Another Present for Dear Step-Sister

Asher's irritation at Javen's interruption was slightly soothed, when he heard his Angel introducing himself as his fiancé.

So, he gave a cursory nod at Javen in acknowledgement.

When Javen saw Asher giving him a perfunctory nod and then placing his hands around Aelia's waist in a possessive gesture, he felt a bitter feeling welling up in his chest.

However, he knew that despite his feelings for Aelia, he could by no means compete against her current fiancé.

Just by a single glance, Javen could already see, even if Asher's prominent background was not taken into account, Asher's feelings for Aelia would possibly not lose to his own.

So, he rejected his initial plan of confessing his feelings to Aelia after her graduation. On what basis, could he ask her to give him a chance to be with her, when she already had such a magnificent man by her side?

Despite not knowing Asher's actual identity, Javen felt that he could never match up to Asher in terms of appearance, presence, family background or even emotional feelings!

Javen tried to hide his churning emotions and decided to lead Aelia and Asher to where the rest of their research team was waiting.

As Javen turned around and motioned for them to follow him, Aelia felt Asher clasping her hand in a firm hold. Though she felt a little shy since it was her first time walking around in public while holding her lover's hand, Aelia did not try to release her hand from his.

Seeing this Asher had a satisfied smile on his face.

When they finally reached the auditorium where the graduation results were to be announced, Aelia was surprised to see her entire research team gathered there.

Aelia felt confused because she knew that all her teammates in the research group were her seniors who had already completed their graduation. So, she could not understand why all of them were gathered there?

Seeing the confused look on Aelia's face, Javen explained, "We were already working in the lab, when Mrs Hansley called to let us know that you will be conferred your doctoral degree through a public announcement. So, all of us decided to come here to support and congratulate you!"

Aelia was actually not that close to her teammates, despite working together for the past two years. This was not because, she did not want to bond with them, but because she did not have enough time to form deep friendships with any of them.

When she was at the laboratory, she would diligently work on her own experiments. After finishing her work in the laboratory, she then had to rush back to the Romanov Jewellery to take care of various matters relating to the company.

Thus, she hardly had sufficient time to go to the get-togethers frequently arranged by the team.

Despite all these, Aelia knew that none of her teammates held her accountable for spending so little time with them. Instead, whenever she faced any minor problem, everyone would rush to help their junior-most sister.

Aelia knew all these and had always felt grateful for all their help. Now, when she saw all her teammates gathered there to encourage and congratulate her, her normally cold visage cracked and she smiled at them with a warm and grateful expression on her face.

Asher could feel Aelia tugging at his hands. He looked down at her and knew that she wanted to go mingle with her teammates.

Though Asher felt a little reluctant to let go of her soft hands, he did not want to hold back his Angel from shining brightly on a stage that she had worked so hard to stand on.

Asher, thus, released her hands but was surprised when he saw Aelia tugging his hand and leading him towards the group of her teammates.

Aelia greeted each of her seniors and thanked them warmly for coming to congratulate her that day.

Next, she introduced Asher to everyone.

Asher had not expected his Angel to introduce him as his fiancé to all her teammates from the research unit.

This was because, he knew that Aelia was quite conservative in nature and so he thought that his Angel would be reluctant to suddenly announce her engagement to a group of people, specially when there was a chance that she could be judged for getting into an engagement at such a young age.

It was not that Aelia did not consider this possibility. She too knew that though the Phillonian High Society would sometimes have child betrothals, the engagements were kept private between the two families until both the parties reached the minimum marriageable age of around twenty-five years.

Despite knowing this, Aelia announced her engagement because she had faith in her teammates to not judge her for this.

Just as Aelia thought, each of them warmly congratulated Aelia and Asher. Though they felt curious about Asher's identity, seeing that their junior did not mention it, they decided to respect her decision and kept their curiosity to themselves.

Some of them would also occasionally throw sympathetic glances at Javen, as they knew that he had been pursuing their junior for over a year, but with no ultimate result.

Soon, the other students whose graduation results were to be announced also started to gather in the auditorium.

Aelia saw Reine taking her seat after throwing a meaningful glance at her.

Though Aelia knew that Reine had probably laid a trap to embarrass her during the graduation ceremony, she did not pay much attention to Reine's schemes.

The reason behind this was because Aelia was confident that she could easily walk away from any of Reine's schemes as she herself had not done anything wrong and had no guilty conscience to hide from the public.

Seeing Aelia's calm gaze as she sat beside Asher, Reine gritted her teeth in irritation.

As she tightly clenched her fist and her nails dug into her palm, Reine smirked with a devious expression on her face, 'Aelia, just you wait! Soon you'll be left with nothing!'

Reine was confident that her plan was flawless. This was because, she had come to the auditorium after meeting Mr Spivak, the newly recruited Head of Chemistry Department.

Reine's mother had previously told her that this man was a stickler for rules. So, she had subtly hinted to him that Aelia had been using her connections to get the top position in her course consecutively for the last few years.

As Reine was the daughter of his friend, Mrs Sandra Wilson, Mr Spivak believed Reine without any hesitation. He felt extremely furious to know that a student from such a reputable institution like the Phillon National University was using her connections to get the top position in her examinations.

Thus, without even checking the details, he had resolutely cancelled Aelia's name from the list of graduating students.

While Mr Spivak was self righteously thinking of facing the Dean of Sciences for his decision, he had no idea that he was just being used by his friend and her daughter for their underhanded schemes.

Reine was now confident that today she would finally be able to show everyone that Aelia was just a fraud who depended on her connections for her success.

She smiled gleefully when she thought how she had prepared another present for her dear step-sister.

As Reine felt sure about the success of her plan, she had already used her friend, Leila's connections to spread rumours about Aelia.

As a matter of fact, Aelia's cousin, Leila was one of the top students of the Arts department and was also quite popular among the students.

When Leila, who was always jealous of her cousin and felt that Aelia was arrogant enough to always look down on everyone, heard that Aelia was actually using her connections with the Dean of Sciences to ensure her top position in the chemistry department, she readily agreed to help her friend in unmasking the true nature of her cousin.

Reine had thus made sure that Aelia would have no path to backtrack from the trap she had so meticulously planned.

However, what Reine had miscalculated was that the Dean of Sciences would be personally present together with the Chancellor of Phillon National University to hand over the doctoral degree to Aelia.