?Chapter 383:
“That is udius Cooper, the pride of the Cooper family!”
“Like father, like son. His bearing is exactly like Kolton’s in his younger days. udius has the entire mining empire in the southwest under his thumb, raking in billions every year!”
“I heard they recently unearthed a sapphire the size of a man’s fist. udius called it Angel’s Tear. They say it is worth no less than a billion dors!”
The room buzzed with excitement, voices rising like a tide.
In no time at all, guests from every corner of the hall surged forward, eager to bask in udius’s presence, offer fawning greetings, and nt themselves firmly in his good graces.
Compliments came pouring in, shameless and endless.
Each word piled atop the next, thickening the air with ttery.
The female guests, draped in silk and diamonds, could not sit still. They shifted and preened, striking their most ttering poses, hoping for a single nce from udius that might change the course of their lives.
Whispers flitted through the crowd like birds.
“He looks even better in person than in the photos!”
“If he ever looked my way, I swear I would do anything he asked.”
Near the edge of the gathering, a woman d in haute couture, sparkling with jewelry, spoke in a voice rich with longing. “Good looks, real power, true ability… This is what it means to be a Cooper. After seeing him, how could I ever look at another man again? What am I supposed to do now?”
One of the socialites nearby, barely hiding her irritation, let out a dryugh and snapped, “Did you not just say earlier that you were head over heels for Chris? Girl, you sure change your tune fast.”
The woman dripping in gemstones gave a haughty snort, tossing her hair back. “I was blinded by his looks, alright? How was I supposed to know he was that illegitimate son with a trash reputation?”
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Her words ignited a fresh storm of gossip about Chris, carried eagerly from mouth to mouth.
Chris and udius were close in age, but their reputations could not have been more different.
“Chris may be the only son of Laurence’s eldest, but he is nothing but trouble. Now look at udius — standing tall like a king. You would never believe they came from the same bloodline!”
“Chris just drifts through life, never doing anything serious. Womene and go like changing clothes for him. There is simply nopanion.”
“Exactly! Did you hear? He even let himself be kept by a woman, ying the role of a boy toy. No real high-society man would ever sink that low. That is the curse of being an illegitimate child!”
The mocking voices were relentless, showing no regard for Chris, who was right there.
Moreover, these words were clearly heard by Maia, Mariana, and Rosanna.
Beside him, Maia clenched her fists at her sides, her nails digging into her palms.
She nced at Chris out of the corner of her eye, half dreading what she would find.
But he only wore that same careless, easygoing look, as if the words were little more than a breeze brushing past.
Maybe he had grown numb to it all, Maia thought. Maybe when he stopped caring, he stopped hurting, too.
In truth, these so-called members of high society were just as petty and crude as anyone else behind their polished masks — just like Rosanna, all smiles on the surface, rot underneath.
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