Since the couple-to-be appeared at the same time, a lot of people gathered around, including the college classmates who were deliberately invited by Michelle.
Two of those classmates used to be Hayden’s dormitory roommate back then.
Without changing her expression, Michelle calmly stood next to Kingsley arm in arm, as if she was declaring her ownership of him.
“Kingsley said you would refuse to come, so he asked me not to invite you. He’s just too narrow-minded. In the past, we were all close friends, how could you not come here to bless us in our engagement ceremony?”
Hayden wore a wry smile and looked at her. “Of course.”
Kingsley, however, frowned, trying to pull out his hand from Michelle’s.
“All right. We should go greeting other guests. Let’s go.”
“What’s the hurry? It’s not the time yet.” Michelle pulled him to stop.
Intentionally she raised her voice and asked, “Hayden, why didn’t you bring your boyfriend along?”
“Her boyfriend? Who?”
Behind Michelle, a questioning voice rang out. At the same time, a pretty figure showed up in a tailored Chanel dress. Her hair was nicely done, which was piled at the rear. The diamond necklace was sparkling on her neck, quite dazzling. She dressed up in a style to show how rich she was -- it was no one else by Chelsea.
Only then did Hayden recall that the West family seemed to have maintained a good relationship with the Downey family. For Kingsley’s engagement banquet, it was normal for Chelsea to attend it on behalf of their father.
“Chelsea, don’t you know it?” Michelle looked puzzled. “How come you don’t know your younger sister has a boyfriend? Hasn’t she told you?”
Chelsea held a goblet with a disdainful face. “My younger sister has always been alone. She even doesn’t come home. How could she report her love affairs to me?”
“It’s fine if she doesn’t tell you when she’s dating another man, but that’s Joseph Beckham.” Michelle raised her eyebrows and her tone was exaggerated, She added, “He’s the CEO of ST Group. How couldn’t she tell you about such a big matter?”
As soon as she finished speaking, an uproar raised in the crowd.
Joseph Beckham, the CEO of ST Group, was known as not interested in women. How could he be Hayden’s boyfriend?
Hayden pinched her handbag tightly, looking a bit annoyed.
When they met Michelle and Kingsley last time, she had to make up such a lie at that critical moment. Fortunately Joseph cooperated with her at that time, but she had ever expected that Michelle would bring it up now while Chelsea was also in presence.
Sure enough, Chelsea had a mockery smile on her face upon hearing what Michelle said.
“This could be regarded as the biggest joke I’ve heard recently. Hayden Downey, you’ve valued yourself too much. You even haven’t finished your university study and stayed abroad for five years. What now? As soon as you came back, you wanted to find a rich man to be your backer, didn’t you? Why don’t you take a look at yourself in the mirror? You wanted to be the stepmother of Joseph’s son, but you don’t know Joseph has already set the date of his wedding with Viola. I heard about it a few days ago.”
As soon as the last syllable fell from the tip of her tongue, the uproar became louder. Some gossiped the ambiguous relationship between Viola and Joseph over the years; some said that Viola was actually the mother of Joseph’s son; some scolded that Hayden was too vain and she flattered herself too much. All onlookers were exchanging gossips with each other.
“You are my younger sister, anyway. Don’t humiliate yourself here. If Father knows you are so eagerly to be a stepmother and you even lied to others about your relationship with a man without the man’s permission, he might be killed by anger.”
Chelsea’s tone was cold and she sounded very mean, as if she was not speaking to her biological sister at all.
Most of the guests only knew Chelsea, but few of them had met Hayden. They thought it was the grudge within a rich family, so they wildly guessed that Hayden was the illegitimate daughter of the Downey family’s master and a women outside the family. Hence, nobody took her side.
“I’ve never heard Miss Downey has a sister. Who the hell is this woman?”
“Who knows? The Downey family is rich and powerful. It’s not strange for their master to have one or two illegitimate children outside.”
Hayden could tolerate any words, but calling her an illegitimate child was absolutely confusing right and wrong, which also reminded her sadness in the past.
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