Winnie Sumrs shoved the security guard aside and pulled lody protectively behind her.
She eyed the people before her warily, frowning as she asked, "Who are you people? What are you trying to do to my daughter?"
She then turned to lody, her face filled with worry. "Sweetheart, are you okay?"
lody shook her head and said reassuringly, "I’m fine, Mom. Don’t worry."
Winnie had seen Joanna Dunn at the banquet earlier—the sa neighbor who had stayed with them at the Nimbus Hotel during the mountain wildfire.
Joanna Dunn was delighted to see Winnie and had kept her occupied with conversation, even introducing her to several friends.
Winnie chatted with them for a while. It was only after they left that she realized lody still hadn’t returned.
Winnie, thinking sothing had happened to her daughter, had rushed to find her, only to stumble upon this scene!
After confirming lody was unhard, Winnie turned back to the guard. Noticing his black security uniform, she frowned and asked, "You’re hotel security? What were you just trying to do to my daughter?"
At her words, the guard instinctively glanced toward Zara Walsh.
Zara Walsh scanned Winnie, her eyes lingering on her plain clothes and a decorative brooch that looked like cut glass masquerading as diamonds. She let out a soft sneer. "So you’re this little bitch’s mother? I should have known. Like mother, like daughter."
Winnie’s brow furrowed. "Who are you talking to like that? You’re just a young woman. How can you say such foul things?"
Zara Walsh let out a cold laugh. "My words are foul? You people have the nerve to do it, but you’re afraid of being called out? You failed to raise your own daughter, letting her run around shalessly seducing wealthy n. She even dared to set her sights on my little brother! I’m stepping in to teach her a lesson for you. You should be thanking for it!"
Winnie Sumrs had always been a calm person. Faced with years of provocations from Adam Lawson’s family, she had always been able to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear.
But even she, hearing Zara Walsh insult her precious daughter, felt her cheeks flush with anger.
She glared at Zara Walsh and snapped, "What nonsense are you spouting? I know my daughter. She would never do such a thing. Don’t you dare stand here and slander her!"
Zara Walsh gave a disdainful sneer. She looked at Winnie and noticed that although the mother and daughter didn’t look much alike, their expressions were practically cast from the sa mold.
They stared back at her without a trace of submissiveness or fear in their eyes.
The look in their eyes filled Zara Walsh with a sudden, deep sense of disgust.
’These bottom-feeders are supposed to look up to ,’ she thought. ’When they see my expensive gown and magnificent jewelry, they should be filled with envy, feel inferior, be consud by jealousy.’
’The one thing they shouldn’t be is... this.’
On the way to the Nimbus Hotel today, Zara had seen a woman on the roadside, holding a child and begging. The woman’s hair was frozen, laced with frost.
When the woman saw Zara’s car stop in front of her, she moved her body, stiff with cold, and knelt, begging for a scrap of food.
Zara casually opened the car’s mini-fridge, took out a slice of mousse cake, and tossed it out the window.
The delicate mousse cake smashed into a ssy pulp on the ground.
But the begging woman wasn’t repulsed in the slightest. She reached out with hands raw and swollen with chilblains, scooped up a clean piece from the top to feed the child in her arms, then knelt and began licking the frosting directly off the ground.
The woman’s wretched state had sent Zara into fits of laughter.
’That begging woman, *that* is how ordinary people should be living in this new world,’ Zara thought. ’Not standing here in the sa ballroom as , like lody Sumrs and her mother.’
With this thought, Zara stared at Winnie and said mockingly, "If the daughter’s a slut who seduces n, what does that make the mother? If I rember correctly, you’re divorced, aren’t you? Even your in-laws threw you out. What kind of person does that make you? Nothing but a slut, just like your daughter!"
At those words, lody’s head snapped up to face Zara Walsh. Her mother was lody’s one weakness. No one was allowed to insult Winnie in front of her!
Zara was still ranting. "You two sched your way into this banquet, didn’t you? Planning a mother-daughter tag team to snag a sugar daddy? Maybe find so old man to take you both in?"
The words were barely out of Zara’s mouth before lody closed the distance between them in a few quick strides.
eting Zara’s provocative gaze, lody didn’t say a word. She just raised her hand and slapped Zara hard across the face!
SLAP! The force of the blow sent Zara stumbling back two steps. She lost her balance and collapsed onto the ground once more!
The slap wasn’t particularly painful, but the humiliation was imnse. Zara’s impeccably cared-for face instantly turned red and began to swell like an overripe tomato, the shape of the handprint already clearly visible.
Everyone was stunned.
Even Ivan Warren, who had been sobbing endlessly on the floor, was shocked into silence.
The young lady of the Walsh Family had actually been slapped!
Supervisor Walsh was so terrified he could barely breathe, almost passing out on the spot!
But he quickly ca to his senses and rushed to help Zara up, crying out, "Zara, are you alright?!"
Zara Walsh looked up, her face a mask of utter disbelief. She stared wide-eyed at lody, her voice trembling with a mixture of shock and rage. "You... You dared to hit ?!"
Zara Walsh had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She had spent her whole life looking down on the world. This was the first ti she had ever been slapped!
She glared daggers at lody, as if she could burn a hole right through her with her gaze.
lody took two steps forward, looming over Zara on the floor. "Zara Walsh," she said in an icy voice, "if you dare insult my mother again, I will cut out your tongue."
lody hadn’t wanted to make a scene. This was a Rhodes banquet, after all, and Sophie Thorne had been kind enough to invite them. She didn’t want to ruin things for Sophie, which was why she had tolerated Zara for so long.
But things had gone too far. Now that Zara had dared to insult Winnie, lody couldn’t care less about the consequences.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch her mother be humiliated.
She didn’t care how powerful the Walsh Family was. If they pushed her too far, she wouldn’t hesitate to send every last one of them to hell.
Zara touched her red, swollen cheek, seething with a hatred so intense it felt like her heart was bleeding.
As she struggled to her feet, she shrieked at the stunned security guard, "What are you gaping at? Get her! Beat that little bitch!"
Seeing this, Winnie imdiately moved in front of lody, shielding her.
She eyed the towering guard warily and shouted, "Stay back!"
As the guard advanced on them, Winnie slipped a hand into her pocket. Her fingers found the grip of the gun she carried, and she rested one on the trigger.
At this point, Winnie didn’t care about the consequences. She would not let anyone harm her daughter.
Just as Winnie was about to draw her gun, the sound of frantic footsteps echoed down the hall.
The footsteps grew louder, and a group of people ca rushing around the corner.
Leading the group was none other than Ronan Rhodes. He was followed by a dozen or so tall figures in security uniforms, both n and won. Bringing up the rear was a young man in a casual suit.
Supervisor Walsh’s heart leaped into his throat when he saw Ronan Rhodes. ’This is bad,’ he thought.
Zara, who had just struggled back to her feet, saw Ronan and her eyes imdiately lit up. "Ronan, you’re finally here!"
Before anyone else could react, Zara pointed a trembling finger at lody and Winnie. "This mother and daughter are insane! They actually dared to hit ! You’re just in ti! Help grab them! I’m going to make them pay!"
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