A Graduation Gift

Cassandra looked around the auction hall and all she could see were a number of unfriendly, snooty and self-obsessed faces. Attending the auction with the Tang family was the last thing Cassandra wanted to do. More so when Rufus counldn't come along, she thought she would just somehow kill the time alone by attending this activity. But having to meet Cloris and Ivy just made it more suffocating for her. It's true when they say one can't avoid one's enemy.

Ivy's voice pierced through the silence of the hall. And then it was soon followed by the price chasing game.

Four million, five million, six million...and suddenly there were numbers buzzing and paddles being raised all across the hall.

The most stylish women, the who's who of the city, graced the hall persistently and passionately by raising their paddles for many top lots. Everyone's eyes were sparkling with hope, expecting that they could win the precious gown.

"Eight million!"

Lyndsy raised her paddle and uttered her price clearly. A bunch of well styled heads turned towards her following her voice.

A live broadcast of this spectacular event was going on over the giant screen. The camera panned on Lyndsy and Cassandra, who were sharing the same table. And suddenly Cassandra's face flashed on the big screen. Absolutely unprepared and unexpected, she came to be noticed by everyone in the hall which made her feel rather awkward.

Jill was the first to spot Cassandra. She opened her mouth in surprise and patted Ivy on the shoulder.

"Look, Ivy!" And she pointed at the screen.

Ivy moved her eyes to follow the direction Jill was pointing at and looked towards the screen. And her eyes stilled over the two most elegant and gorgeous faces as pretty as roses. They were so attractive and bereft of any kind of malice.

Over the screen Lyndsy and Cassandra were seen exchanging looks. Lyndsy lowered her head and whispered something to Cassandra's ear, and then both of them smiled happily. The beautiful camaraderie shared by the two of them made quite a sight for the eyes that were gazing up at the screen.

The amity shared between them, made people who did not know much about them feel that they were such close friends.

However, Ivy could not keep her eyes on the smiling face of Cassandra for a long time.

She just turned her face promptly towards Jill and said, "Auntie Jill, I had planned to win this dress for your collection. But now it seems to be a difficult task. Look at her, Cassandra's friend, Lyndsy. It looks like she is holding the trump card,"

Ivy clenched her paddle and gritted her teeth. No matter what the result would be, she had to at least win Jill's faith.

Jill's face became ashen as she fixed her seething gaze at Cassandra—the one woman she could not bear the sight of. She could clearly remember how the Tang family had a narrow escape from getting involved in a law suit thanks to Cassandra's act of plagiarism. That woman was the root cause. Had it not been for Horace who defended Cassandra, she would have bombarded her with every cursing word she knew.

Jill muttered under her breath, 'Her mistake was an unpardonable blunder. But shouldn't she be locking up in the room and reflecting on herself? How dare she show up so happily at this auction? What a shameless woman!'

Sitting on the chair, Lionel could not stop himself from admiring the radiant beauty of Cassandra that was a befitting match to the elegant Lyndsy who was sitting by her side. His gaze froze at her mildly smiling face as he thought, 'People who did not know her must have thought her to be a star or something like that.'

Ivy peeked at Lionel only to find that his eyes were fixed on the screen. She winced her face as the look on Lionel's face tugged at her heartstring but on the wrong note.

She kept her eyes painfully fixed on Lionel, witnessing his admiration towards Cassandra. And her mind went back to the time when she had seen the same gaze in his eyes before. It was the time when Lionel met her for the first time. She remembered how he stared at her silently with such deep eyes. Lionel seemed absolutely unalarmed by Ivy's eyes being on him as he could not remove his gaze from Cassandra's face.

Knowing that Ivy could not compete with Lyndsy, Jill was not reconciled at all. That woman, Lyndsy, seemed to be quite intimate with Cassandra. In any case, Jill decided that she would not allow Lyndsy to win that dress. She thought that was the most she could do to make Cassandra feel upset.

"Ten Million!"

Jill raised her paddle and

and there was pin drop silence in the hall as everybody just exchanged looks with absolutely startled eyes. Ten million! This price just went

smiled distantly, with disdainful and teasing expression on her face. Her lips curved

bid now. It

expected Jill to be so

sat there seething in anger. She was not ready to take this challenge lying down. Jill straightened her spine, clasped her paddle and readied herself to announce her bid. But Ivy held her hand and stopped her.

came here to win

She could not tolerate others challenging her or competing with her. What took the peace of

Cassandra. Now she

of the auction,

the invitation. There was a mysterious smile on her face as she addressed the guests who were present in the hall, "Here I'd like

the film festival that

to win the dress today. But I did not want it for my own collection. I wanted to make some contribution to the rare diseases foundation. This dress once belonged to a princess. I'm afraid it will only get piled up on my shelf if I take it home, and I'll be the only one to appreciate its beauty, which is not something that I

paused for a second and then continued, "therefore, I'd like to

friend of

the noise of low voices and whispers spread

out as she stared at

"What?"

flabbergasted to hear her name in Lyndsy's mouth. She stared at her with

other, she had merely just told Lyndsy her name. But Lyndsy smiled happily revealing her

dress to Cassandra? Cassandra

was just too shocking to be real. Cassandra could not believe her

Lyndsy's eyes and in a matter of a few moments the cameras started flashing in front of Cassandra's face, blinding

was in a mess. She just followed the Miss Etiquette like a puppet and stood on the stage looking completely blank. Now,

keep a low-profile attending this auction. And now things turned out

Her addressing speech was proper and

the media attention, Cloris clenched her fists in anger

to send such an expensive and precious dress

an ordinary girl. She

to Cloris while

sure. My sister is

However, in her mind, she was seething with

stood up with a

go! There is nothing interesting here anymore. What

to show regards to Jill. Seeing the seething anger

this, Cassandra had hit the top

though you had that dress, you have lost it badly with Jill! No one can help you, well,