"Look at him, standing there like a lost puppy," a woman sneered, as she leaned toward her husband. "Did he really think he could fool Mr. McDuff with a plastic vase from a roadside stand? How utterly embarrassing.""Honestly, Ken did the poor boy a favor by smashing it!” Her husband chuckled arrogantly. "Imagine the audacity of walking into an established estate like this, carrying literal garbage. Some people truly have no self-awareness."A man snorted loudly, swirling the champagne in his glass as he looked down his nose at Harry. "He looks like he bought that outfit off a rack ten minutes before coming here! I bet he spent his entire life savings just to rent that blazer for the night.""Who even let a street rat like that through the front gate anyway? He probably snuck in behind Noemie just to get a free meal from the catering trays. Absolute leech.""It's always the penniless ones who try the hardest to pretend. They buy a ten-dollar replica, put it in a box, and act like t

“It was an accident!” Ken said quickly, stepping forward instantly the moment Elias's attention seemed to shift away from him. His camera-ready smile was back on his face, although if someone looked carefully, they would notice it was stitched far too tight at the corners and quivering with desperation. "Sir, truly, I was just carefully examining it! My hand suddenly slipped on the polished surface! I would never, ever deliberately break a gift meant for your special day—""Don't!" Noemie's voice cut straight across his pathetic excuses, sharp and loud enough that several nearby wealthy guests actually flinched back in surprise.She stepped forward with bold, confident strides, the bright color high in her smooth cheeks. All traces of her embarrassment or hesitation were completely burned away, replaced by something much fiercer and remarkably powerful. She glared directly into Ken's trembling face, her brown eyes flashing with pure fire."Don't you dare lie straight to my grandfa

Within minutes, without a single word of explanation to the completely stunned guests or so much as a backward glance at the unresolved scene with Ken, the McDuff family's core members had vanished from the garden party entirely. Elias, his son, and his son's wife were all swept away through a heavy wooden side door leading into the grand estate, moving with a quiet, intense, and deliberate urgency that left everyone on the lawn utterly baffled.Noemie stood frozen for a long beat right in the middle of the garden path, feeling the full, immensely curious weight of the crowd's attention pressing in on her and Harry both. Dozens of high-society guests were exchanging bewildered glances, whispering furiously behind raised champagne glasses, and leaning in close to one another as they clearly tried to work out what on earth had just happened.Where had the patriarch gone in such a rush? Why had the whole family vanished?A short distance away, Ken had silently slunk off somewhere into th

Harry's eyebrow rose up in sheer disbelief at the absurdity of it all, and Noemie's mother quickly explained, her hands gesturing in the air as she tried to lay out the ancient history.​"The matter was decided between the two families before either child was even old enough to have any say in it at all," she said, her voice carrying a heavy, formal weight. "It was meant to unite two great bloodlines. But Eleanor disappeared completely, having run off with someone the family never approved of in a million years. We've been searching for her—and her entire lost line—for a very long time now."​Noemie's mother pressed on, her voice tight with old anxiety that had clearly been bubbling beneath the surface for decades. She leaned closer to the mahogany table, looking at Harry with intense scrutiny. "We've always worried what became of that lost boy, if he even existed at all—what kind of man he'd have grown into, raised however his father raised him, whoever that man was. That's why we wa

"Mr. Kipling?"A new voice cut cleanly through the tension—crisp, composed, and entirely unbothered by the dramatic scene unfolding in the waiting room.​Nancy Holloway approached the counter with two senior lawyers in high-end suits flanking her on either side. They were dressed sharp enough that even Julia's practiced, arrogant sneer faltered slightly at the mere sight of them.​"Harry," Nancy said warmly, stepping up right beside him like it was the most natural thing in the whole world. Her beautiful face lit up with a genuine, gentle smile as she looked at him. "I knew your schedule today, so I thought I'd come lend some support—as a friend."​She let that single word friend sit right there in the air, deliberate, careful, and heavy, giving absolutely nothing else away about exactly what Harry was to Horizon Enterprises, or how much immense power and wealth he was truly worth.​"No one should ever have to go through something like this alone," Nancy added softly, her voice full o