Chapter 82
Ines found a quiet corner to sit down, pulled out her phone, and continued reading her novel, only to be interrupted by a direct gaze.
She looked up and saw Stoner standing a meter away, grinning at her with clear desire in his eyes, a look of intention to score on his face.
Ines instantly tensed up and felt uneasy, subconsciously looking around. She was in a secluded spot, she could hear the noise of the banquet in the hall, but could hardly see anyone.
As she got up to leave, Stoner grabbed her wrist and said flippantly, “Pretty girl, you and Amelia really fooled me. You’re so beautiful, yet you claimed to be married. Why work so hard? Stick with me, I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Ines could smell his bad breath and felt like puking. Suppressing her nausea, she calmly said, “Mr. Farrar, please behave yourself. I’m really married.”
“Hmph, still playing hard to get. Don’t think I don’t know about your past. It doesn’t matter who you sleep with anyway.”
As he said this, he reached out to touch Ines‘ face. Ines jerked his hand away, forced herself to calm down, and glanced at her bag on the sofa. “Mr. Farrar, I don’t know who you’ve been listening to, but I’m really married. And, my husband isn’t someone you can mess with.”
When Stoner’s hand was shaken off, his mood immediately darkened. His voice also grew heavier, and his grip on her wrist tightened. “You think I’m easy to bully? You wouldn’t want to mess with me.”
“My husband is the president of the Meyer Group. Are you sure you can afford to mess with him?” Ines narrowed her eyes, emanating an invisible pressure, perhaps from associating with Ethan for so long.
Facing her gaze, Stoner felt an inexplicable sinking feeling. He naturally knew about the Meyer Group, a mythical entity with a powerful background, whose president rarely made appearances.
But he’d heard that he was not married, and although the woman in front of him was good–looking, she didn’t look like a woman who married into wealth. Her dress was obviously not a designer brand. Thinking of these, he smirked evilly, “Daydreaming isn’t good, you think you could marry into a wealthy family? Does the president’s wife of their family need to work? Don’t try to fool me.”
“Alright, let’s have a proper talk after the banquet ends.” Seeing that Stoner was not easy to fool, Ines had to make a concession and raised an eyebrow at him.
“That’s better. No need to act like a prude.” Stoner slightly loosened his grip.
“I’m afraid of messing up this banquet, I can’t handle the consequences.” Ines forced a pleasing smile.
She was dressed carefully tonight, her hair loose, and when she smiled, her big eyes were especially charming. Stoner felt his heart flutter, as if the beauty in front of him was within his grasp.
Just as he was distracted, Ines quickly took out a retractable self–defence stick from her bag and swung it hard at his lower body. Stoner’s eyes widened, and he let out a scream, falling to the ground and unable to get up for a while.
Watching Stoner in pain, Ines felt no sympathy and kicked him hard, “scumbag, see if you dare to bully women in the future.” She then quickly grabbed her bag and left the scene.
Stoner was in so much pain that he was sweating profusely. He stared at Ines‘ retreating figure and managed to say, “You…” Even when she reached the hall, Ines‘ heart was still pounding. She was relieved and scared at the same time. Ethan had taken all her self–defence gear, but habits are scary things. Not having that stick in her bag made her feel insecure, so she hid one in her bag behind Ethan’s back.
She was lucky to have it tonight, otherwise, she might not have been able to escape safely.
Thinking about the stick touching that man’s body, Ines unhesitatingly threw it into the trash can. Just as she was thinking about “restocking“, a woman’s voice came over.
“Are you sure it’s her?”
Ines looked up and saw a woman in her early twenties in front of her, dressed in a white dress, looking as delicate as a doll, but now looking at her angrily. Ines was a bit baffled, she didn’t remember offending her.
The woman pointed to another girl next to her, whom Ines recognized as the girl Stoner had been holding, who was also looking provocatively at her, and said, “Yes, I saw her go to the balcony just now.”
Bella Dotson raised her hand and slapped Ines unexpectedly. The slap grazed her mouth, she even felt the nails scraping her chin, and it stung.
Ines was instantly filled with anger, her face immediately darkened, she had never been a pushover, so she immediately slapped Bella back.
Bella clearly didn’t expect anyone to dare slap her, her head buzzing, it took her a while to come around.
Ines’s slap quieted the crowd, everyone looked at Ines sympathetically.
Bella said angrily, “You bitch, do you know who I am? How dare you hit me!” She stared at Ines furiously after recovering.
Ines wiped her mouth and said in a deep voice, “I don’t know who you are, but I really want to know why you went crazy when you saw me.”
Bella said, “You secretly took the gift I gave to my grandma, it’s light for me to just slap you.”
