Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 299

Chapter 299: Snatch than lose
Penelope, who had already walked away from the women, did not hear those words and continued to gracefully move across the hall. She soaked up every bit of attention that was given to her.

Her eyes moved across the room as she searched for a familiar mafia prince, but no matter how much she looked around, she could not find the man she was looking for.

‘Where is he?’ Penelope had already looked into Nicolai’s schedule and knew that he was going to attend this party.

However, it was bewildering that he was willing to attend this party, as the de Luca and Nelson family have never gotten along.

Even if the de Luca family was invited, that was only out of courtesy. Everyone knew that. Thus it was bamboozling for Penelope to accept the fact that Nicolai was willing to attend this event even when he had ignored every single one before.

While searching the ballroom, her eyes fell on Noah Nelson. Though she had already decided to set her eyes on Nicolai, Penelope thought that there was nothing wrong with establishing a friendly relationship with Noah.

She turned to look at her brother and said to him, “Let’s go and greet, Mister Nelson.”

Mateo glanced at Noah before shaking his head, “I might as well not talk to that man. You might not know this, but he can be rather stuck up at times.”

“But he is one of the hosts of the party, wouldn’t it be rude to avoid him?” Penelope asked with a frown.

“Why would it be? We are Ashford’s, we do not need to please anyone,” Mateo replied as he glanced at his sister sideways. “As an Ashford, you do not need to worry about such a ridiculous thing.”

Penelope’s frown deepened as she sighed and said to her brother, “I really don’t understand you sometimes, brother. It’s just a small greeting and nothing else. You need to tone that arrogance of yours down sometimes.”

“And act like a bootlicker like you? I would rather not,” commented Mateo and Penelope’s expression hardened.

She said, “I am not convinced that just because of a small greeting, I will become someone’s bootlicker. In fact, it means to be respectful and kind.”

Once she finished speaking, she walked over to where Noah was standing.

Noah was walking over to the small table where Nicolai and Ariana were sitting. Earlier he was dragged by someone and could not follow Ariana, and it was only now did he got the chance to escape.

Before he could reach where Ariana was sitting, a young woman stepped in front of him. She smiled and said to him,

“Mister Nelson, how are you doing?”

Noah felt as if someone had stepped on his last nerve, he would have snapped at the person if he could, but he was just not used to showing his anger in a public space.

His jaw tightened as he lowered his gaze and looked at Penelope, he recognized her at once because she had once tried to hit on him when she was very young.

In fact, hit on was a rather light way to put it as this woman asked him to take her to his bed despite knowing that he was married. Penelope forgot all about it as she was drunk, but ever since then, he had avoided Ashford’s daughter.

However, now he could not.

He politely greeted Penelope, “I am good, Miss Ashford. How are you doing? I hope you like the party?”

“Oh so far it is really good,” Penelope lied through her teeth as if she had been mingling in the crowd for a while and just came to look for Noah. “I have to admit that your family really knows how to go all out, don’t they?”

She lightly chuckled and added, “Especially the decorations, I really love them. Will you mind introducing the decorator to me? I would like to have him make preparations for my birthday.”

“I am sorry, Miss Ashford. These things are taken care of by my mother, you can speak with me. There is somewhere that I have to be if you will excuse me,” Noah walked past the woman without paying attention to her ashen expression.

Penelope turned on her feet, she wanted to say something to Noah who had walked away from her but then her gaze fell on Nicolai who was sitting at the table in the corner.

Her eyes brightened upon seeing him, but they lost their shine just as quickly because a second later she saw Ariana sitting next to Nicolai.

‘W——What is she doing next to him?’ Penelope found it difficult to breathe as she looked at the woman sitting next to Nicolai.

A part of her wanted to go ahead and steal Nicolai’s attention for herself but when she thought about how she didn’t come here alone, Penelope turned on her feet and then started to walk in the opposite direction.

But before she could take even a single step away, she bumped into someone.

“Watch where you are——-” Penelope raised her head to scold the person who had bumped into her but soon realized that the person in front of her was none other than Ariel.

Her elder sister. Her true elder sister.

“I am watching where I am going,” Ariel said in a low voice, which was rude and disrespectful. “It’s you who turned around without looking at where you were going, from next time, please be considerate and careful.”

Then without waiting for her response, Ariel walked past her not even sparing her a second look.

“Penny, what are you doing by standing like a statue?” Mateo walked over to where Penelope was and questioned her.

Penny, who knew what was going to happen if Mateo was to see Ariana and recognize her, immediately pulled him away and said to him, “It’s nothing. I just noticed a velvet cake… let’s go, I want to eat it, Mateo.”

Her hands clung onto Mateo’s as she kept pulling him to the dessert table, and her eyes moved to Ariana who was smiling while listening to Nicolai talk to her.

And why was that man —— who had never even paid attention to her and had never even looked at her, smiling so beautifully for that woman?

Was she destined to lose everything to Ariana sooner or later?

‘Then instead of losing, I might as well snatch everything from her, as I hate to lose.’