Chapter 283: Breaking News
** Eli **
"I see that your opinion of me is extremely poor." Eli sighed. "Even though you hardly know me."
"I don’t need to know you to be aware." Emory rolled her smoky eyes. "You’ve got enough cheating bastard genes."
Ouch. That probably burned more than she intended to, because it was quite true.
And ... interesting how his half-sister shared his own opinion of their father.
Eli had always assumed that the other side of his "family" would be a happy, harmonious one unlike his own. They hadn’t been torn apart by his father’s sins back in the day, and Emory hadn’t been forced to grow up alone with a negligible parent. But it seemed that the girl had still formed an unfavorable judgment of her morally questionable dad, which actually made Eli’s impression of her instantly turn a lot more positive.
"Well, you aren’t wrong on that." He glanced briefly toward the direction where Emory had come from, mentally cringing at the sight of his father that always spoiled his mood. "Though it does make me curious — what exactly did you hear from your father that makes you say such things?"
"Don’t pretend you have no idea!" Emory glowered. "I might not have heard the details about those announcements that he plans to make, but it’s not hard to guess when your name is mentioned right next to some rich heiress woman. Dirty deals like this happen all the time with you businessmen, that’s why I’ll never go work at Sterling Trust myself!"
The information gave Eli a bad omen. So his father was really planning on an announcement without informing him? That was unexpected. Hastily, he turned around and scanned the crowd behind them. He needed to find—
"Evening, Eli. I’m impressed, did you really heed my advice and decide to reconsider your companion for the night?"
Unfortunately, instead of either Harper or his father, which would be the two people Eli needed to find at the moment, it was Vanessa who sauntered into his view. Sparing a casual look at Emory, she held up her cocktail glass and smiled fakely. "Your taste seems to change quite fast," she added in a suggestive drawl.
Emory raised an incredulous eyebrow. Eli, having way more urgent tasks on his plate, didn’t bother to entertain the ridiculous woman with a reply. He was about to leave the table and push through the crowd when suddenly, the room fell quiet, and he saw everyone turning toward the podium by the red-curtained wall.