Chapter 2

Evan moved again and shoved my wheelchair aside.

With a sharp crash, the crystal box mounted on the side of the chair broke, and the jade jewelry inside fell out.

“Evan, you’re asking for it!”

I pushed myself up, turned my palm into a fist, and smashed him to the floor with two heavy blows.

Evan cried out in pain. The people around him rushed over, dragged him away, and then pressed me to the ground, punching and kicking me...

“Stop!” Emily shouted at everyone. “Today is a big day for my family. For my sake, please don’t kill anybody!”

Evan stood off to the side, furious. “Emily, am I supposed to get beaten for nothing?”

Emily tried to calm him down, then snapped at me, “Michael Grant, apologize to Evan!”

I gritted my teeth, pressed a few times beside my nose to stop the bleeding, then struggled to right my wheelchair and sit back down.

“Want me to apologize? He doesn’t deserve it!”

The jade jewelry in the crystal box had been left to my future granddaughter-in-law by my grandmother.

It was far too precious, so I had kept it on me during the engagement banquet out of fear something would happen to it.

Now the box was broken, the jade was cracked, and the engagement was off. That alone proved Emily didn’t deserve it!

“So what if I broke your box? I’ll get you another one. Michael Grant, you’re just a country bumpkin. What makes you think you can compete with the Grants? Right now. Immediately. Apologize to Evan!”

Emily had someone push my wheelchair forward and force my head down.

The man used all his strength, and my head buzzed from the pressure.

I stubbornly said nothing and slowly lifted my head again.

At that moment, the tiny bit of kindness I had owed the Bells was completely gone.

I even started thinking about how I should make Evan and the Bell family disappear.

Evan picked up the fallen jade necklace, glanced at it, and tossed it carelessly behind him. “What junk. Beer-bottle glass with a cheap jade look. You trying to scam ghosts?”

The broken necklace snapped into two pieces, and the beads scattered all over the floor.

I picked up one bead that was still mostly intact. “Emily, did you forget?”

I didn’t know whether she had really forgotten or was just pretending.

Back then, when I took out this jade set and said I wanted to use it as the engagement token, the Bells praised it again and again. A full jade-green set like this was rare these days.

After hearing her parents praise it, Emily had said she’d wear a cheongsam on the day of the engagement to match the jade.

But later, when she chose this international hotel for the banquet, the European-style decor clashed horribly with a cheongsam. I spent so much effort redesigning the interior that it finally worked.

And now, looking at Emily in a white, fully rhinestone-studded backless gown, with my grandmother’s jade and my tailored suit, it all looked so wrong.