She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 520

Even a total stranger would have instinctively reached out to break her fall.

Meeting Aria's furious, humiliated glare, Preston's voice was lethal ice:

"Ms. Royce, I'm a germaphobe. I don't touch filth."

Aria's face cycled rapidly from stark white to burning crimson.

Standing a few feet away, Melanie completely lost it and burst out laughing.

Ignoring the woman practically writhing on the floor, Preston walked smoothly back to Melanie's side.

By now, half the ballroom was watching them.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, they were a devastatingly gorgeous couple, a flawless match in everyone's eyes.

Melanie assumed he was going to make a sarcastic comment about Aria's stunt, but he offered a flawless, gentlemanly bow and extended his gloved hand.

"Honey, may I have this dance?"

Melanie blinked.

She suddenly realized they had never actually danced together at a formal gala.

"Of course!"

She smiled, placing her hand in his.

Together, they glided effortlessly onto the center of the dance floor.

Behind them, Aria scrambled to her feet, utterly humiliated.

Dozens of eyes burned into her back, the whispers echoing loudly in the tense silence.

"Did he just call her filth?"

"He's with the real Royce heiress."

"He completely destroyed her, she must have been trying to seduce him."

Dominic approached Nathaniel, handing him a glass of champagne.

"Look at Preston. He has zero sense of boundaries. This is a massive corporate gala, and he's parading Melanie around the dance floor like it's their private date! He has no class, I guess that's what you expect from someone with no real background..."

Dominic kept his voice low, poisoning the well while carefully watching Nathaniel's reaction.

Nathaniel kept his eyes on Melanie, his brow furrowed in a deep frown.

On paper, Preston was just a low-level grunt at Stellaris PharmaTech.

Aside from his striking looks, he had achieved nothing.

And yet, in a room packed with billionaires and industry titans, Preston moved with absolute dominance, commanding the floor so entirely that the other couples had instinctively stepped back to watch them dance.

That kind of suffocating power didn't come from a nobody.

Shortly after Melanie started dating Preston, Nathaniel had quietly hired a private investigator to dig into the man's past.