Chapter 495: Michael in Trouble

"A royal party? How did I end up here?" Alice was so shocked she didn't know what to say.

An Aetherian royal party—forget ordinary businesspeople, even many royal fringe figures wouldn't be able to attend.

How could she possibly have gotten in?

Hatty nodded. "All the cruise ships near the port are being watched by the Four Families. Only foreign luxury cruises that briefly dock aren't subject to inspection."

"Only nobles from a few European countries can board here, and the passengers are all high-level business and political figures. Since you're a guest, naturally, no one dares to inspect you."

After all, the people here had prestigious identities. If they were randomly inspected, it would immediately draw government displeasure.

If things really escalated, there might be people even the Four Families couldn't afford to offend who would handle it, and then some secrets wouldn't stay hidden.

Besides, very few people domestically could attend such a party. No one would think Alice could enter such a cruise ship, especially as a guest.

"Guest?" Alice's steps slowed considerably.

Invitations to this kind of event should all be custom-made, with everyone's identity thoroughly verified. How could she possibly have gotten in?

"Yes, you'll appear as Mr. King's cousin. Mr. King is the heir to the Crownwell Consortium. No one dares oppose him, so you don't need to worry."

After hearing Hatty's explanation, Alice was speechless.

She had heard that Zaid's mother seemed to be the heir to some consortium before marrying domestically.

She hadn't expected that Zaid had already inherited the consortium over the years and had such influence abroad.

No wonder he'd been able to take her away from Michael back then.

Before she knew it, Alice had walked to the banquet hall.

A party of several hundred people—spectacular and magnificent.

Zaid was raising his glass, chatting with several people, but immediately spotted Alice when she appeared.

He smiled and walked over to take Alice's hand. "Feeling better? Do you want to eat something?"

Alice nodded, then took his arm. "How did you get in?"

"I had an invitation to begin with, just didn't think I'd actually use it." Zaid smiled helplessly.

His and Michael's original plan wouldn't have led to this point.

It's just that no one expected the Four Families to join forces.

Speaking of which, Michael was essentially fighting the Four Families alone. Thank goodness Uriah was an ally, or some things couldn't have been accomplished.

Zaid naturally led her into the crowd. "This is my cousin, Alice Baker."

"Cousin?" A blonde, blue-eyed woman blinked at Alice. "The power of blood relations is really strong. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were siblings."

Others nearby nodded in agreement.

"It's rare to see people with your kind of features. You two really do look alike."

"Especially the eye color—very unusual, right?"

Alice wore a polite smile on her face, but felt a strange sensation in her heart.

She and Zaid looked very alike?

It seemed like in high school, people had mentioned it too, saying they had a married couple's resemblance.

They all said Alice and Zaid always had a similar feeling about them.

It's just that one was a girl, and one was a boy, plus their temperaments were different, so you couldn't really see much similarity.

After all, Zaid gave people a more heroic feeling, while Alice was a standard seductive beauty.

But after all these years of experience, their temperaments had become increasingly similar.

Alice unconsciously turned to look at Zaid—his high, straight nose bridge, thin lips, and a pair of deep, large eyes.

Many people said Alice had beautiful eyes. Only at this moment did she realize that she and Zaid's eye shape and pupil color were somewhat similar.

The others around them were still talking about something, but Alice remained somewhat distracted.

They say people are attracted to those with similar looks and temperament.

Alice had felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to Zaid from the beginning—was it because of this?

Just as Alice was lost in thought, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure—Timothy.

He answered a phone call and left the banquet hall with a tense expression.

"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." Alice nodded politely to those around her, then quickly followed Timothy.

Timothy was actually on the cruise ship too—why?

Her heart jumped to her throat. She had a strange feeling that Timothy definitely knew something.

Timothy had helped organize Marcus's funeral, so did he also know about today's plan?

There weren't too many people on the cruise ship, but there were servers and security personnel everywhere.

Timothy came to the deck, and Alice followed, pretending to enjoy the sea breeze.

"Yes, he's not hospitalized? Being unconscious should have a reason, right?"

"That kid Michael really is airtight. Help if you can. If he's unwilling, then secretly protect him and see what's really going on with Vaughn."

Hearing Michael mentioned, Alice's heart jumped to her throat.

She instinctively took a few steps toward Timothy.

"He's done right by Alice, too. Could all these years of feelings be fake?"

"These two boys, I thought they were like fire and water, even fooled me! But this is good—if they couldn't fool me, they couldn't fool others either."

"The Johnson family men are all deeply emotional; it's just that Vaughn took the wrong path."

His voice carried some melancholy, and his eyes were slightly moist.

"Good thing I discovered Alice's background early, otherwise she and Zaid would have caused trouble! Then I really couldn't face Marcus. Thank goodness Michael was always willing to cooperate with the act—that boy!"

"He'd better be okay. Now that Vaughn's had a stroke and probably won't recover, if something happens to Michael too..."

Before he could finish, he turned and saw Alice nearby.

Timothy quickly hung up the phone. "Ms. Baker—no, Alice, what are you doing here? Go back and rest quickly, you're still pregnant!"

"What happened to Michael? Unconscious?" Alice clenched her fists tightly.

She definitely hadn't misheard—something had happened to Michael!

But how could something happen to him?

He'd been fine before she "died."

Could Serafina have made a move against him?

Thinking that Serafina might have joined forces with Eric and the others, Alice's heart jumped to her throat.

"Mr. King, you just said something happened to Michael. What happened to him?" Alice stepped forward, the sea breeze lifting her hair, making her look somewhat pitiful.

Timothy cleared his throat lightly, a hint of panic in his eyes. "You misheard. I have things to do, excuse me."

"Wait! Timothy, please wait!" Alice lifted her dress and quickly chased after him.

She blocked Timothy's path. "You've always been good to Michael, and he considers you a close elder. What exactly happened to him? Please tell me."

"What use would telling you be?" Zaid had also come to the deck by then. He pulled Alice to him. "Let's go back first. The sea breeze is strong here—don't catch a cold."