Just before Thanksgiving, someone suddenly mentioned me in the long silent high school class group chat.

[Aria, why haven't you said anything about Tessa's wedding? Don't you dare turning a deaf ear on us!]

Glancing at the dozens of unread messages, I realized that Tessa Caldwell, our highschool's most popular girl, was getting married on Thanksgiving. She'd invited the whole class.

[I'm out. Sorry, I'm currently in another country. ]

No sooner had I sent the message than her loyal supporters in the group jumped at the chance to attack me.

[Aria, are you too scared to show up?]

[Yeah, we all remembered you stealing Tessa's five grand tutoring fees. She never even held it against you, and now you're even stingy with a simple congrats? And you even pretend to be abroad. Ugh, how ungrateful!]

Tessa swooped in, playing the peacemaker. [Oh, that was such a long time ago. I've already forgotten about it. Aria, don't take it to heart. I really hope you can make it to the wedding!]

Her comment set off a chorus of praise in the group, everyone gushing about how kind and forgiving she was to a thief like me.

How ridiculous. I still hadn't settled the score with her for framing me all those years ago, and now she was putting on a show, acting all magnanimous.

Scrolling up through the chat, I found the name of her fiancé. But the more I looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.

Wasn't that Dorian Sinclair?

Technically, he was my nephew!

A cold smile tugged at my lips.

I typed out a response. [Oh, I'm definitely coming to your wedding!]

1

As soon as I sent that message, I had my assistant pack my bags and booked a flight home without hesitation.

When my mom found out I was going back for Dorian's wedding, she reminded me to be polite and make sure to pick out a nice gift on her behalf.

After all, Dorian worked for her, and over the years, he'd made a lot of profits for our family business.

He was great at his job, sure. But his taste in women was terrible. Out of all people, he had to choose Tessa.

Still, I had the butler pick out some expensive gifts and load them into the car.

Once I landed, I went straight to the wedding venue.

The minute I got there, I saw Tessa being fawned over by a group of people, basking in all the attention.

"Tessa hasn't changed at all. Still the prettiest girl from our class! And look at her husband. The VP of Glory Group at such a young age!"

"Right? If it weren't for Tessa, we wouldn't even be at a fancy hotel like this!"

"My husband works at Glory Group too, he said Tessa's husband was going to be promoted to CEO next month. Congrats, our new Mrs. CEO, Tessa!"

All this praise had Tessa smiling ear to ear.

But as soon as they saw me walk in, the friendly atmosphere turned icy. The same classmates who had been kissing up to Tessa a second ago suddenly looked at me with disgust.

"Well, well, look who showed up. You've got some nerve, Aria."

"Yeah, don't thieves usually hide in shame? You actually had the audacity to come to Tessa's wedding?"

"And you came empty-handed, seriously? Didn't your parents teach you that you should at least bring a gift to a wedding?"

"Come on, what do you expect? She's a thief, and probably can't even afford a gift. Look at her, head to toe in fake designer clothes. Bet she stole those too."

One by one, they took turns throwing insults my way.

I smirked to myself. That five grand they kept talking about was my own money, a reward from my mom for going to a concert I'd been dying to see. But before I could even enjoy it, Tessa accused me of stealing it.

The teacher found out the truth but told me to let it go, saying Tessa's family was struggling, and the money was a huge deal for them.

So, I didn't make a fuss and handed her the money.

And here we were, after all these years, she was still playing the victim so everyone believed her lie.

I wasn't interested in another argument with them. I figured I'd wait for the server to bring up the gifts I'd prepared, hand it over, and leave this place for good.

But after I waited around for some while, still no one showed up. So, I decided to head downstairs and check on my gifts.

Before I could take a step, Tessa stormed over and slapped me across the face.

"Aria, after all these years, you still haven't changed! You stole my ring, and now you're trying to run off like nothing happened?"