Chapter 3

Charlotte Thorne walked towards me.

Tall and slender, her face strikingly beautiful, even more captivating than in her photos.

She scanned me with a look of disdain, her gaze sweeping over my face, pausing for a fraction of a second.

“It’s our engagement party today. What disgraceful scene are you making here?”

I broke free from the security guards’ grip, straightened up, and adjusted the collar of my suit, letting out a cold scoff.

“Can’t you see what’s happening?”

“Charlotte Thorne, I’d like to ask you, is having your security guards assault me at the ballroom entrance your idea of hospitality?”

“Do you know what your assistant just—”

Before I could finish, Charlotte Thorne cut me off with a frown.

“Enough! You’re late for the engagement party and instead of coming in, you’re causing trouble at the door. If my security guards didn’t stop you, were they supposed to just let you run inside and disturb the guests?”

“My time is precious, and you’ve just wasted it.

“You’re a worthless orphan, and foolish. I really don’t know why my mother wants me to get engaged to you.”

The guests who had followed her out to watch the drama discreetly looked my way, whispering amongst themselves.

Those condescending stares made me feel like a clown.

I felt my time was wasted too. I’d spent so much effort preparing, even taking a special day off.

With that time, I could have updated the data for my new experiment.

“What a coincidence, I also feel my time has been wasted.”

“Since we clearly can’t stand each other, why don’t we just call off the engagement?”

Charlotte Thorne froze, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Causing trouble in front of me isn’t enough, now you’re trying to use breaking off the engagement as leverage? Do you really think that will make me bend to your will?”

I looked at Charlotte Thorne’s expression and suddenly felt speechless, a sense of talking to a brick wall.

Beside her, Leo Stone stood respectfully, yet his voice held a hint of familiarity and grievance.

“Ms. Thorne, he’s causing such a scene at the engagement party. What’ll happen when you’re married? Will he turn everything upside down?”

“And just now, he saw that I’m your capable assistant and thought I was stealing his thunder, so he got angry and tried to hit me.”

“If those security guards hadn’t protected me, he definitely would have gotten away with it.”

Charlotte Thorne looked at me with disbelief.

“Leo has been my assistant for two years. He’s handled countless things for me. Do you think he’s some useless freeloader who got his position through connections, like you? What do you have to be jealous of?”

I tugged at the corner of my lips, but there wasn’t a shred of a smile in my eyes.

“Though I’m curious why you think I’m useless.”

“But you just believe your assistant’s words like that?”

“It was your assistant—”

Charlotte Thorne interrupted me again.

“If I don’t believe my assistant, should I believe a lunatic like you?”

Leo Stone raised a hand to cover his rising smile, then blinked, and tears welled up in his eyes.

“Ms. Thorne, my heart aches for you.”

“You’re already one of the most powerful people in this city, yet you’re still constrained by your mother and forced into an arranged marriage with a lunatic.”

Charlotte Thorne had only taken over Thorne Corp. two years ago, and Mrs. Eleanor Thorne still interfered with the company’s affairs.

She had accumulated a lot of anger due to her mother’s meddling.

After Leo Stone’s words, the atmosphere around her immediately became heavy.

“Asher Vance, you’d better apologize to me properly, and compensate me.”

“Otherwise, not even my mother can save you.”