Chapter 198: The man among the guests

Mia felt a huge lump in her throat as the questions kept coming from different angles, she didn’t know what to say as everything they were asking her was not true. If she were to deny them without showing evidence, they would all call her a liar, and she would never admit to something she didn’t do, thus she was left in a tight spot.

And just when she thought she’d crumble at their questions, Rayne exited the limo, and all of the attention went back to her giving Mia the chance to slip inside the hall.

With one graceful turn, Mia entered the hall, leaving behind the flashing cameras. However, inside the banquet hall was as loud as the red carpet. There was a soft piano playing in the background while the guests laughed and mingled around each other.

Each time a guest arrived inside the hall and dropped their gifts, there was an announcer to state their names and affiliation. The minutes Mia’s name was announced, the hall fell into a hush silence, even the piano player momentarily stopped playing, all eyes turned to her for a moment before the loud chatter resumed again. And with that, Mia knew she was the center of attention today.

There were a mixture of eyes that followed her every movement. Some were filled with curiousity, some with disdain while a few were filled with envy.

Instead of cowering to the back of the hall like many expected her to, Mia walked into the decorated hall with her chin high up. She ignored their stares and judgmental eyes.

She walked around the hall looking around, searching for anything to distract her, but there was none. She was here for Rayne, but her friend was still stopped outside.

She walked around and when she saw a waiter holding a tray of orange juice, she automatically reached out and grabbed one. Her slender fingers curled around the long stem glass. Not long, Rayne walked into the hall but because she was the host of the elder Wallace birthday party, she was crowded by people before she could reach Mia, and Mia smiled at her as a signal to go ahead and entertain the guests.

Fifteen minutes later, Elder Wallace entered the hall with his son, Jason, walking by his side as they greeted the guests.

Aware of Jason’s resentment towards her because of her relationship with Neil, Mia chose not to approach them and remained where she stood. She watched as Rayne delivered a speech to her father from the raised platform. Fredrick Wallace, her father, gazed up at his daughter with pride, as if she were the most precious treasure in the world to him. He chuckled heartily, his green eyes sparkling with delight whenever she made a witty remark. As the speech came to an end, both father and daughter were moved to tears.

Mia observed the emotional moment with a pang in her heart, feeling a deep longing. She couldn’t pinpoint the source of this feeling, but witnessing the bond between them made her wish she knew who her own father was.

She wondered if he would have loved her as dearly as Fredrick loved Rayne, if he would have looked at her with the same adoration. She had never met him, as he had passed away before she got the chance to know him. She yearned to have even a memory of what he looked like, but she had none, not even a picture...

Tears clouded her vision as she watched the heartfelt scene unfold. Unable to bear it any longer, Mia turned away and began to walk towards a quieter spot. However, before she could take a step, a prickling sensation on her arms made her feel as though she was being watched. Instinctively, she turned in the direction of the gaze and found herself locking eyes with a man in his fifties, his brown eyes fixed on her as he sipped his wine slowly with a calculative look.

Mia froze, unable to tear her eyes from him nor could she move. Her heart slowly began to fasten and her hands began to shake as she gazed into the man’s eyes. Though she’d never met him before, she felt like she had. Blurry images began to flash into her head and her head started to hurt like it would split into two.

’You are not of my seed little one. If you ever call me father, I will cut off your little tongue!’

’Take that thing out of my sight!’

’Cut her open and plant it there!’

The voices and activities in the hall began to fade into a distant murmur, drowned out by the overwhelming rush of unknown blurry visions flooding Mia’s mind. Each word uttered by the unknown man in her memories echoed with haunting clarity, sending shivers down her spine. She didn’t know why this utter stranger standing ten feet away from her was triggering such memories from her mind, but she wanted it to stop.

Her heart pounded erratically, and her hands trembled uncontrollably as she struggled to break free from the suffocating grip of those memories. Tears blurred her vision as she fought against the onslaught of emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

"Snap out of it, Mia," she whispered to herself, her voice barely audible amidst the chaos raging within her. With a shaky breath, she forced herself to blink away the tears and focus on the present like she’d always done whenever she had nightmares as a child. She placed her hand against her chest and began to whisper silent reassuring words to herself.

"Snap out of it, Mia. None of that is real. Stop hallucinating and face the reality."

Only then did she begin to stabilize and her breathing began to return to normal. But when she opened her eyes, the man who had triggered such reaction from her had already turned away, seamlessly blending into the crowd of mingling guests.

She looked around and sighted his side profile as he wished Fredrick Wallace happy birthday. As if sensing her gaze, he turned to look at her and winked his eyes with a devilish smirk on his face. Panic surged through her veins as she stumbled backwards, her mind reeling with fear.

Who was he and why was she reacting to him in such a way? Mia thought as she hurried to leave the hall and go far away from him. She’d explain to Rayne later why she had to leave but she wouldn’t be able to handle another hour in the same hall as that man!

In her haste to escape, Mia collided with someone, her drink splattering across their dress. Before she could even apologize, Elena, whose blue dress was dripping with orange juice gasped dramatically, her voice cutting through the air like a sharp knife.

"How dare you ruin my dress!" She exclaimed, her loud voice drawing the attention of the few people standing close to them, with Owen being among them as he was mingling with the other businessmen at the banquet.

He’d noticed Mia’s entrance and he’d seen how she was trying to avoid his direction, and he also hadn’t bothered to seek her out as he knew before the end of this event, she’d be the one running to him for help.

Mia’s unstable mind began to calm down as she braced herself for the drama she knew Elena would make for her ruined dress. She knew all too well that Elena would seize any chance to humiliate her in front of others. And her mistake of emptying her glass on her was a big opportunity for Elena to take and make it a big deal.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t see you coming," Mia apologized, her voice barely above a whisper as she frantically searched for a way to defuse the situation and leave the hall rather than create an unnecessary drama.

But Elena’s eyes flashed with malice as she raised her voice, making sure their exchange wouldn’t go unnoticed by the surrounding guests.

"Your apology means nothing when you did it on purpose just to embarrass me! First you took my dress from me at the mall and now you ruin this dress, did you think the dresses are made out of the rags you wore in the slum of Whispering Way?!" Elena declared, her tone laced with a strong resentment that didn’t go unnoticed to Mia.

"Someone like you doesn’t even belong here in the first place," Elena’s best friend, Claire said, "You are a disgrace to women and a good for nothing whore. You dislike Elena and even ruined her dress because she was given your position at the company, did you think we all didn’t know what you did? You are two faced ugly bitch! You played with Neil Wayner and Owen Sullivan’s hearts like you played with water, and now you showed your face in public thinking we will forgive and forget what you’ve done. How stupid of you."

With those words, the guests who’d been ignoring Mia the entire time began to whisper among themselves about her shamelessness. Some didn’t even bother to lower their voices and spoke so that she could hear them loud and clear.

"If she were my daughter, I’d have poisoned her myself rather than let someone as disgraceful as her mingle among the innocent. She shouldn’t be allowed into such a respectful event!" Remarked an elderly woman to her friends, who also agreed.

"It’s a shame though, she’s such a pretty lady but she spoiled herself this way."

"Poor Neil Wayner, he hasn’t come out for almost a week because of this waste of space. Now, she has the audacity to express hatred towards Elena Fanning. I have never felt such strong hatred towards anyone before, like the way I despise Mia Harrison. I cannot even bear to look at her."

Mia felt a burning mix of shame and anger as she listened to their words. She tightly gripped her dress, trying to control her urge to wipe the smirk off Elena’s face and silence the people forever so that no one would speak ill of her again. They hated her? She loathed them more than anything and desired to distance herself from these people. Never had she felt as helpless as she did now, nor had she ever harbored such animosity towards strangers.

Rayne, standing with her father and brother, noticed the crowd beginning to turn against her friend. She promptly instructed the event organizer to play the video she had prepared for her father on the screen to divert the people’s attention away from Mia. The hall lights immediately dimmed into a mellow glow, and the screen came on, drawing everyone’s focus away from Mia, as intended. However, the video that played was not the one Rayne had arranged; instead, it was something that elicited gasps of shock and disbelief from the audience.

Mia’s face drained of color as she stared at the screen in utter disbelief.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read