Femme Fatale: The King's Deadly Temptress

Chapter 292: "Have fun in your new world!"

Crown Resort Group's Lobby

Damien, Caleb, and Katherine walked out of the elevator laughing about an update on Jeffrey's relationship with a new woman. The woman that he ended up bringing to his family was a nurse in his hospital. She was someone whom he hadn't even spared a glance at before because they were stationed in different wings of the hospital and they belonged in different departments.

He actually met her at the Summer Party as planned. However, the nurse wasn't very interested in Jeffrey like he thought she was and the mixed signals frustrated him. Later, he told her his situation and the woman offered to help him. Not wanting to cause her trouble, he declined her offer right away. However, his parents gave him a surprise visit which ended up in him telling them about his 'girlfriend' who also worked in the same hospital.

In the end, he lied to his parents to get them off his back. And now the mischievous nurse had him in the palm of her hands. Jeffrey had to follow some of her hilarious demands or keep up with the made-up story about their relationship that sometimes made him look comical.

Caleb, Damien, and Katherine were now making up their own versions of how Jeffrey got stuck with that woman and imagined other funny requests that the 'girlfriend' might do later.

Passing by the receptionist, Damien turned to Jenny who gave him a bow. In return, he gave her a small smile and made a mental note that he will give her a bonus before the day ended. Employees like her should be rewarded.

The three of them were still talking about Jeffrey while they waited for Damien's car to arrive in front of the entrance. Katherine had a wide smile on her face the whole time as she was truly having fun and temporarily forgot about her miserable life. It was nice that Caleb didn't ask her anything sensitive and she was glad that she didn't have to lie to him too. 

For some reason, she felt that someone was looking at her so she turned to the left and her eyes landed on a familiar person from a distance whom she hadn't seen for a while. Feeling shocked, her smile fell and she muttered her name, "Emma" There was a man next to her whom Katherine just noticed and it was Adam.

When her brain registered what's going on, the corners of her mouth curled up at the sight of her friends. She was just about to call Emma's name when she noticed the scowl on her friend's face. She took a few steps forward but when she did, Emma turned around and so did Adam the two of them walked away without a word.

"Emma, wait!" Katherine started to chase after her friend. Damien and Caleb followed after her. She took long strides and kept calling out to her friends but they were determined to give her a cold shoulder. Feeling worried and nervous, she picked up her pace and jogged to catch up to Emma.

"Emma!" Katherine grabbed her friend's arm. "I've been calling your name"

Her voice trailed off when Emma turned around and glared at her. It was the first time that she saw her friend angry at her like that and she didn't know what to do. For the past five years, they had done nothing but be friendly with each other and they had treated each other as best friends.

As if she was scalded by Emma's glare, she pulled her hand back slowly, unsure of what to do at the moment. Damien and Caleb caught up and stood behind her, wondering what was going on and trying to read the situation between Katherine and her friends.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time," Emma said, her eyes getting misty.

"WhaAre you mad at me?" Katherine probed, her stare switching from Emma to Adamwho had an unreadable expression on his faceand back to the former. When Emma didn't answer, Katherine asked another question, "What are you doing here?"

Emma let out a mocking laugh, one that made Katherine gulp. "What are we doing here? I'm sorry Did we invade your territory, Princess? My apologies, 'Your Highness'. We just wanted to make sure that you're alive and breathing."

"I I don't understand" Katherine started to feel uneasy because of Emma's harsh tone.

"You" Emma laughed again. "You don't understand? Okay. Let me explain. First, you disappeared from us for months. God knows which mansion you could had been staying in, swimming in cash. We actually thought something happened to you. And all of a sudden, we just hear from the news that you're back and you're what? An heiress? We tried to call you again and again but obviously, you're too busy counting your gold bars to even bother telling us where the hell you've been.

"Do you know how humiliating it was when we tried to look for you in your mansion but only to have the security chase us away because we didn't set up a friggin' appointment? We also went to your company but you weren't there, which led us to here. And look at what we found Ms. Katherine Young in the flesh covered with expensive clothingtoo bothered to call her old friendshaving a great time laughing with her even richer friends."

"Emma Why are you thinking like that? I was"

"You were what? Just because you're rich now, suddenly you don't have the decency to tell us you're back? Is that how it is, Katherine? You're no longer poor so you turned your back on your poor friends? What kind of person throws away friendship like that? Did you even think about us at all?" Emma's tears flowed down her cheeks freely and she wiped one side with her hand.

Feeling so shocked by Emma's accusations, Katherine felt like she had been slapped a dozen times in the face that she couldn't say anything. Was she really a bad friend?

She reached out to hold Emma's hand but the other stepped back and recoiled from her touch. Emma shook her head. "I'd rather you not touch me, Katherine. I don't expect you to reach out to us after this Actually, it's better if you don't. Have fun in your new world surrounded by wealthy people. You deserve it."

"Let's go, Adam." And with that, Emma turned around. Adam and Katherine's eyes met but there were no words said.

Katherine watched as they walked away and got inside a cab. Her heart frantically drummed in her chest. She blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall as she took a deep breath and steadied herself. What just happened?

Damien placed her coat on her shoulder and wrapped an arm around her, letting her lean on to him. He was also stunned to witness the whole thing. His heart felt heavy just listening to Emma's words, thinking of how Katherine must be feeling awful right now.

As Katherine gathered her thoughts, she took deep breaths and stood straight. With a small smile on her face, she told Damien, "I'm okay. Shall we go? Alianna must be waiting for us."

The three of them got inside Damien's car which just arrived, with Katherine sitting in the front seat. She stared outside the window while her mind played flashbacks of what Emma just told her. The truth was, she did think about them. She should have contacted them earlier. However, she was in hiding at first and when she came out of hiding, she just didn't have the time to do so. It had only been three days since the Welcome Home Party.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and told herself maybe it's for the best for now.

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