"I stuck my neck out for you to throw this party!" Arthur Vance’s voice thundered through the silent hall. "I trusted you! Even though I knew how reckless you are,how reckless you can be, I trusted that you could pull yourself together and behave with decorum for once in your life. And now I walk out here and see that you’ve turned this entire event into a pathetic, bullying mess!"Julian held his burning cheek, his eyes wide in utter disbelief. "Dad... it’s not my fault! It’s this loser’s fault! He came in here and..""Shut up!" Arthur roared, stepping directly into his son's face. "Shut your mouth! Do you have any idea what will happen to our family, our status, and our reputation if people find out that you are harassing Cynthia Rose in our own house? At a welcoming party that you threw for her?!""Dad, she’s drugged!" Julian yelled back, pointing a shaking finger at Ethan. "He obviously drugged her! Why else would she be hanging out with a kid like him?! Dad, just look at him! Loo

Cynthia fell hard onto the wooden landing with a sharp gasp as her hair was pulled.Ethan bent down quickly, grabbing her arm to help her up. "Are you okay?""I'm fine," Cynthia said, brushing her dress off as Ethan stepped between her and the woman.The woman didn't care about Ethan at all. She pointed right down the stairs at the crowd. "I don't care if Arthur Vance's son is the one who caused an apocalypse to happen! I don't care if Julian Vance made a mess down there! You are not going to insult his son, and you are not going to disrespect Vance Corporation!"She took a breath and kept going, her voice loud and annoyed. "Especially not today! Not when their parent company is going to be here tonight! The mysterious owner of HVLX international is going to be walking through those doors any hour! Which means we don't need any trouble hanging around us! We don't need any embarrassment! We need to be on their good side!"Ethan scoffed under his breath, rolling his eyes as he looked aw

The entire hall held its breath, waiting for Damon to snap and rip Ethan apart right then and there. People in the back even stood on their tiptoes, completely frozen in anticipation of the beatdown that was about to happen.Instead, Damon threw his head back and broke out into a loud, booming laugh. The sound was very loud, instantly shattering the tension in the room.Just as Damon was laughing, the front doors swung open and two tall, muscular men walked into the grand hall. They were both wearing similar designer clothes, carrying the exact same arrogant aura as Damon.Damon turned away from Ethan, grinning widely as he spotted them. "Yo, what's up, man!""Yo, Damon! What's going on, bro?" one of his friends called out, walking over and slapping hands with him."We heard that you were here, so we decided to slide through," the second friend said dabbing Damon up. "What did we miss?"The first friend turned his head, his eyes landing on Ethan, and he instantly burst out laughing. "

Julian’s crude remark echoed through the grand hall, but nobody laughed. A heavy, awkward silence filled the room instead. Julian stood there chuckling all by himself, looking completely stupid as he realized no one was joining in.His loud, single-handed laughter irritated Chloe to no end. Shook her head embarrassed then, walked forward, grabbed Julian by his jacket sleeve, and pulled him away from Damon."Stop, Julian!" Chloe whispered angrily under her breath. "You're just embarrassing yourself!"Julian’s smile instantly disappeared, replaced by an angry frown. He shoved her hand off his arm. "Shut up, Chloe! Keep quiet and let me handle this!""Knock it off, Julian," Ethan cut in, taking a light step forward. "Chloe's just trying to keep you from embarrassing yourself further."Chloe turned around, glaring at Ethan with pure anger. "Stay out of it! Stay out of it, Ethan! You're not my boyfriend anymore. I don't need you to stand up for me, protect me, or do anything for me!"Damo

It was as if Damon's friends had suddenly been snapped out of their frozen spell. Realizing that Damon was in serious pain and desperately needed help, two of them rushed forward. One of them shoved Ethan back by his shoulders, creating space, while then came back, grabbed Damon under his arms and hauled him up off the floor.Damon stood up with a heavy limp, his face twisted in pain. But he quickly tried to cover up the embarrassing moment, putting his weight on his good leg while trying to hide his weakness."Now that I'm back up, you better be scared, you little rat!" Damon barked, his voice loud and trembling with rage as he verbally attacked Ethan. "You better be scared, because I'm going to break every single one of your little bones! Look at you, standing there like a pathetic little orphan! I'm very sure you're shaking in your boots right now! You're standing there worried and terrified, thinking about what I'm about to do to you!"Ethan let out a dry, effortless laugh, steppi