not talked about the ring? Was she really the owner of the ring?

She could not really answer all those questions honestly, so she just put her head down until her company's PR came in and ended the conference by saying she was not feeling well.

But the reporters were not satisfied with just that speech from her, she had just given lame excuses and not talked about the real problem! They left the conference saying that they hope she will prove her sincerity by leaving the industry.