The four men and women beside Vivian Forrest looked absolutely dreadful, whispering amongst themselves.
They were clearly the parents from both families.
Jaden Rhodes’s absence had also caught the guests’ attention, and they were all whispering and speculating.
The more everyone talked, the worse the group’s expressions became.
Vivian Forrest in particular looked as if the elegant mask on her face was about to shatter, her features twitching uncontrollably.
She pulled the woman next to her aside and gave her a look.
The two of them walked out together.
When Sophia Shaw got a clear look at the woman’s face, her eyes instantly turned to ice—it was Candice Sterling!
She clearly heard Vivian Forrest call out, "Mom."
Hmph!
’So Vivian Forrest is Candice Sterling’s daughter!’
’How utterly ironic. The mother, Candice Sterling, went all out to help her best friend, Yvonne Sherman, slander my own birth mother. And the daughter, Vivian Forrest, helps Joanna Sherman suppress me!’
’This mother-daughter pair is absolutely shameless!’
Vivian Forrest and Candice Sterling walked out together. Once they were somewhere private, Vivian finally spoke. "Mom, that damn Jaden Rhodes! How dare he stand me up!"
Candice Sterling sighed. "Jaden Rhodes never agreed to this engagement in the first place. President Rhodes and Mrs. Rhodes forced the decision."
"Vivian, your father was already upset with me last time because of Vincent Grant. If this engagement with Jaden Rhodes falls through, our lives in the Sherman Family will become even more difficult!"
"We have to find a way to get a handle on Jaden Rhodes and make him show up!"
Candice Sterling had also clawed her way up from being a mistress. Vivian had older half-siblings from the first wife, and they hated Candice and Vivian to the bone.
Vivian Forrest snorted arrogantly. "I won’t let those people walk all over us! And I won’t let Jaden Rhodes get out of this engagement!"
The same nasty expression she wore when she used to bully people appeared on her face. "Mom, I will make Jaden Rhodes show up!"
"You have a way?"
"Just you watch!"
Vivian Forrest strode out, phone in hand, and Candice Sterling followed.
Sophia Shaw emerged from the shadows, standing where the two had been.
She couldn’t help but sigh softly.
’So Brother Jaden never agreed to this engagement.’
As Sophia Shaw walked back, the melodious sound of a violin filled the hall.
Vivian Forrest and Candice Sterling were standing calmly in the crowd, chatting with a few high-society ladies, a complete turnaround from their earlier panic.
From a distance, Sophia Shaw saw the violinist standing center stage. It was a girl, all alone and very slender.
The mask covering her face added an air of mystery, but it also made Sophia Shaw freeze in shock.
’Her?’
’Seraphina Vaughn’s master.’
’Wasn’t she... with my master’s wife?’
Just then, the doors to the banquet hall were thrown open, and a figure rushed in!
It was Jaden Rhodes!
He stopped at the entrance, his chest heaving, his gaze fixed on the masked girl on stage as if drawn by a magnet.
He, who was usually calm and indifferent to everything, now had a storm of shock, pain, and other unreadable emotions swirling in his eyes.
Sophia Shaw looked at him.
In her memory, Jaden Rhodes had never been so agitated!
’This girl...’
In an instant, Sophia Shaw understood everything!
Vivian Forrest saw Jaden Rhodes too, and of course, she also saw his gaze locked on the girl on stage.
She had clearly already won.
But at this moment, Vivian Forrest felt not a shred of victorious joy in her heart.
Her fingers clenched into a fist, and waves of fury erupted in her eyes.
"Jaden’s here! Wonderful!" Candice Sterling didn’t notice the change in Vivian and was overjoyed.
"Vivian, hurry up and find a way to make Jaden Rhodes agree to the ceremony!"
Vivian Forrest gritted her teeth, walked onto the stage, and took the microphone. In a voice that was feigning playfulness but was dripping with malice, she said, "Miss Violinist, my beloved Mr. Jaden Rhodes and I are holding our engagement ceremony today. You’ll wish us well, won’t you?"
The sound of the violin stopped abruptly.
The girl looked through her mask at Jaden Rhodes below the stage.
Jaden Rhodes’s gaze was so intense it could have swallowed her whole. He even started to rush toward the stage.
"I will."
Just as his foot touched the first step, the girl’s clear but icy voice echoed through the banquet hall via the microphone.
Jaden Rhodes’s body went rigid, his feet rooted to the spot.
His lips trembled violently. The light that had just ignited in his eyes shattered and died out, piece by piece.
The girl slowly lowered her violin, her eyes nearly closed as she said, "I wish you both... a lifetime of happiness together!"
With that, she raised her violin again, and a gentle, heartwarming melody began to play.
The color drained completely from Jaden Rhodes’s face and never returned.
Vivian Forrest walked over and commandingly held out her hand to him.
Jaden Rhodes’s fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. Finally, he slowly unclenched them... and offered his hand.
’Since this is what she wants... I’ll play along.’
Jaden Rhodes didn’t know how he made it to the center of the room. He only felt that every melodious note was like a knife performing death by a thousand cuts, slicing away at his heart again and again.
For so many years, he had waited quietly, waited patiently, thinking that time could soften her heart.
But in the end...
Jaden Rhodes squeezed his eyes shut.
’I know that in this lifetime... I’ll never get that girl back.’
Slowly picking up the ring, Jaden Rhodes used almost the last of his strength to slide it onto Vivian Forrest’s fingertip.
Although it was only a subtle difference, Sophia Shaw’s keen senses caught it: the moment the ring touched Vivian Forrest’s finger, the girl on stage played a wrong note.
’Clearly, her will isn’t as firm as her words!’
"Wait a moment." After exchanging rings, Vivian Forrest didn’t immediately step down from the stage with Jaden Rhodes. Instead, she walked toward the girl.
A vicious glint shot from her eyes, seeming to pierce right through the girl’s mask.
"Today is my engagement day. What’s the meaning of you wearing a mask? Are you cursing my future husband and me to be two-faced, putting on a front while feeling something else inside?"
Vivian Forrest deliberately emphasized the word "cursing."
’I, Vivian Forrest, will absolutely not allow another woman to have designs on my man!’
’Once something is branded as mine, Vivian Forrest’s, it can only be mine!’
Vivian Forrest was determined to use this method to stomp the woman’s self-respect into the ground, to make her feel nothing but shame whenever she thought of Jaden Rhodes in the future!
Jaden Rhodes flinched, about to intervene.
But the girl took off the mask herself.
The moment she took it off, the entire room gasped.
Under the spotlight, on the girl’s porcelain-white face, a long scar stretched from her forehead to just below her eye, like a hideous centipede coiled there.
Jaden Rhodes’s parents turned their faces away in disgust.
The guests put their heads together, a continuous hum of whispers rising from the crowd.
Only Jaden Rhodes.
Stared intently at that scar, his heart aching so much that he clutched his chest and almost instinctively fell to his knees.
The girl looked down coldly at Jaden Rhodes on the floor. "Young Master Rhodes, congratulations on your engagement!"
She turned and walked away.
Vivian Forrest and the Rhodes family rushed to help Jaden Rhodes up, trying to smooth things over. "Look, our Jaden is just so overjoyed about marrying Vivian."
"Wait!"
Sophia Shaw couldn’t help but run out and call after the girl.
She had a premonition that if they missed this chance, it would truly be over for Jaden Rhodes and her!