People waiting to enter all turned to look at me.
They chatted, "Isn't that Salma's husband? Still acting like he's the young star of the Lance Family? He's been living off the Haynes Family for five years, if Salma hadn't kept her word and married him, he'd probably still be working off debts somewhere!"
"The Lance Family used to be something, but look at the son now. I heard Salma invested in his startups 99 times and he still failed, totally hopeless, what a waste of a good wife!" another person chimed in.
Just as they finished talking, Adam arrived with his entourage.
The crowd quickly parted and the security guard rushed over to greet him, "Mr. Stone, welcome! The venue is fully prepared. Let us know if anything's lacking, we'll adjust it right away."
"We also hope you'll put in a good word for us with Miss Haynes, so our hotel can host future Haynes Group events," he continued.
"Don't block Mr. Stone's path. Didn't we tell you to leave? We don't welcome freeloaders here, don't bring down our class!" The guard shoved me aside, now acted submissive, completely different from his earlier pompous attitude.
Adam looked at me smugly and said, "Stop right there! Is this how your hotel treats guests? I welcome anyone who wants to attend my banquet."
"Especially since Jason is my benefactor, without him, I wouldn't have met Salma. He's failed so many times, he's already having a hard time. I won't allow you to treat him like this!"
He continued, "But Jason, if you wanted to see my new product, you could've just asked. I can send you an invitation. Just please don't sneak a peek again and try to copy it like last time."
The moment plagiarism was mentioned, the recently quieted crowd broke into noise again. Countless disdainful eyes turned toward me.
The crowd chimed in, "We almost forgot, do you know why he's useless even with the Haynes Family behind him? Because all his stuff is copied! Even when he helped Mr. Stone back in the day, it was just to freeload ideas!"
"Tsk! Shameful. I actually felt bad for him when I heard his parents died!" another voice said.
If this were before, I definitely would have fought back, to avoid dragging down Salma's reputation. But now, I just wanted to be free of it all as soon as possible.
A crowd of people echoed their accusations while they praised Adam. They said he's grateful and talented at a young age.
I was completely shut out and I couldn't help but sneer inwardly. Adam, let's see if you're still can smile later.
A long time passed before Salma came out. She walked through the crowd and naturally linked her arm with mine. She asked, "Why aren't you going in? What are you doing out here?"
Seeing Salma appear, Adam immediately stepped forward, "Jason, let's go in together. My bad, I forgot to send you an invitation."
Salma pulled me into the banquet hall, she turned back to introduce me as someone here to learn from Adam.
People in the circle already looked down on me. Now, even fewer wanted to talk to me.
Meanwhile, Salma stayed with Adam, she introduced him to various business connections. Their laughter kept drifting over and a few times Adam even leaned entirely onto her.
The out-of-place atmosphere made it hard for me to breathe.
After coming out of the restroom, Adam suddenly appeared in front of me.
Seeing how uncomfortable I looked, he smiled even more smugly, "Jason, you're feeling bad, aren't you? Tables have turned. Never thought you'd end up like this, huh?"
"Actually, I should thank you. If you hadn't taken me under your wing back then, I never would've met Salma," he sneered.
Expressionless, I looked at him and mocked, "What do you mean by that? Don't forget how you begged me for help back then. This is how you treat your benefactor?"
