Chapter 4

The guests were all prominent New York families, and they were dressed appropriately.

Only I wore a wedding dress that barely covered my private parts, like a ridiculous clown, unsure of what to do under everyone’s gaze.

As soon as he saw me, Ethan brought the girl from last night forward.

“This is Chloe, the neighbor girl I grew up with, and she’s here today to be your bridesmaid.”

Now even his lies were this careless and perfunctory.

We had grown up together, so how could I not know whether he had some neighbor girl?

What was more, the train of Chloe’s bridesmaid dress was a full ten feet long and covered in rhinestones.

On her ring finger was a fourteen-carat Oppenheimer pink diamond.

I remembered it, because it was the pink diamond Ethan had used to propose to me on the day I was released from prison.

Only back then, he had said the pink diamond ring was expensive, so he would personally put it on me on our wedding day.

No bridesmaid in the world was more glamorous than the bride.

Unless she was not a bridesmaid, but the woman the groom truly wanted to marry.

I did not expose him and simply looked at Ethan’s features from across the space between us.

The man who had sworn again and again that he would marry no one but me had died long ago.

Inside this body now was a completely unfamiliar soul.

Perhaps I stayed silent for too long, because Chloe stepped forward and warmly linked her arm with mine.

“Your figure is seriously amazing, and this wedding dress is such a good choice today, because it shows off your whole body so well that even a girl like me is about to get a nosebleed.”

The next second, a burst of laughter suddenly rang through the banquet hall.

“The Foster family’s new daughter-in-law really is shameless enough, dressing like that after being in prison, and I have no idea how Mr. Foster could have fallen for her.”

“She came up to a perfectly good wedding dressed like this, like some cheap hooker, and she really can’t be brought into high society.”

Mockery louder than the last was like a sharp blade, stabbing straight into my heart and making me hurt so badly that I could barely breathe.

My face darkened, and I shoved Chloe away.

“Since you like it so much, you can wear it instead.”

Ethan protected Chloe in his arms and frowned, clearly a little displeased.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Chloe was complimenting your figure, so why are you being so passive-aggressive here?”

“You’ve been in prison so long that you’re out of touch with society, and you can’t even tell good words from bad.”

Prison, prison, prison again.

Ethan had probably long forgotten that if it were not for me, those two words should have been nailed to him instead.

Seeing that my face was still cold, Chloe raised a wineglass to me.

“What I said just now was wrong.”

“Come on, I’ll toast you, and consider it my apology.”

Staring at the slightly cloudy liquid in the glass, alarm bells went off in my heart.

When I looked up again, I realized everyone present had their eyes locked tightly on me.

Thinking of last night’s cup of honey water, I understood at once.

Yesterday was the inspection, and today was the official auction.

“What, are you not going to give me this little bit of respect?” Chloe urged sweetly, with a hint of grievance in her tone.

“Drink this wine yourself,” I said coldly, “because I don’t dare drink anything you offer.”

Chloe’s face instantly became very ugly, and she turned to look at Ethan with tears filling her eyes.

“Ethan, Evelyn, she...”

Ethan frowned and stepped forward.

“Evelyn Harper, don’t go too far.”

“Chloe only wants to make peace with you, so why do you have to be so aggressive?”

I looked directly into his eyes and asked each word slowly.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

Guilt flashed through the man’s eyes, then he took the wineglass from Chloe’s hand and approached me step by step.

I kept backing away until my back pressed against the cold wall and there was nowhere left to retreat.

“Ethan Foster, do you want to force it into my mouth again like you did last night?”

As soon as I finished speaking, he pinched my chin again.

The wineglass in his hand was lifted high, the wine sloshed, and the next second, it all poured into my mouth.

The cold wine flowed down the corners of my mouth, soaked the front of my wedding dress, then ran into my neck.

Soon, under the effect of the drug, my consciousness became blurry again.

Everything before my eyes grew shadowy, and Ethan and Chloe’s figures twisted in my blurred vision.

I wanted to resist, and I wanted to call for help.

But my body would not obey me, and my limbs were soft and powerless, so I could only let myself slide to the floor.

My reaction stirred up everyone present into a frenzy.

They cheered and screamed as they surrounded me in the middle.

I did not know who squatted down and blew smoke into my face, and a cold lighter slapped my face hard twice.

“We finally waited until the official auction, and after seeing you last night, you’ve been stuck in my head the whole time, making me wish I could have you right away.”

“Baby, even though you just got out of prison, plenty of people are bidding on you, and I heard the price has already reached seven figures.”