Chapter 3

Julian eventually believed my shock.

To recover the loss from the Hale incident, he was eager to prove his control to the outside world. The next night, he brought me into the Whitmore charity banquet hall in a high-profile manner.

This was my first time re-entering this world that once belonged to me in five years.

When I stepped through the huge carved double doors, the noisy banquet hall fell dead silent for one second. Countless gazes stabbed my back like spotlights. I was once the first heir and became the family traitor five years ago, but now I am just a fallen daughter relying on my fiancé's charity.

Julian's warm palm pressed against my lower back, and he naturally protected me half a step behind him to block those malicious snooping gazes.

"Ignore them," he lowered his head close to my ear with a gentle tone enough to deceive everyone, "All rumors will disappear as long as your mother announces the hotel project partnership intention in front of everyone tonight."

My stomach churned, but I forced my back to relax and obediently leaned into his embrace.

The crowd parted, and Vanessa walked over with champagne. She wore a very aggressive red haute couture evening dress, and the emerald necklace that should belong to me pressed against her collarbone. She walked straight to the main table which used to be my seat, and she sat down extremely naturally.

Vanessa gave me a victor's smile and deliberately raised her volume: "Julian, it must be hard for you to still bring her out after she did those things. Claire, you really should be grateful."

I did not talk back, and I did not even move a single eyebrow. Because at the moment she approached, I caught a very tiny detail.

Julian very naturally took the empty wine glass from Vanessa's hand. At the instant the glass was passed, their fingertips rubbed against each other slowly with a sticky feeling.

I instantly understood that was not politeness, but an unspeakable tacit understanding.

The banquet reached its climax, and the host raised the microphone: "Now, I officially announce that Ms. Vanessa Whitmore will enter the hotel project management committee and be responsible for the project supervision on the Whitmore side..."

The whole hall erupted in thunderous applause, and Julian clapped the hardest while his greed could no longer be hidden. He thought this was his perfect chess game, but he did not know I had reached into my evening bag and slowly pressed the send button on the encrypted phone screen.

The huge LED screen behind the stage suddenly emitted a piercing electric sizzling sound, and then the screen went black instantly.

The whole banquet hall fell dead silent. A few seconds later, a line of pale English text lit up on the dark screen:

Appointment Rejected by Founding Beneficiary: Claire Whitmore.

With a clang sound, a champagne glass smashed on the marble floor.

The blood color on Vanessa's face faded instantly, and the host froze in place.

I picked up the ice water by my hand and took a slow sip. The icy liquid slid into my throat and extinguished the burning sensation accumulated over five years. I was finally no longer the publicly humiliated clown, and I was the judge sitting on the trial bench.

Vanessa stared hard at me with her chest heaving violently: "How could you still have veto power?!"

I put down my water cup and was just about to speak, but a cold and majestic voice came from the aisle behind me.

"Because she can never take away some things."

It has been exactly five years, and that was my mother Eleanor's voice.