"Melissa Young!"
Everyone turned to Lola, their faces a mix of dismay, horror, and intrigue. They had seen her before, and that kind of misplaced getup was something one wouldn’t easily forget. But this time, it wasn’t Lola’s horrific look that took their attention, but how she addressed Melissa.
Lola panted as she marched toward Melissa.
As she walked closer, she finally caught sight of the little duo on the floor. Tears in their eyes, and Second protecting his little sister even when he was just as small as her, made her pause.
Her eyes dilated, studying the situation, and each second of realization felt like a piece of her heart falling.
"Mo—mommy!" Chacha whimpered, and as if she wasn’t as fragile as before, she jumped from Second’s embrace and ran to her.
Second also jumped and hugged Lola’s leg. "Mommy!"
"Mommy?" Melissa blurted out, brows knitted as she watched Lola squat in front of them.
Lola squatted and hugged the two, her mind momentarily blank. She knew what to do, but somehow, seeing the twins in such a situation erased everything that was on her mind temporarily. For a while, all she could do was hug them as they wept in her arms.
She didn’t even wonder why they were here or where Silo was, so she could bury him somewhere real quick.
"Mommy, huhu!" Chacha buried her face in Lola’s shoulder. "Second and Chacha are so scared!"
Second also started crying, clutching the first layer of Lola’s black attire. "Mommy, the old auntie is so scary. She wants to step on Chacha and me."
"What?" Lola’s face twitched as a vein protruded on her forehead.
Slowly, she looked up at Melissa, eyes burning as if a glimpse of inferno had just peeked out for Melissa to see. Even the lackeys who had thrown Lola in the cubicle gulped, feeling their shoulders tense at that look beneath Lola’s white contact lenses.
"Melissa, you—"
"Mommy, it’s alright." Just before Lola could get up and confront Melissa, Second suddenly whispered in her ear.
Her brows rose, and she turned her head to Second, catching Chacha’s smiling face while their little hands were covering the sides of their faces.
"The old auntie didn’t hurt us," Chacha clarified with a mischievous whisper. "We’re just helping the old auntie."
"Her acting is so terrible, so Chacha and I decided to give her last-minute lessons," the little boy added discreetly, smiling so proudly like they had done a good job.
"..." Lola darted her eyes between the two, the tightness in her chest loosening. Seeing that the two were smiling so discreetly, her eyes softened in relief.
For a second, she thought the twins were hurt.
Getting thrown in a cubicle and locked in a restroom was something Lola would just overlook. After all, when they locked her in there, she easily crawled over the cubicle like a possessed spider and idled on the sink. She even managed to take a short nap on the sink!
After all, Lola was here to give Director Sarian some face, and because she would be in this place anyway for the twins’ father.
She could take all of that and wouldn’t flinch.
But the twins?
Lola never thought of what she could’ve done when she thought Melissa had laid a finger on them. Had Second been a second late, it would’ve been terrible. She was on the brink of seeing red.
Lola reached out and hugged the twins, calming her racing heart. "Goodness, you two." A chuckle escaped her at these two mischievous buns with eyeliner.
"They’re your kids?" Suddenly, Melissa scoffed as she crossed her arms. Now, it made sense to her why these kids were targeting her and trying to make her look bad. "Lola, did you teach your kids to lie?"
This time, Lola paused and released the twins from her arms. She looked up at Melissa, just in time, and the latter clicked her tongue.
"How could you teach them such bad things while they were still kids?" Melissa continued, raising her "concerned" voice for everyone to hear. "When you got pregnant out of wedlock five years ago, our family tried their best to support you. But how could you, after all the help, raise your children to be liars?"
Her lackeys—the blonde and the short-haired girl—snorted. Earlier, they were a bit disappointed that Melissa was being aggressive with the kids. But now that they found out they were Lola’s kids, they easily sided with Melissa.
Even when they saw Melissa "push" Chacha, no one actually saw her step on them earlier.
"Goodness. Is this your plan all along?" the blonde lady scoffed. "Lola Young, how could you use children just to get back at your sister?"
The short-haired lady added, "I can’t believe all of this! Are you that desperate to ruin your sister’s audition that you’d use your kids to make her look bad? Wow, Lola Young. I thought I’d seen the lowest of the low, but this is a new kind of low—I am speechless."
Lola drew a deep breath as she rose to her feet, covering the twins’ ears.
"Cover your other ear," she said without looking at the twins, knowing they would listen to her.
However, the twins just let Lola’s palms rest on their one ear while they looked up at the ladies with their naturally round eyes. They just stared at the ladies as if studying their faces... or remembering them.
Then, they heard some murmurs from the side.
"Lola Young?" one of the women around rubbed her chin. "You mean... that’s Lola Young? Melissa’s sister?"
"Oh... so those were her kids, huh?"
"Wow, so the rumors are true! That the other daughter of the Young Family rebelled and got knocked up early." Another one mused, eyeing Lola and the twins, who were wearing matching horror costumes. Seeing the misplaced outfits in such a place, he snorted. "I guess her kids, indeed, were just making a scene."
"And here I thought it’s Melissa’s fault, but it seemed there’s another scheme at play here."
"I feel sorry for them, to be honest. Just because their mother is a loser and can’t accept that her sister is winning in life, they had no idea their mother is using them."
"What a bad mother."
Chacha and Second gazed at the people looking at them with equal pity and mockery. They blinked, their lips drawn into a thin line. The usual bubbliness on their faces had faded without a trace, but the natural innocence of a child remained.
They’re saying really mean things to our mommy, Chacha thought as a brief wave of frost flickered in her eyes.
Second, on the other hand, raised his brows and studied their faces. He didn’t say anything, but the corners of his naturally round eyes sharpened a little.
Now, both wore an expression Lola hadn’t seen.
The twins then looked up, their gaze falling on Melissa. Lola didn’t say she was her sister, but the twins already disliked her based on the clip they watched the day before. However, since Lola had watched the clip more than once last night, they thought their mother liked her. Hence, they thought of giving Melissa a last-minute acting lesson, and most of the things they said were simply from the dialogue in the script.
But it seemed they were too kind to the wrong person.
A part of the twins felt bad for their mother, realizing now what kind of people were surrounding her. But when they looked up at their mother, Lola was unbothered.
"Use my kids?" Lola repeated with a dry laugh. "Melissa Young, everyone in here knew that the Young Family, the Lancaster, and even the Summit Partners are sponsoring this drama to give you a higher chance of getting in it."
She paused and smirked. "Yet, your friends are saying I’m using my kids to ruin your audition? Why? Is this audition so fragile that mere kids could ruin it all for you? Or..."
"...was it because you knew that despite all the money you poured into this project, it’s the talent that’s the problem?" she added, tilting her head a bit. "Melissa, is it me who’s using my own kids? Or are you planning to use my kids as an excuse if things didn’t go your way?"