Chapter 221 His Actions Are Quite Fast
Everyone at this table was a young business hotshot. Someone quickly changed the subject, and the awkward moment soon passed.
Cordelia wasn't from the business world, and their conversation had nothing to do with the artificial intelligence topic she'd been interested in earlier, so after listening for a while, she grew bored.
She slowly rose from her seat.
Both Alaric and Eric, sitting on either side of her, turned their attention to her.
Neither spoke, just looked at her, their gazes seeming to ask where she was going.
Seeing this, Cordelia said softly, "I'm going to the restroom. You guys keep talking."
Evelyn half-rose, looking at her. "Do you need me to come with you?"
Cordelia shook her head. "No need."
"I'll be right back."
Evelyn nodded gently.
Cordelia left the inner hall and followed the signs to the restroom. Earlier, when Alaric had sat down beside her, her palms had unconsciously grown damp with sweat. Now that the sweat had dried, her palms felt sticky.
The restroom was at the end of the corridor.
Before she reached it, a door to a room in the corridor opened.
The bride Marlowe emerged, having changed out of her wedding dress.
Janet was also wearing a white gauzy dress, walking beside Marlowe, helping with the train—clearly a bridesmaid.
Marlowe's gaze lingered on Cordelia for a moment, her eyes showing a hint of admiration, then she smiled politely.
Cordelia smiled back, which counted as a greeting.
Seeing Marlowe pause, Janet looked up and saw Cordelia in a purple suit—gentle and dignified as always, but now with a striking beauty.
Her brows furrowed . She didn't want to see Cordelia, but still couldn't help greeting her first.
"How does Ms. Stone have time to attend Marlowe's wedding?"
Seeing that Janet knew Cordelia, Marlowe's eyes shifted.
Most of the guests at her wedding today were internet influencers, and the outer hall was almost full.
Actually, Marlowe didn't even know a large portion of these influencers.
But since her husband Micah had invested in an influencer company, he'd generously sent invitations to nearly every notable influencer.
However, some influencers eager to see a wealthy family wedding had crashed the party even without invitations.
Today, Nicole was busy entertaining important guests with business ties to the Butler Group. She didn't care about the others , so many uninvited minor influencers had slipped in.
Marlowe and Janet had a pretty good relationship. Over the years, Janet had sent plenty of smoke signals about her feelings for Alaric, yet she'd never once gotten him to go out with her.
She'd never accompanied Alaric to any formal occasions either.
So in Marlowe's view, Janet hadn't even set one foot into the wealthy circle.
Earlier, when Nicole was greeting guests at the entrance, Marlowe had seen Nicole escort Alaric into the inner hall.
When Alaric walked past them, he hadn't even glanced at Janet.
This confirmed Marlowe's suspicions even more.
"Does Ms. Stone also work in internet business? Are you interested in joining our company?"
Although Marlowe didn't know Cordelia, seeing how stunning she looked, she figured that even if Cordelia wasn't famous now, she'd definitely blow up in the future.
She'd recently started her own influencer company and was short on talent.
If she could sign Cordelia to her influencer company, she'd definitely make a fortune later.
Hearing this, Cordelia politely declined, "Sorry, I'm not interested at the moment."
Marlowe's face darkened at the rejection.
Cordelia had no intention of continuing the conversation. After saying goodbye softly, she headed straight for the restroom.
Marlowe frowned and glanced back at Cordelia's retreating figure.
Janet's lips curved up slightly as she said ambiguously, "Marlowe, you can forget about that. Ms. Stone has a bigger backer."
Marlowe's eyelids lifted as she asked quietly, "You mean she's someone's sugar baby?"
Janet didn't answer Marlowe's question, just reminded her.
"The wedding ceremony is about to start. We need to get out there quickly, or Micah will get anxious."
Marlowe had made up her mind and nodded, striding toward the outer hall.
It wasn't unusual for men from wealthy families to keep a few sugar babies on the side.
With Cordelia's looks, being kept wasn't surprising.
Marlowe didn't give it another thought.
After using the restroom, Cordelia returned to her original table.
For some reason, Alaric had already switched to the seat she'd been sitting in.
Seeing that the seat he'd left for her was next to Evelyn, Cordelia didn't mind and walked over to sit down.
Just as they sat down, the wedding ceremony outside began.
Floyd and Nicole were both in the inner hall entertaining guests.
The wedding in the outer hall was lively, with occasional screams and cheering drifting into the inner hall.
In contrast, the inner hall was more like an upper-class business networking event, with everyone calm, restrained, and refined.
After the ceremony ended, it was time for the toast round.
Marlowe, accompanied by Janet, returned to the changing room to change into her reception dress.
Micah ran over to discuss the toasting arrangements with Floyd.
Micah's marriage to Marlowe had basically pushed the entire Butler family into the spotlight. Floyd didn't approve of Marlowe as a daughter-in-law.
So he had no intention of letting Micah and Marlowe go from table to table toasting in the inner hall.
"Just take care of the guests in the outer hall. Don't worry about the inner hall."
Micah's expression remained controlled as he laughed. "Dad, what kind of joke is that? The inner hall has all the important guests. No matter how immature I am, I know not to neglect important guests."
Floyd's face darkened as he said with restraint, "So you know you're immature?"
Micah was provoked by Floyd's comment and laughed coldly.
"Dad, I think you're using this opportunity to kick me out of the Butler family's power center completely, aren't you?"
"Eric is your son, but am I not your son too? You can't be this unfair."
Seeing Micah and Floyd arguing in the inner hall, Nicole, no matter how much she disliked Micah, couldn't let outsiders see them make fools of themselves.
She walked to Micah's side and pulled at him.
"Micah, say less. Toasting is a good thing. I'll arrange it for you. When Marlowe comes out, you can go together."
Micah's personality was already arrogant and domineering. Now, emboldened by alcohol, he vented his dissatisfaction.
He also had grievances against Nicole. Before Nicole could finish speaking, he roughly shook off her hand.
"What gives you the right to arrange anything? You're not even my mother. If you really treated me like your son, you wouldn't have made this arrangement with separate inner and outer halls today."
"If you won't let me toast in here, fine. Then nobody drinks."
As Micah spoke, he grabbed the wine glass from Floyd's table and hurled it to the ground.
As he threw the glass, red wine splashed out. Cordelia, sitting at another table, got it all over herself.
Evelyn quickly pulled out some tissues. Before she could hand them over, Alaric was already wiping Cordelia down.
Cordelia raised an eyebrow, a hint of mockery in her eyes.
Finally catching a chance to perform, his movements were certainly quick enough.