"Everyone here, take turns slapping her. Let’s see if this bitch still dares to act so arrogant!"
I was furious. “Don’t you dare go too far!”
Just as they were about to pounce, my phone started ringing in my pocket.
Bianca reacted fast. She snatched it before I could move and sneered, her tone dripping with malice.
"Is this the sugar daddy you’ve been sleeping with to climb the social ladder? How many times did you sell yourself before you got Grandpa Henry to pull some strings for you?”
I shouted, "Watch your mouth, Bianca! You don't get to throw lies around like that. You have no idea who you're messing with."
She cut the call and slapped me across the face.
“A country bumpkin like you really thinks she can talk back? Just wait until you draw the wrong box and we’ll make sure you regret it.”
Then she stuffed my phone into her own pocket.
“Forget trying to call your sugar daddy for help. This is Vale Family turf.”
I gave a cold laugh. “Do you even realize the weight that phone carries? You think you're worthy of holding it?”
She scoffed, “I’m Evander’s favorite right now. What, you think I can’t afford to break a cheap phone like this? Even if I smash it, what can you do about it?”
As she raised her hand, ready to hurl my phone to the ground, I broke free and lunged toward her to snatch it back.
But before I could reach her, someone shoved me hard from behind.
My head slammed into the edge of a table. Blood trickled down my forehead.
A commanding voice rang out behind me.
“Who gave you the guts to lay a finger on her?!”
I looked up.
A tall man strode in, surrounded by a dozen bodyguards.
I had to admit that my mother wasn’t wrong about his looks. Evander was very much my type.
But what good is a handsome face? Any man who collects ninety-nine “blind box” wives is clearly garbage.
Bianca was the first to rush over and throw herself into his arms.
"Evander, I was just helping her hold onto her phone before the draw, but she tried to hit me!”
The way she clung to him made several girls visibly uncomfortable, though none dared to speak up.
Evander gently soothed the woman in his arms, then turned to me with a frosty stare.
“Odette, you were the first one selected to draw. I’ve already given you more than enough respect. What more do you want?”
“Don’t think you can act recklessly just because Grandpa favors you. I can’t stand women who don’t know their place!”
I rose to my feet, brushing blood from my brow. My lips curled into a smirk.
“Sorry, but I’m not the least bit interested in you. Now have your darling hand over my phone. Or I swear, I won’t be polite.”
His face darkened.
“Don’t think I don’t know you were trying to report me. You’re drawing that blind box today, like it or not. That’s how I choose my partner.”
“If you don’t draw the right one, not even Grandpa Henry can help you!”
The smug certainty on his and Bianca’s faces made one thing clear: the draw was rigged.
No matter what, I wasn’t supposed to win. That realization calmed me.
I rubbed my sore arm and swollen cheek, then gave a faint nod. “Fine.”
Evander strode up to the stage and, without hesitation, selected one of the ten blind boxes.
As he began to open it, he mocked, “Odette, if you lose, it’s just fate. So don’t even think about it.”
He froze mid-sentence.
Screams erupted from the audience.
“Oh my god! It’s not a blank!”
Bianca ran up in disbelief.
Sure enough, inside the box was a photo, my photo to be exact.
I froze.
What just happened?
Weren’t they so sure I wouldn’t draw the winning box? Didn’t they already rig it?
Evander’s expression turned pitch black.
He had tampered with the blind boxes, yet somehow things had gone completely off-script.
He stared at me, eyes burning with accusation, just about to speak but Bianca beat him to it.
“Evander, look! I knew it, Odette must’ve cheated. None of the boxes are blanks!”
Evander seized the excuse like a drowning man grabs a rope. His face darkened further as he barked, “So it was you, Odette! A scheming woman like you will never set foot in the Vale Family!”
A wave of contempt swept through the room. The other women began jeering and throwing verbal daggers, accusing me of doing anything and everything just to claw my way into the upper class.
Two bodyguards stormed forward. One twisted my arms behind my back and the other slammed a kick into my knees.
With a sickening thud, I dropped to the ground. Pain exploded through my body as cold sweat drenched my skin.
Evander stood before me, towering, looking down with an icy glare.
“The Vale Family doesn’t take in dishonest women,” he said. “Even Grandpa won’t be able to force me to marry someone like you.”
At that moment, an image of Henry flashed in my mind.
Not long ago, he learned that a confidential government-backed project I led had massive profit potential, just 1% could propel the Vale Family into a new league.
He came to me several times, practically begging for the patent rights. I refused each time. And when he couldn’t get what he wanted, he changed tactics and trying to push a marriage between me and his grandson.
But I was too focused on work, uninterested in love or marriage and rejected the idea outright. So, he turned to the one person I couldn’t easily refuse, my mother.
Out of courtesy, I agreed to one meeting. I never expected to be humiliated like this.
Now, Evander had just crushed the opportunity his grandfather had so painstakingly tried to secure.
As he stood there, arrogantly lording over me, my gaze grew colder.
“Evander,” I said through gritted teeth, “I told you, I have no interest in you.”
“If you don’t let me go right now, you’ll regret everything you did today.”
The moment those words left my mouth, a sharp voice rang out from the entrance.
“Oh? Is that so? I’d love to see who’s the one that ends up regretting it.”
“Mom?! What are you doing here?”
Evander quickly rushed over.
Madam Astrid strode in, casting me a disdainful glance before turning to her son and ordering coldly:
