They Rejected Me—Then I Married The Billionaire They Feared Chapter 04
I didn’t reach out to Adrian once in the weeks that followed.
Not until the night of my birthday party, when he finally showed up with Caleb and Logan in tow.
All three wore dark suits. Not one of them looked pleased to be there.
I glanced at my assistant.
I’d made it clear: the man I was announcing tonight had nothing to do with them. There’d been no reason to send invitations.
She shook her head frantically, mouthing, I didn’t. They came on their own.
I looked away and decided to pretend I hadn’t seen them.
But the guests in the ballroom had already flocked over.
“Adrian, that merger last month was brilliantly handled. Evelyn has a good eye.”
I’d been the one who closed that deal.
Adrian had only shown up at the end to sign his name.
Someone else clapped Logan on the shoulder.
“Logan’s blunt, sure, but he protects his own. Whichever girl marries him will be well taken care of.”
I ducked my head and gave a small, private laugh.
For years now, no one had humiliated me more often than Logan.
Caleb was getting his share of praise too. He stood there in the middle of my birthday party as if he were the host—as if welcoming the guests were his natural role.
I was about to have my assistant clear them out when all three of their phones buzzed at once.
Logan finished reading first.
The next second, he stormed across the room and slapped me across the face.
My head snapped sideways. There was a dull, ringing thickness in my ear.
The ballroom went silent.
No one moved.
Adrian’s fist was clenched. He caught Logan before he could swing again and turned back to me with a look cold enough to burn.
“We came here. We came to let you pick one of us. And it’s still not enough for you?”
“You won’t stop until Sienna is dead, will you?”
I held a hand to my cheek and didn’t answer.
Caleb looked at me with pure disgust.
“The second we’re not there to protect her, you have someone grab her. You were going to have her ruined. Evelyn, you are revolting.”
That was all I needed to hear.
Sienna had done it again.
The room was packed with my father’s friends and Grant Group’s biggest partners. I’d just been struck in front of every one of them, and no one so much as stepped forward.
They all assumed the company would end up in these three men’s hands eventually. Better not to offend them.
I looked at Logan.
“Apologize.”
He raked his eyes over my reddened, watering ones and scoffed.
“Sienna was almost raped, and you’re upset about one slap?”
A sob rose from the doorway.
Sienna came stumbling in—her dress torn at the hem, hair a mess, shoulders trembling.
Adrian was out of his jacket in a heartbeat, wrapping it around her.
When he looked back at me, his eyes had gone colder still.
“I won’t marry a woman like you.”
Caleb planted himself between us, his voice dropping low.
“Your father brought us into the Grants as tools. Fine. We accepted that. But you can’t even leave us the smallest scrap of dignity.”
He turned on his heel and walked out.
Logan went after him.
Adrian paused before he left. His tone had climbed to something imperious.
“I’ll still marry you. But after the wedding, you’ll be a wife in name only. If you want me to keep Grant Group standing, you’d better learn to behave.”
I actually laughed.
Had they forgotten?
Without me, my father never would have brought any of them into the Grants in the first place.
Someone tried to block their path.
I lowered my hand and said, coolly, “Let them go.”
Sienna glanced back at me as they passed. Her eyes were glittering with triumph.
I didn’t move.
My assistant had gone white as paper.
“Evelyn—all three of them just walked out. Who are you announcing tonight?”
Murmurs were already rippling through the crowd.
“She has to marry someone. If none of the three the Grants raised will have her, who’s left?”
I brushed the wet from the corner of my eye, picked up a champagne flute, and turned to face the room.
“As you all know, tonight is not only my birthday. It is also my engagement party.”
“Allow me to introduce my fiancé.”
The enormous screen at the front of the ballroom lit up.
A cold, sharply handsome face appeared on it.
A collective, hushed intake of breath swept the room.
“Felix Hale? How is it him?”