The Kitty Ring Conspiracy

1
After producing top-secret materials, my grandmother announced my wedding was ready. My fiancé Liam, heir to a prestigious family, promised to respect all my wishes. My superiors gifted me a 10-carat pink diamond for the ring. Liam took the stone, promising a surprise.
On the wedding day, I found a loose Hello Kitty ring instead. Calling Liam, his secretary Tiffany answered: "Hello Kitty's my favorite. Got a problem?"
"You turned my ring into this monstrosity?" I demanded.
She sneered, "You think you're special? I decide everything. If I wanted you in a mascot costume, Liam would agree."
"Give Liam one hour to deliver a real ring," I warned, "or bail your secretary out of jail."
The ceremony was in one hour.
My superiors and family were all busy with work and hadn’t arrived yet. If they saw me without a pink diamond on my finger, they would raise hell.
But if Liam could find a suitable replacement, I could probably come up with an excuse.
I heard a man’s breathing on the other end of the line.
I quickly explained the situation. “We have one hour. Your family is the biggest jeweler in the country; finding a ring shouldn’t be a problem. Get one over here, fast.”
“And it can’t be too small. At least six carats, otherwise…”
Before I could finish, the line went dead.
No matter how many times I called back, I couldn’t get through.
Didn’t my grandmother say Liam was the heir to a prestigious family?
Is this how a prestigious family behaves?
I set down the Hello Kitty ring and was about to go find him myself when Tiffany sauntered in.
“Mr. Thorne is very busy. He doesn’t have time for someone as unpresentable as you.”
“I’d advise you to just obediently put on your wedding dress and get ready to go on stage with your Hello Kitty ring. Otherwise, if Mr. Thorne is displeased, he might just replace the bride with me on the spot.”
As she spoke, she walked over to the vanity and slipped the Hello Kitty ring onto her own finger.
It was a perfect fit on her left ring finger. It was obvious whose measurements the ring had been made for.
Rage boiled in my chest. “Tiffany, this wedding isn’t a child’s game. Stop messing around and get me a new ring.”
“Shut up. You bitch. No one asked for your opinion. I’m in charge of this wedding. And you will wear this ring on stage!”
“Oh, your fingers are so small, you probably can’t even wear it. How about I help you with that?”
Her eyes, filled with jealous malice, scanned my slender fingers.
She glanced around, then picked up a heavy makeup case from the table and advanced on me.
“What are you all standing there for? Hold her down! I’m going to smash her hand until it’s swollen! Let’s see who can say the ring doesn’t fit then.”
This was beyond unreasonable. “Tiffany, I’m giving you one last chance. Get Liam. Otherwise, you’ll be facing more than just a trip to the police station for this pink diamond. You’ll pay a much heavier price.”
Tiffany burst out laughing. “A price? That’s hilarious. Do you think this pink diamond is yours to make threats with? Everyone knows the Thorne family is the biggest jeweler in the country. You obviously stole this pink diamond from them!”
“The Thorne family belongs to Liam. A thief like you should be grateful if I gave you a ring made of grass.”
I couldn’t be bothered with her. If she was here, Liam had to be nearby.
He was probably just too busy with the wedding to answer his phone. If I explained the situation to him in person, he would surely take my side.
But as I opened the door, Tiffany exploded.
“How dare you ignore me! What are you all standing there for? Grab her! Grab her!”
“You little bitch, I’m going to teach you a lesson. Since you don’t want to wear the ring, how about you don’t show your face at all?”
She grabbed various eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, and creams, mashing them all together with her hand.
Then, she lunged, smearing the mess all over my face.
She deliberately jammed her fingers into my eyes, mouth, and nose. I could barely breathe.
“Tiffany, are you insane?! When the Thornes see me like this, they’ll never let you get away with it!”
Tiffany cackled. “Aria, open your eyes and see who’s holding you down.”
I forced my eyes open through the stinging pain. The door was open, and a few people were peering in, their expressions amused, as if watching a show.
No one moved to help me.
Even a small child nearby yanked out a fistful of my hair. “Aunt Tiffany, this little bitch doesn’t know what’s good for her! Watch me and Uncle Liam teach her a lesson!”
Others chimed in. “Miss Reed, you should just apologize to Miss Dawson. If she’s unhappy, Mr. Thorne might think you’re an embarrassment and dump you.”
“Everyone knows Miss Dawson is the apple of Mr. Thorne’s eye. He had to bribe her with 5% of Thorne Industries and beg for three days just to get her to agree to this wedding.”
“If you piss off Miss Dawson, your life in the Thorne family is going to be miserable. Actually, you might not even make it out of here alive today. Mr. Thorne will clean up any mess she makes.”
Tiffany ripped the glove from my hand and stomped on it viciously. “This is what you get for crossing me. Let me tell you, even if you become Mrs. Thorne, you’ll still have to bow and scrape before me.”
“Everyone in the Thorne family listens to me. If I say you don’t eat, you’ll starve. If I say you don’t drink, you won’t get a single drop, not even piss!”
My fists were clenched so tight my knuckles were white. I twisted, breaking free from the people holding me, but I didn’t dare fight back.
Before the wedding, my family and superiors had warned me repeatedly:
“If anything happens, talk it out calmly. Don’t lose your temper, and don’t take off your gloves. You know those people can’t even handle a single one of your fingers.”
But the gloves that suppressed my abilities were already off.
My temper was about to snap.
If I could just control it, I could show Tiffany what a grave mistake she had made.
But just as I reached out, a glass of red wine was thrown in my face.
My eyes burned, and my body trembled uncontrollably.
A voice cut through the chaos. “What are you doing?!”

2
I grabbed a tablecloth to wipe the wine from my eyes.
Standing there was a man in a white suit with a red rose pinned to his lapel.
He was elegant and tall, and the people around him deferred to him, treating him like the center of the universe.
My grandmother knew me well; this man was practically sculpted to my tastes.
He frowned deeply at Tiffany. “Tiffany, what are you doing? I’m swamped with the wedding today, and I still have to waste time looking for you. Can’t you make my life a little easier?”
Tiffany looked utterly wronged. “I was just trying to sort out the ring and leave, but this bitch wouldn't stop making trouble. She not only stole a gem from your family, but she also had the nerve to demand I find her a 20-carat ring as compensation.”
What a blatant lie!
I stood up straight, about to speak, but Liam cut me off impatiently.
“Who is this cleaning lady? Get out of my wedding!”
I took a deep breath, suppressing my anger, and explained, “Liam, I’m Aria Reed, your bride. You took the 10-carat rough pink diamond I sent you to make into a wedding ring. I…”
“Enough. The Thorne family doesn’t need a shrew, and we certainly don’t need a country bumpkin who doesn’t know how to behave. Tiffany will stand in for you at the ceremony.”
“I’ll explain everything that happened here to both our families. You can stop embarrassing yourself.”
I was stunned. I never expected him to say something like that.
His secretary was the one who started it all.
“But this was all your secretary’s…”
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”
Liam’s gaze was icy, as if he were looking at a maggot in a sewer.
“Many important people are attending my wedding today—business tycoons, famous jewelry designers. You wasted so much of my secretary’s time that she couldn’t greet the guests with me, which has seriously damaged the interests of Thorne Industries.”
“She’s in a bad mood now. Why don’t you do a striptease for her to let off some steam?”
Her being in a bad mood had nothing to do with me.
“Aria Reed, my grandfather said you were good-looking. But looking at you now, you’re just a toad. I have no idea what tricks you pulled to get my grandfather to favor you so much.”
I was floored.
It took me a long moment to find my voice. “Liam, after all this, what makes you think I would still marry you?”
He looked as if he’d heard something amusing.
The people around us burst into laughter.
“There’s a line of women waiting to marry Mr. Thorne. If it weren’t for the old master threatening his own life, do you think a toad like you who crawled out of god-knows-where would be worthy of him?”
“My Uncle Liam belongs to Aunt Tiffany, you bitch! You have no right to talk to him!”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll start stripping. If you don’t, we don’t mind helping you.”
The Thorne family really lived up to their name. A bunch of animals who didn’t treat people like human beings.
“I won’t be attending the wedding, and I won’t be marrying you, Liam. But right now, I want the 10-carat pink diamond my superiors gave me back. Mr. Thorne, you’re the CEO of Thorne Industries. Surely you wouldn’t stoop to coveting a country bumpkin’s single pink diamond, would you?”
Liam was taken aback. “A single pink diamond? My family wouldn’t even give it a second glance.”
With that, he picked up the Hello Kitty ring and tossed it at my feet.
The diamond clattered on the floor and rolled towards me. “Take your diamond and start stripping. I don’t have time to waste on you.”
I took a closer look at the diamond. The color, the cut, the fire—nothing matched the original. This wasn’t the pink diamond I had given Liam.
It was just a pink Padparadscha sapphire.
I took a deep breath. “I said, I’m not marrying you. And…”
Tiffany cut me off with an exaggerated gasp. “Who asked for your opinion? You’re just a tool for Mr. Thorne to show his filial piety. If the old master hadn’t chosen you, do you think you’d have the right to stand here?”
“Don’t push your luck. Suck up to me, and I might graciously allow your name to appear on the marriage certificate with Mr. Thorne. Otherwise, there are plenty of people who can replace you.”
I didn’t care, but my temper was reaching its limit. “Then let them replace me. Now, give me back my rough pink diamond. This is not my stone!”
I took out my phone and called my superior to inform them the wedding was off.
But Tiffany snatched my phone and threw it on the ground. “Trying to run? No way. You’re apologizing to me today!”
The onlookers were getting impatient.
“Aria Reed, can you just hurry up and apologize? Miss Dawson can close a deal ten times more valuable than your little pink diamond in a minute. You can’t afford to waste her time.”
“Mr. Thorne is being too patient. Indulging this toad before she’s even married into the family.”
“I think Aria Reed knows Mr. Thorne is a filial grandson and is just playing hard to get.”
“Right. The moment Mr. Thorne threw the diamond at her, she tried to run. She’s just trying to get his attention.”
Me? Trying to get Liam’s attention?
That was the funniest thing I’d ever heard.
“First of all, the rough pink diamond I sent was worth five hundred million. It was an extremely rare Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink diamond. This stone at my feet is just a Padparadscha sapphire. It’s less than three carats, poorly cut, and worth a few hundred thousand at most. Mr. Thorne, I don’t want a botched stone. Now, you will compensate me with a rough pink diamond worth five hundred million, in its original state.”
Tiffany narrowed her eyes and whispered something in Liam’s ear.
Liam immediately flew into a rage. “Aria Reed, don’t push your luck!”

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