The Unlucky Turn by Mark Twain 372

Judie stood up, looking down at Tamara and Carola with a haughty expression. “Now, shouldn’t someone be apologizing?”

Carola took a step back, guilty and afraid. Tamara bit her lip, her face flushing red, unable to squeeze out a single word.

Seeing the standoff, Mr. Watson lowered his voice and urged them, “Miss Sloan, look… maybe just apologize? Ms. Fulton is…”

Apologize to Judie? That was practically the same as apologizing to Leilani!

Tamara looked up sharply, her eyes red-rimmed, looking as if she had suffered a massive injustice. “Why should I apologize? I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Judie scoffed. “Didn’t do anything wrong? So your friend calling security to kick us out was just a joke? Tamara, do you think we can’t see right through your little game?”

Judie rolled her eyes at Tamara and applied pressure to Mr. Watson. “Anyway, I don’t care about the rest. If they don’t apologize to me right now, this isn’t going to blow over easily.”

The Fulton Group was the company’s biggest sponsor. If Judie was offended, Mr. Watson could already see himself losing his job.

He dropped his polite demeanor, shooting a sharp look at Tamara. “Ms. Sloan, think this through. Ms. Fulton is our biggest investor. If you offend her, have you thought about how you’ll explain this to your brother later? Don’t forget, today is his concert!”

Even after Mr. Watson laid it out so clearly, Tamara remained silent, gritting her teeth in

defiance.

Seeing that Tamara was cornered, Carola had no choice but to step up and take the fall. Face burning, she took a rigid step backward and stammered an apology to Judie. “Ms. Fulton, I-I’m sorry! I misunderstood the situation just now! I apologize!”

Judie raised an eyebrow. “Just you? I recall it wasn’t just one person making loud accusations against us.”

Then her gaze shifted meaningfully to Tamara.

Judie had zero patience for Tamara’s silent treatment. She had the guts to start trouble but

no guts to own up to it. So boring!

Tamara clenched her jaw. Tears had been swirling in her eyes for a while, and she could feel

everyone staring at her, but she refused to bow her head.

Mr. Watson was sweating profusely. On one side was the Fulton heiress; on the other, Tamara was being as stubborn as a mule. He couldn’t exactly force Tamara’s head down.

16:30

Tamara wasn’t leaving him any way out of this mess!

Now, Mr. Watson was getting angry too. But the priority was to soothe Judie’s anger. He humbled himself and spoke to Judie softly. “Ms. Fulton, Ms. Sloan is clearly young and doesn’t know any better… Please, be the bigger person…”

Judie laughed coldly. “Young? I recall she’s the same age as us. And didn’t she just get married recently? She doesn’t look like someone who ‘doesn’t know better.’ In fact, she seems to know how to scheme better than any of us.”

Tamara’s refusal to speak or apologize was making the situation incredibly awkward for

everyone.

The room fell into a deadlock.

Judie lost patience with the standoff. She turned to Leilani. “Leilani, it looks like she’s not going to apologize. What do you think we should do?”

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