Evelyn turned to look at the source of the voice. It was none other than Joshua, and the man standing right beside him was Sheffield, hands in his pockets.
Peterson waved at them and said, "Sheffield, Joshua! Get over here. I'd like you to meet Miss Huo."
The two young men just stood there. "You sure that he doesn't know about you and Evelyn?" Joshua asked his buddy in a low voice.
"Yeah, he knows," replied Sheffield, staring at Evelyn.
'He knows everything about me. He's just pretending not to. I've been around Evelyn a lot. There's no way he couldn't know, ' he thought to himself.
"Okay. So we just roll with it!" 'That's what I figured!' Joshua thought. 'There were a lot of people on Uncle Peterson's payroll. And some of them were sent to spy on Sheffield. And it's not like Evelyn and Sheffield were trying to hide their relationship. Yeah, Uncle Peterson knows all about it.'
Sheffield tilted his head. "Give me your glass!"
"What?" Joshua was about to head over to greet Peterson when he heard Sheffield's sudden request. He was taken aback.
"Your glass of red wine. Give it to me," he repeated.
Joshua took a glance at the contents of his glass. He'd already drunk some of it. "No way, dude. Flag down a waiter. What? You haven't become a complete lush on me, have you?"
Not in the mood to trade quips with his friend, Sheffield stopped a passing waiter and grabbed a glass of red wine from the tray. Then he started walking toward Peterson and Evelyn.
Joshua positioned himself in front of Peterson. This way, Sheffield had no choice but to confront Evelyn. Joshua wanted to see how the two were going to react.
Sheffield didn't let Joshua down. He took advantage of the situation and was near Evelyn. When he saw this, Joshua thought his friend was still not close enough to Evelyn, so he crowded Sheffield. Sheffield, his space invaded, instinctively moved closer to the love of his life.
The two buddies exchanged knowing looks. They gave each other a thumbs-up in their hearts.
Before Peterson could introduce everyone, a young woman in a pink cheongsam came over, taking his arm intimately. "There you are! I've been looking for you forever!"
The woman was in her thirties and well-dressed. She smiled brightly when she saw Sheffield. "Oh, Sheffield, your friend's here too! Nice to see you again, Mr. Fan!"
Sheffield ignored her completely. He did not even look at her, let alone say hello.
To try and defuse the situation, Joshua nodded at the woman and said, "Hello, Auntie."
It was not until then that Evelyn realized Peterson had married a woman much younger than him. 'She must be Sheffield's step-mother, ' Evelyn thought.
The smile on her face froze for a second when Lea Chi heard a man her own age call her "Auntie." But she composed herself and looked at Evelyn. "Who's she?" she asked Peterson.
It was the first time that Lea Chi had met Evelyn. Evelyn didn't go to many parties, or even out much. Like the others, Lea Chi had heard Evelyn's name but had never seen her in person.
Peterson introduced Evelyn to them. "This is Evelyn Huo, the regional CEO of ZL Group. Miss Huo, this is my wife, Lea Chi, and my son, Sheffield Tang. I'm handing him the reins to Theo Group. Here's to a great relationship between ZL Group and Theo Group!" He raised his glass.
Evelyn nodded to Lea Chi, who was watching her. Then she turned to look at Sheffield. Before she could do anything, he reached out his hand with a mysterious smile on his lips. "I've heard the regional CEO of ZL Group is a beautiful and talented lady. They're not wrong. I've heard a lot about you, Miss Huo. I'm Sheffield Tang,"
he said in a light, half-serious tone.
Evelyn didn't know how to respond to him. She put her hand in his and shook it. "You flatter me, Mr. Tang."
When their hands touched, their hearts beat faster and faster.
However, when she tried to let go after a while, Sheffield held her hand tightly and looked into her eyes. "Mr. Tang? You're too formal. It's just Sheffield. If you say Mr. Tang, I start looking around for my old man."
Evelyn's face turned red as she noticed they were attracting the attention of the other patrons. "You can let go now," she said in a hushed voice.
In response to the look of warning in her eyes, he smiled and let go of her hand as if nothing happened
Lea Chi was confused when she looked at them. She glanced at Peterson, hoping to find some answers, but he didn't seem to care at all.
"You know Miss Huo?" Peterson asked Sheffield, feigning ignorance.
"Nope. But we know each other now, right, Miss Huo?" Sheffield answered quickly.
Although he was lying, Evelyn decided to play along. "Yeah." It had been two years since they had separated. And now, she couldn't figure out what Sheffield was up to.
They clinked glasses and tossed their heads back to drain them. But Sheffield deliberately tripped on Joshua's leg. As he tried to regain his balance, he came close to spilling his wine on Evelyn.
Although Felix rushed out to try and stop it, the wine splashed on Evelyn's evening gown, staining it a dark red in places.
This scene reminded Evelyn of how Sheffield had done the same thing, long ago.
Although the dress was the same color, fabric tended to darken and glisten when liquid hit it. So it was pretty obvious her clothing was wet.
Looking at the stains, Evelyn wondered whether there was something wrong with her gown and why Sheffield tried to ruin it.
"I'm really sorry, Miss Huo. It's all Joshua's fault. If he hadn't tripped me, I wouldn't have spilled the wine!" After he shifted the blame to Joshua, Sheffield acted quickly. He took off his suit jacket and put it around the woman's shoulders. Now Evelyn's bare back was completely covered. Mission accomplished.
Joshua was totally floored by Sheffield's accusation. He swished the wine in his glass and pondered this.
'When did I trip him? If he tripped over me, I should have felt it, right?'
Peterson gazed at Evelyn and then back to his son, who was wearing only a white shirt, and then at the stunned Joshua. He knew his son well. Instantly, he understood what Sheffield was doing. 'My son is pretty possessive when it comes to Evelyn, ' he mused.
Evelyn was angry and helpless. She needed time to calm down. Handing her glass of wine to Felix, she politely bid goodbye to Peterson and his wife. "Mr. and Mrs. Tang, I'm leaving now. Goodbye."
"I'm sorry, Miss Huo. I'll have my son pay to replace your dress when he gets a chance," Peterson said to Evelyn.
"Thank you, Mr. Tang, but that's not necessary!" She took off the suit jacket and handed it to Felix. "Give this back to Mr. Tang," she said.
"Mr. Tang, your jacket." Felix handed the jacket back to Sheffield at once.
Taking his jacket and ignoring whether the woman was angry or not, Sheffield said nonchalantly, "Alright, bye!"
Evelyn left with Felix without responding.
There were only four people left. Peterson decided to lecture his son, who was with a successful look on his face. "Sheffield, you were a little too obvious. You're a public figure, now. We can't risk big things for the sake of small ones."
'Risk big things for the sake of small ones?' Looking at the empty glass in his hand, Sheffield replied nonchalantly, "I think you and I have very different ideas of what a big thing is."