Chapter 222
Marlene thought that since she had suffered in her marriage, she shouldn’t let her son, to whom she already owed so much, suffer again. She wanted Kieran to pick someone he liked and not be bothered by family marriage arrangements. She also thought that maybe Wallace wouldn’t agree, but she was willing to give it a try for her son.
What she totally didn’t expect was that the girl Kieran liked was actually from the Whitaker family. The girl from the Whitaker family was nice. Her family background wasn’t as good as the Argent family, but it was still a pretty solid family. If you think about it, Wallace also once listed the Whitaker family as a possible marriage match. The daughter in the Whitaker family, especially Roschelle, was really talented and well-known. She even went abroad alone to study piano, and when she came back, she returned with a lot of honor. The Argent family matched with the Whitaker family.
She’d heard rumors that Kieran and Roschelle had been secretly dating since high school, that they were each other’s first love, really in love, and even after being apart for a few years, their feelings for each other hadn’t faded. Kieran and Roschelle loved each other, and their families were a good match. A strong team-up, really a perfect match. When she found out Kieran’s girlfriend was the Whitaker family’s Roschelle, she was really happy. Glad that Kieran really liked Roschelle, and also glad that Roschelle’s family background already passed Wallace’s check, good enough to match the Argent family. The best of both worlds, a match made in heaven.
Only one thing wasn’t good. That was Alarieka. Marlene hated her marriage, and the biggest reason was that she hated the betrayal in the marriage. Rolando was young and handsome, came from a good family, and the way he talked was different from other men. She had once had a crush on Rolando, hoping that she could be with Rolando forever, just the two of them, with no one else getting in the way. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped, and Rolando had already betrayed their marriage less than half a year after they got married. She had felt heart-wrenching pain and had experienced the confusion of a broken marriage. She didn’t want Kieran and Roschelle to go through that too. Since she was Kieran’s mom, who owed him, she should have helped take some of the burden off Kieran. She gave Alarieka a week. If Alarieka was still hanging around after a week, then, she said, don’t blame me.
Marlene’s eyes flickered, hiding the shock in her gaze.
When she looked up, her eyes turned gentle: “Kier, I’m your mom. I hoped your marriage would always be loving and smooth. Don’t follow the same path I did. Do you understand?” She raised her hand and patted Kieran on the shoulder, “Kier, Rose felt wronged, you need to comfort her. She’s pregnant, and pregnant women always have unstable emotions. You have to pay attention all the time. Don’t let Rose keep everything bottled up. It’s bad for her health.” “Rose was pregnant for the first time, and you were going to be a dad for the first time too. If there was anything you didn’t understand, just come ask me.”
Kieran went “Mm.” “Thanks, Mom.”
On the morning of the semi-finals, Alarieka got up early and thought about the content of the semi-finals. The content of the semi-final was already announced on the same day the preliminary round ended, and the rules were the same as the preliminary round. Players could choose songs that others had already created, or they could play songs they had written themselves. It was also about cutting half the people, so only thirty-two made it to the finals. The preliminary and the semi-final were different; the semi-final contestants had already been screened once, so it was harder to deal with than the preliminary. This time, she had to be careful, couldn’t be so reckless again.
Actually, Alarieka had a bit of a headache. Because she didn’t want too much attention and didn’t want to show her real strength and get targeted by Roschelle, she didn’t want to stand out before the finals. In this semi-final, she also wanted to keep a low profile and deliberately hid her true ability. Plus, the eliminated contestant Sammy was making a big fuss online, saying she only made it to the next round because of connections. With all that pressure, she should’ve kept her skills hidden, so her ranking wouldn’t suddenly shoot up and make people even more suspicious.
But hiding your talents was the hardest thing. During the preliminaries, Alarieka didn’t judge the difficulty of the competition or the strength of the other contestants correctly. She deliberately played wrong notes to cut out, and purposely chose a piece that wasn’t impressive, so she just barely made it into the semifinals as the last qualifier.
Chapter 223