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.
She clenched her fists and snapped in a cold tone, “Chelsea Downey, in public, who do you think you
are to preach at me?”
“Why? I’m the first daughter of the Downey family, your older sister. Of course I have the rights.”
Upon hearing it, Hayden sneered.
Then she said unhurriedly, “Only after your name has been written in the official family tree.”
Her words contain a profound meaning. Chelsea’s face became livid. She couldn’t hold on any longer.
Raising her hand, she retorted, “Stop talking nonsense!”
“Whether she’s talking nonsense can’t be proved by your slap.”
A man’s deep voice suddenly rang out. Hayden’s shoulder was grabbed by an arm and she was pulled
into the man’s arms immediately. Before Chelsea’s hand fell, it was grabbed by him in the mid-air.
“Joseph Beckham?”
“Why is he here?”
The onlookers discussed louder.
Hayden looked up in confusion, only to see Joseph’s cold side face. Under the sparkling light reflected
by the crystal chandelier, he looked extremely calm.
“Joseph Beckham?” The expression of both Michelle and Chelsea changed.
They had made an original plan to cooperate with each other and act to humiliate Hayden in public.
After all, Chelsea heard with her own ears that Voila said she was going to marry Joseph, which meant
it was totally a bullshit that Hayden said she was seeing Joseph although Michelle heard it personally in
the elevator that day.
However, nobody had expected that Joseph would really come here.
“Are you Mr. Beckham of ST Group?” Chelsea couldn’t help but want to confirm, looking quite annoyed.
Joseph was extremely cold. “Do I need to show you my ID?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.” Chelsea hurriedly shook her head.
“I’m not interested to know what you meant. I’m interested to know why you wanted to slap my fiancee
in front of so many people. What did you mean by that?”
“Your fiancée?” Chelsea’s entire face was stiffened. She blurt out in disbelief, “How could it be? Is she
your fiancée?”
Hayden was also startled. She never expected that Joseph would say so in front of so many people.
“Why not?” Joseph held Hayden's shoulder, looking calm and decent. “If she’s not my fiancee, are
you?”
Chelsea pursed her lips. She asked reluctantly, “Then why didn’t she explain just now?”
At this moment, Hayden came back to her senses.
Immediately, she retorted in a mocking tone with a sneer, “Did I have a chance to explain? You and
Michelle tried so hard to embarrass me in front of so many people here. Would you give me chance to
explain?”
“It was not my idea. I didn’t meant to do it.” Michelle chimed in anxiously, as if she was afraid Joseph
would vent his anger on her.
However, her deny revealed something instantly. Chelsea glared at Michelle angrily.
With Joseph as her backer, Hayden became more confident.
“Joseph just arrived here later because he was busy, but you two seized the opportunity and insulted
me so aggressively. I wondered what kind of grudges you used to have against me. You even
deliberately sent me the invitation to invite me over. You wanted to embarrass me purposely, didn’t
you? One of you used to be my bestie, and the other is my older sister. How fortunately I am to have
met you two.”
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