Wiping the tears away from her eyes, she decided to place a call to the so called "Fidel Legal" law firm with the number she had saved earlier.
It rang for some minutes before a man finally picked up. "Hello?" Ariana said.
"This is Fidel Legal and how may we help you?" A man said on the other side of the phone.
"I called because I wanted to talk with lawyer in charge of your firm" she answered.
"Ohh Mister Fidel isn't available now. He's currently busy but what kind of documents do you want us to forge? We forge different kinds, for companies, for real estate, you name it" The man said and Ariana pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it in disbelief.
As she suspected, they were a fake law firm!
Taking the phone back to her ear, she said "I don't want any documents forged. I just need to speak to Fidel, I have some unfinished business with him and I couldn't find a location on your website. So where can I meet up?".
The man grew silent for some seconds before replying "I'd ask my boss first and get back to you. I'd send you a location through text".
"Okay. Thank you" Ariana said.
" Also, what is your name? I'd like to let my boss know who he's going to see" the man asked.
"I'm the chairwoman of the Sterling company. Mrs Sterling, your boss helped me a while ago with documents for my daughter" Ariana lied.
"Ohhh madam! Nice hearing from you again. I'd immediately let my boss know you reached out!" The man said.
"Wonderful" Ariana said before ending the call.
The only option she had at that point was to lie about her identity, saying she was her mother. If she revealed she was the daughter, she was sure they wouldn't have arranged a meeting for her with the "boss".
She quickly wore her seat belt as she begun what she had planned for the day. She spent hours out looking for a job and got none.
The moment she introduced herself as Ariana Sterling, they'd have a strange look on their face and tell her she can't work with them and when she tried convincing them they'd act hostile. She deliberately parked her car far away from the places she went seeking for a job so they won't see her as a rich spoiled girl because some had that mindset already.
In a coffee shop she went to, the manager was so bold enough to ask her "You are that incompetent Sterling girl right? How do you even get kicked out of your own parents company? What did you do?". Ariana bit the insides of her cheeks as she tried to control her emotions after hearing the man's words.
She wanted to explain to the man that she wasn't kicked out but in reality, that was actually what happened. But in a more subtle manner.
The sun had gone down and the stars had begun to light up the night sky when Ariana got in her car and was looking at the articles online about her and Ava.
Someone had spread the narrative of her being the incompetent one between the Sterling girls and even went further to saying she was supposed to be the president of the company but she made silly mistakes like returning home drunk, living wildly and making decisions that were detrimental to the company that was why her father decided to make her sister the president instead.
The whole situation was worsened by Ava's fans online as they gave more support to Ava and fueled the already existing scandal.
Ariana knew she still had people that believed in her and supported her but today, the several posts online had already spread across the web and had ruined her chances of her getting a job.
After reading all the unnecessary hate comments by Ava's fans, Ariana sighed and headed to a restaurant to get a decent meal. The exhaustion from looking for a job in different places in one day, had made her grow an appetite.
It was a fancy restaurant and it didn't have much people in it; exactly what she was looking for. She was fed up with being glared at.
As she sat down, thoughts began to fill her head. The sudden hate online began out of nowhere and the more she thought about it, the more it looked like some of persons were just deliberately spreading the hate. Like they were paid to do it.
She was dragged out of her thoughts as she saw a young man standing before her, handing her the menu. "What would you like to have tonight madam?" He asked with a friendly smile across his face.
The first friendly smile she had received that day.
Ariana returned the smile and looked at the options on the menu. "I'd have this" she pointed at the Steak and mashed potatoes with Asparagus option.
"Coming right up" the young waiter boy said before walking away.
After some minutes, he came back with a bottle of wine and served it to Ariana. "Thank you" she said to him as he took his leave again.
Taking a sip out of the glass of wine, she looked around the restaurant to see that there were only four people in it, including herself.
But as she scanned the people present, she saw someone familiar on the far end of the restaurant. She suddenly grew an eagle's eye as she looked closely at who it was to see it was actually her fiancé.
She was about to walk up to him when a gorgeous woman walked in and sat with her fiancé. A bemused expression was plastered across her face as she wondered who that was.
She couldn't see the face of the woman but she was a hundred percent sure that the woman was sitting with the man she was supposed to marry the coming week.
She stared at them for some minutes more and decided to take a picture of them. She positioned her phone in a way it won't be obvious she was taking a picture of them.
Placing her phone down, she noticed Rodrigo smiling from ear to ear and the next moment that followed affirmed Ariana's suspicion that she was being cheated on. She saw Rodrigo place a kiss on the woman's cheek.
Ariana felt her vision become blurry, not because of the wine she had drank but because tears had began to fill her eyes.
She had the urge to walk up to him and give him a slap on the face but at the same time, she had seen this coming so she wasn't very surprised.
She wasn't surprised but she was hurt.
When a relationship isn't based on love, trust and commitment but on financial gain and family name, things like this were bound to happen.
She wiped her tears carefully with a kerchief and waited for her meal to arrive. She had cried enough and she couldn't be hurt emotionally and also be hungry. At least one should be out of the way. She thought.
Her meal finally arrived after some minutes and she ate quietly with her eyes still fiaxted on her cheating fiancé that she didn't notice another pair of eyes that were watching her.