Back at the Ford Estate.
Zoe Shaw entered her room and immediately initiated a video call with Rory.
Seeing Zoe’s incoming call, Rory’s expression shifted slightly. Her mind raced through all the possibilities as she found a quiet corner to answer.
"Mom... Mommy..."
As Zoe’s face appeared on the screen, Rory felt an inexplicable pang of guilt. Her eyes darted around, avoiding her mother’s direct gaze.
Zoe didn’t overthink it, her eyes completely gentle. "Rory, I’ve sent you the address. Please mail a formal gown to Mommy."
Rory’s heart skipped a beat, and a flash of panic crossed her face. "Mommy, I... I’m staying with Mr. Morgan."
"Okay. Be a good girl, Rory. In a little while, Mommy will bring your brother back to see you," Zoe said with a nod, not asking any further questions.
Fortunately, Rory quickly realized that Zoe simply needed a dress and hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
She thought, "I almost blew my cover!"
After hanging up, Rory breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing her palms were coated in a fine layer of sweat.
She thought, "Thank goodness Mommy didn’t notice anything!"
Since Rory was actually back in the country, she visited a nearby partnered boutique and picked out a beautiful gown for Zoe. However, she ran into a problem when it came time to ship it.
Holding Zachary Morgan’s hand, Rory looked up at him. "Mr. Morgan, can you go with me to mail Mommy’s dress? It needs to go through international shipping to fake the transit records."
Zachary paused in surprise, then smiled and patted her head. "Why is that? Why would your mommy suddenly need a formal dress?"
Rory’s little face scrunched up in conflict. "Because Mommy is going to some alumni banquet and asked me to mail her a gown. But if I just send it directly from here, won’t she find out we secretly came back to protect her?"
He thought, "So that’s what’s going on."
Zachary’s expression grew serious as his thoughts shifted entirely to Zoe.
By attending this event, Zoe was bound to run into Yasmine Shaw. According to their original plan, he was supposed to accompany Zoe, using this banquet to formally step into the Shaw family’s line of sight. But right now, Zoe was all alone and heavily outnumbered! This story is hosted at novelping(.)com.
Zachary’s heart clenched tightly, terrified that she would be taken advantage of. After turning it over in his mind, his gaze hardened with resolve. He made a bold decision.
The night of the alumni banquet.
Celebrities and elites from all circles arrived as scheduled. Nearly all of them were prominent figures in Avenburg’s high society.
The women had gone to great lengths to dress to the nines, desperately trying to steal the spotlight at this reunion. Yet, the main focus of tonight’s gathering had not yet appeared.
For a time, the women clustered together, whispering and gossiping about old school scandals and the star of the evening: Cyrus Ford.
"Hey, do you guys think Cyrus will actually show up?"
"Don’t even dream about it. Even if he does come, you won’t stand a chance."
"Cyrus is aloof and completely unapproachable. From college until now, he’s only ever had one woman by his side, and that was Zoe Shaw! Who knows what the real story behind their breakup was."
"Rumor has it that after he and Zoe broke up, he inherited the Ford family estate. Then, single-handedly, with ruthless and forceful tactics, he crushed the competition and struck fear into everyone’s hearts. He propelled the Ford family to the very top of Avenburg in just five years! Plus, with a face like that, he is the ultimate dream of millions of girls!"
"Who wouldn’t want to marry Cyrus Ford? But we just don’t have that kind of luck; he’s completely out of our league. I really don’t understand why Zoe broke up with him!"
"Oh, hush! Don’t you know Cyrus has a childhood sweetheart who’s now his fiancée? Zoe was just an unforgettable first love at best. In the end, he’s still destined to marry his unforgettable first love!"
Suddenly, two figures appeared at the entrance, sending a ripple of commotion through the crowd. Surprisingly, Sean Shelton and his younger brother Ethan Shelton had attended the event together.
Sean, the older brother, cast his starry gaze across the room. His burgundy suit perfectly accentuated his cynical, playboy demeanor, drawing continuous excited squeals from the young women around him. Meanwhile, Ethan simply wore a gentle smile, following somewhat shyly behind Sean.
The sharp contrast between the two brothers left a deep impression. The two sons of the Shelton family were quite famous in their own right.
The crowd had eagerly pushed forward, but when the women realized the man next to Sean wasn’t Cyrus, their faces fell with disappointment.
They thought, "He really didn’t come!"
Cyrus had always rejected these sorts of boring gatherings. Taking in the women’s drastic change in attitude, the men in the room scoffed, though they couldn’t help feeling a sting of jealousy. This chapter is updated first at NovelPing.
They thought, "So what if Cyrus is a bit more handsome? Without the Ford family, he’d be nothing but a pretty boy. Besides, Cyrus already has a fiancée. None of them ever stood a chance anyway. Every single one of them is pining for something they can never have."
At the banquet hall entrance.
Zoe wore a black, strapless evening gown that hugged her impossibly slender waist, highlighting her perfect curves. Her thick, dark hair was half-pinned up, revealing her delicate collarbones and contrasting beautifully with her snow-white skin. She exuded an aura of cold, unapproachable elegance.
With her powerful presence fully unleashed, Zoe’s careless gaze swept across the crowd near the entrance. Her red lips curled up slightly as she gracefully walked in.
Unexpectedly, her path was immediately blocked by a quick-moving Yasmine Shaw.
Yasmine clenched her fists, her eyes blazing with jealousy and hatred as she glared daggers at Zoe. "Zoe, how do you even have the nerve to show your face back here?"
There had been whispers on the grapevine that Zoe had returned to the country, but Yasmine hadn’t believed it, assuming it was just someone’s sick prank. She never expected to actually run into her at the reunion. Seeing her nemesis ignited a fiery rage in Yasmine’s eyes!
The two women stood at the entrance, locking eyes for a long time. That single glance felt like a lifetime had passed.
Zoe parted her red lips, a cold, glamorous smile playing on her face. "Avenburg is my home. Why shouldn’t I come back?"
Yasmine let out a snort, her face full of mockery. "Zoe, you were so terrified of death back then that you fled abroad like a stray dog with its tail between its legs! You didn’t even come back for your parents’ funeral! There hasn’t been a place for you in the Shaw family for a very long time!"
Zoe’s gaze turned as cold as frost. She leaned in close to Yasmine, enunciating every word as a lethal warning. "Yasmine, don’t you ever forget the despicable methods your family used to usurp power. But now I’m back. I’m going to reclaim everything that rightfully belongs to me, piece by piece. Tell Charles Shaw to watch his back."
Zoe’s eyes rippled with a captivating, soul-shaking intensity. Her words hammered against Yasmine’s heart, causing the other woman’s expression to change drastically. A dark, venomous look slithered across Yasmine’s face like a viper.
However, having been backed by the Shaw family and living a life of pampered luxury all these years, Yasmine’s temper was far worse than it used to be. She had no intention of holding back.
"Zoe, do you really think you pose any sort of threat? Don’t flatter yourself. You are absolutely nothing!" Yasmine lifted her chin high, looking down her nose at Zoe with incredible arrogance. She looked as if she wanted nothing more than to trample Zoe under her feet to vent her anger.
Zoe lowered her eyes, her tone indifferent. "Is that so? Then we’ll just have to wait and see."
At those words, Yasmine’s rage boiled over. No longer able to maintain her facade of ladylike grace, she raised her hand, fully intending to slap Zoe across the face.
In a split second, Zachary Morgan appeared right on time. Without a word, he stepped in front of Zoe and seized Yasmine’s wrist. "This is no place for you to act like a wild shrew!"