EMMA'S POV
The limo finally comes to a halt after twenty minutes of a very akward silence. Well, for me cos Mason didn't acknowledge my presence, completely ignoring me the entire ride here.
"I'm sorry." I plead not bothering to access my environment, more concerned with putting a stop to this silent treatment.
"I said, I was sorry." I say again when he doesn't say anything. He turns to look at me with a hard expression, forcing me to flash him my infamous puppy dog eyes. He resists at first, trying to keep a straight but finally gives in to a teasing smile.
"Does that ever work? You look like you're holding in a fart." He asks with an amused expression.
"It got you to finally talk to me so it must have." I say, his mood changes slightly at the recollection of our earlier conversation so I decide to apologise again.
"I'm really sorry, again, it was none of my business." I admit.
"No, you were right. There was a time we were really close, I longed for his acceptance, wanted him to be proud of me." He says, staring at nothing, clearly lost in memories.
I place my hands on his shoulder, unsure of what else to do. He tenses under my touch but faces me still, giving me a sad smile.
"But I guarantee you, I don't give a rat's ass about his opinions now." He spits out venomously.
The driver gets out and opens my door, offering his hand to me. Mason does the same as the driver but doesn't wait for my consent, instead, takes my hand in his, helping me out, throwing the driver a warning look in the process.
I step out to a mega mansion, now that I think about it, I have seen pictures of it on the internet but let me tell you, they do not do justice to it at all.
"You're like a real live prince." I admit as I stare at the mansion. Realising how silly what I had just said sounded, I make to correct it but see him talking to the driver, not paying attention to me, thank God.
"Please take the limo back, we won't be leaving with it. Get another car and bring the keys to me." He orders before facing me again.
"Your house is astonishing." I say honestly.
"Yeah, I'm kinda like a real live prince." He says knowingly, causing me to burst in red.
"Let's just go." I say, attempting to divert the conversation.
"Are you sure? Cos the minute we start walking towards that door, you'll no longer be just Emma, you'll be multibillionaire's son, Mason West's girlfriend." He warns, taking a deep breath, I nod in approval, he sends a nod of his own and starts leading me towards the door.
"I didn't know there would be so many paparazzi." I state, squinting my eyes to block the camera flashes.
"You'll get use to it." He says, not at all bothered by them or their prying questions.
The door automatically parts, allowing us in. I stare open mouthed at the wondrous sight, the interior even more detailed than the outside, having everything elegantly decorated to fit the valentine mood.
The expensive looking chandelier does well to illuminate the enormous hall, beautifying the dinner tables arranged with extreme care, housing name tags atop them for identification of the guests sitting positions.
The entire hall parts at the center, creating a wide space, serving as a dancefloor.
There are mostly aged couples and few young ones all dressed with supreme style, swaying gracefully to the rhythm of the classical music, but what catches my attention is the buffet table with different assortments of food, displayed in multiple numbers.
On impulse, I move towards it but I am instantly pulled back by Mason, I stare longingly at it as he subtly drags me towards the opposite direction.
He leads us past the mass of people, stopping at a pair. I stare mesmerized at the woman's extreme beauty.
Her brown eyes and full lips suits perfectly with the white off the shoulder, knee length dress she has on, accessorised with a blindingly expensive looking, diamond studded necklace, pairing effortlessly with her brown curled locks, cascading down her shoulders gracefully, putting mine to shame.
Standing next to her is an excessively tall and scary looking, stone faced man dressed in a chic tuxedo, with familiar grey eyes slightly stricken in age, who I have come to know through billboards and many more as Shawn West.
"You're late." His father points out, shooting daggers at him.
"Well I'm here, aren't I?" Mason retorts, shooting equal amounts of daggers at his father.
"Boys." The woman says calmly, a silent warning to behave. The two immediately obey, looking away from each other.
Only a wife has the power to do that to her husband especially one as hardheaded as hers, so she must be Mason's mother, though they look nothing alike.
Strangely, I don't think I have seen her face anywhere before.
"Masy honey, care to introduce us to your very beautiful friend?" His mom asks, beaming.
I am caught between laughing my head off at his mother's nickname for him or blushing shyly at her compliment.
"Mom!" He cries in protest, clearly embarrassed, his cheek tainted in pink. I make a mental note to tease him about it later.
"What?" She asks, furrowing her brows in confusion. "Oh I get it, you don't want your lady friend here to think less of you, but I'm sure she doesn't mind." She concludes, waving it off.
"So what's your name dear?" She directs at me, his father instantly turns attentive at this making me nervous.
"Emma, Mam." I foolishly say, omitting my last name.
"Call me Allison, dear." She offers, receiving a shy smile from me.
"Are you an orphan?" His father questions in an authoritative tone not giving me the chance to respond back to Allison.
"No, s..ir." I stutter, why do I feel nervous like I'm actually meeting my boyfriend's parents for real? Though, he didn't really correct them when they referred to me as his friend.
"Then I believe you own a last name." He deadpans.
"Excuse my manners dear father." Mason coos sarcastically, stopping me from speaking, thankfully. "This is Emma Johnson, my girlfriend." He introduces, snaking his hands around my waist, effectively pulling me closer to him.
His father's brows shoots up at this, his already cold expression hardens even more as he bore holes at the side of my head through the intensity of his gaze.
"That's wonder..." Allison starts to say but is interrupted by her husband.
"Any relation to the Multi-billion, Johnson cooperation for construction?" He asks, accessing me.
"No Si...r" I stutter once again, he thinks I'm rich?
"The International Johnson's Cosmetic production factory?" He persists.
"If I had wanted for her to be interrogated, don't you think I would have brought in the FBI myself?" Mason puts forward through gritted teeth.
"You will not speak to me in such manner." His father orders in a sharp tone, rising to his full height.
"Why don't I just add that to the list of things you think I shouldn't be doing." Mason snaps back.
"Don't test me boy." His father growls warningly, stepping forward. Mason immediately follows suit, stepping forward himself.
I see this as my cue to stop him. I reach for his arm, pulling him a few paces back.
"Will you look at that, I suddenly feel like dancing." I awkwardly say.
I see Allison doing the same as me, pulling husband away from son. She gives me an approving smile as I practically drag Mason to the dancefloor.
"Why did you stop me?" He asks still visibly angered.
"You mean, why I stopped you from engaging in a fist fight with your father? who is almost twice your size by the way." I state, wrapping my hands around his neck.
"I could have taken him." He defends, securing his hands around my waist, causing involuntary shivers to run through me, must be the air-con.
"Yeah right." I state, not buying it.
"You're here to create a scene not to stop one." He says still riled up.
"I didn't know things were this bad between you two." I say honestly as we danced.
"Well, shit fucking happens." He cusses, completely oblivious of an elderly woman dancing cheerfully next to us with a bubbly looking little girl.
Heat rises to his cheek when the little girl starts to mimick his exact words out loud continuously to the old lady.
She shoots an accusing look at his vulgarity, ignoring his plea instead places a palm over the girl's mouth to keep her from screaming profanities.
"What's the problem Masy? Can't handle an old lady?" I tease, an attempt to divert his mood but mostly to get back at him.
"You just couldn't let it go." He states with a wicked grin plastered on his face as he twirls me.
Just when I make to speak he unexpectedly pulls me forward causing me to crash bad on his hard chest.
His fingers not so subtly, starts drawing circles on my exposed back, somehow causing my knees to give out, but his firm hold on my waist keeps me balanced.
"What a..re y...ou do...ing?" I stutter under his rigorous gaze.
"Me?" He plays dump, my breath hitches when he inches closer, tugging a strand of hair behind my ear, he isn't planning on.... My heart rate accelerates by a thousand when his nose brushes mine and my thoughts become incoherent.
Panicking, I raise my hands, attempting to push him away but with the lack of space, I'm sure it only makes me look like a hormonal teenage girl, clinging to him for dear life.
Wait a minute, that's probably what he was aiming for as payback for teasing him.
My suspicions are confirmed when the same woman fires me a disgusted look, now having to cover both the mouth and eyes of the little girl, who must have certainly been staring innocently at us.
"Don't you have any shame? At least try to keep it in your pants." She spits out.
"It's not wh..." I try to defend but she huffs and leaves, hurringly leading the girl away.
"What's wrong Johnson? Can't handle an old lady?" He teases me this time.
"Douche bag." I conclude, harshly pulling away from him, stepping on his foot intentionally in the process.
"Ow!" He cries out loud receiving weird looks from people around us and a victorious smirk from me.
My little victory is interrupted by the driver, who walks to us and whispers something to his hearing which causes him to turn sharply at a direction, I follow his line of sight, leading to his father.
Sighing, he collects the car keys which he had asked for earlier from his driver and pockets them.
"I have to go." He informs.
"Like out of the party?" I inquire.
"No, my father wants me to meet the investors and whatnot and it's gonna take a while."
"Oh." I say, suddenly feeling a little sad that he has to go........ It's probably because he's the only familiar face, yeah.
"Do you want to come with?" He offers unsurely.
"God no." I let out horrified. "You haven't exactly painted an appealing picture." I point out.
"Trust me it's not." He sighs, he really does hate the business. "What are you going to be doing while I'm gone?" He questions.
"Pay a little visit to the buffet table." I clasps my hands together excitedly, walking away.
I ignore the weird glances from yet another occupant of a table, I didn't even take that much food, okay maybe I did but they all looked soooooo good and I couldn't decide, so I grabbed one of everything, not giving up until my plate was pilled up.
I scan the tables searching for a seat, It's not exactly easy to find one when the tables are labelled with the names of supposed occupants.
I don't think Mason remembered to send in my name so basically I'm seat-less.
"I've never seen a girl so skinny take so much food." A voice corrupted with a Chinese accent says to me.
Did she just call me skinny? Must be the dress creating the illusion.
I turn towards the voice to see a Chinese woman well stricken in age, housing more than a few grey hairs, dressed in a sophisticated traditional Chinese attire.
"No one's interested in eating anyways and when is it ever good to waste food." I say honestly, feeling bold.
"You're certainly right about that." She agrees, laughing with nonexistent teeth. "You can sit here if you like." She adds.
"Really? Thanks." I say, settling on the chair, not waiting for a second confirmation.
"My name is Emma Johnson" I introduce not omitting my last name this time.
"My name is Wang Xiu Ying ... Ooh is that scone?" She questions, eyeing my plate.
Smiling, I slide it towards her.

****
"I can't believe you dated four guys at the same time Wang." I say, throwing my head back in laughter.
I know a lot of time had passed with me chatting with Wang Xiu Ying but frankly I don't care, she's really great company.
"How did you even pull it off?" I ask curiously.
"I was smart and a looker back then." She gestures, swinging her hands for demonstration, only they moved too fast and ended up knocking down my drink, splashing it's content on my dress.
"Sure hope you didn't do this to your dates." I say, finding the humour in my predicament.
"Actually yes, I did that so they'd have to use the bathroom and I could go see the other three." She admits while I grab a napkin to clean myself up.
"You'll only make it worse, just go get cleaned up in the loo" She orders.
"Don't tell you have three other girls waiting for my leave?" I ask, feigning hurt.
"However did you find out?" She asks, playing along.
She signals for a help to show me to the bathroom. I make sure to search for Mason as she leads me but I don't see him or his father, they're probably still doing business stuff.
Done with my business, I walk out into the hallway leading back to the party.
I catch a glimpse of red underneath a table, being the curious kitten I am, I decide to check it out.
I squat down to see a beautiful girl, looking about thirteen, hiding out under the table.
What is it with this party and beautiful people? But there's something familiar about her brown eyes and full lips that makes me certain I've seen them before.
"You look familiar." We say at the same time.
"Why don't you tell me how I look familiar and I'll tell you how you do?" I offer, taking the empty spot next to her on the floor.
"Sounds good to me." She agrees. "You look like a boy in my grade." She adds. I notice that her cheeks heat up at the thought of the boy. There is only one boy I know looks like me.
"What's his name?" I ask to be sure.
"Max." She says, looking down shyly, she really has it bad for him.
"Johnson?" I offer.
"Yes!" She says rather cheerfully. "How did you know?" She asks.
"If his name is Max Johnson and he goes to Eastview junior high, then he's my brother." I conclude.
"Oh, no wonder you look just like him." She adds thoughtfully. "I'm Mae West by the way." She chirps. So she's the Mae Max likes, small world.
"I'm Emma Jo...." I stop dead, wait up, West?
"That's usually how people react when they find out I'm Shawn West's daughter." She says sighing.
"Are you Mason's sister?" I still ask though I already know the answer. No wonder she looks so familiar, she's the spitting image of Allison. Now that I think about it, Mason mentioned her name at Jacqueline's when he took the call.
"The one and only, do you know my brother personally?" She questions.
"We're acquainted." I say, not knowing how to describe our relationship.
"I mean I'm his girlfriend." I correct, realising that's who I'm suppose to be for the night.
"Oh." She says, accessing me. "You're pretty." She compliments.
"Thanks, you too. I didn't know Mason had a sister though." I admit.
"That's because mom and I like to live a private life. I transferred to a different school recently cos I wanted a fresh start, I don't like it when people treat me differently cos of who my dad is." She admits.
"Up until a few days ago, the only friends I had were because of my family's money." She adds.
"That's where you met Max, I can tell you like him you know." I say, the cheesy smile that stretches through her face confirms it.
"I like you but if you hurt my brother, I'll end you." She warns with a scary look she must have picked up from her father.
"Same goes for you Missy, I don't mess around with mine." My turn to warn.
"You're different from the others." She says cheerfully.
"Others?" I inquire.
"That Mason has brought to the parties." She explains, I feel a sudden pang at the thoughts of the others.
"Now don't go getting jealous." She teases
"I'm n..." I start to defend when I see two hefty men dressed professionally in suits, towering over me.
They walk towards me and each grab one of my hand, lifting me off the floor.
"You're going to have to come with us."

(A/N): Over 500 reads😘😘, Did anyone see the Mae thing coming?
I'm sorry for the late update but it has been a very busy week. See you guys in the next chapter 😉