Everyone fell into stunned silence.
After all, to the public, Eleanor was Shin's biological mother.
Could it be that she had been completely unaware of such a monumental event?
Eleanor stomped her feet like a petulant child, clinging to Master Keir as she wailed, "You can't let them take our son away! They're trying to steal my son! I won't agree! I won't allow it. He's mine!"
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
No one had expected such a dramatic turn of events, least of all from Eleanor herself.
What on earth was wrong with her?
Within moments, the security hurried forward to contain the chaos.
Elder Madam Keir was panicking inwardly and just stood there with her face drained of color.
It wasn't until she saw Tristan approaching that she seemed to regain her senses, clutching his arm and urging him in a trembling voice to do something.
The long-buried skeletons of the Keir family had finally clawed their way into the light with Eleanor's sudden appearance.
Just as Tristan stepped closer, Hiro and his father intercepted him.
They feigned concern, loudly questioning how security had allowed Eleanor to enter. In truth, they were merely stalling for time.
No one desired more than they did for Shin Keir's true identity as an illegitimate child to be exposed, to see him humiliated and disgraced before everyone.
Although Tristan understood their intentions perfectly, he remained unfazed.
With Eleanor's status as Madam Keir, who would dare bar her from entry? She had arrived looking perfectly respectable. Who could have predicted she would cause such an uproar?
"Who dares try to steal my son? Don't you know who I am?" Eleanor shrieked, glaring at the guests as though they were sworn enemies. "Competing for my son's affection? What right do you have? I raised him. I cared for him since he was a child. Do you think it's so easy to step through our family's doors?"
Everyone: "…"
Just as Alister attempted to escort her away, Eleanor suddenly spotted someone who stirred a vivid memory.
It was the girl who had once fought with her at the golf club over her desire to marry Shin.
Assuming she was the fiancée, Eleanor wrenched herself free from Alister and the bodyguards, who did not dare restrain her too forcefully for fear of injuring her.
Only seconds earlier, Calin had been wearing a smug expression.
But the moment her eyes met Eleanor's frenzied glare, a chill shot through her heart, an ominous premonition tightening her chest.
Before she could react, Eleanor had already stormed up to her and delivered a resounding slap.
"Bitch! It's you again! I knew from the beginning you were no good, always lurking around my mother-in-law like some she-devil. Don't think I don't know what you're plotting, you shameless schemer! You think you can marry my son without informing me? Over my dead body!"
Everyone: "…"
With her ankle still healing, Calin lost her balance and fell to the floor.
The surrounding guests quickly help her up.
Madam Ricci, arriving just in time to witness her daughter being struck, snapped.
Without hesitation, she rushed forward and returned the slap to Eleanor.
"Who are you calling names? Do you know why no one informed you of this engagement? Because you're a lunatic! I truly don't understand why the Keirs keep a crazy old hag like you. If I were Alister, I would have divorced you long ago!"
At the word divorce, Eleanor's expression darkened as though she were staring at a corpse rather than a living woman.
While Madam Ricci continued her tirade, Eleanor lunged forward, grabbing her by the hair.
In the next instant, the two women were locked in a full-blown scuffle.
The guests watched in collective disbelief as two prominent socialites clawed at each other like alley cats in couture.
Security finally rushed in to pry them apart while the crowd stood rooted, mouths slightly open, as though witnessing a live broadcast of reputations collapsing in high definition.
Elder Madam Keir trembled where she stood.
One glance at the spectacle told her what she already knew.
There was no salvaging this.
"It's over… it's over…" she muttered under her breath, then her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Another ripple of chaos.
When security managed to separate the two women, Madam Ricci was still spitting venom, her voice sharp enough to slice marble.
"Shin isn't even your son! Why would he listen to a crazy stepmother? Ask her what she did to him when he was a child! The vicious things she's done!"
The words detonated like a chandelier crashing from the ceiling.
So the rumors that Shin Keir was illegitimate… were true?
Across the room, Eleanor shook her head violently, her hair disheveled, pearls askew.
"Liar! He is my son! My son! I would never harm him. Never!"
Her denial rang shrill, frantic, unhinged.
Hadi, seeing the woman he adored struck and humiliated, surged forward in indignation.
He crouched beside Calin, checking her ankle, his jaw clenched tight.
When he looked up and saw Shin standing there, calm and unreadable, as though the scene unfolding had nothing to do with him, something inside Hadi snapped.
"Shin! Control your crazy mother!" he shouted. "Wasn't she locked in a sanatorium? How the hell did she get out?"
Another bomb.
Eleanor Keir had been institutionalized? Since when?
Murmurs swelled like a rising tide.
Shin's gaze shifted, giving Hadi a look so sharp like a blade sliding from its sheath.
Hadi's voice faltered mid-breath. His spine stiffened, and before he knew it, he had taken a step back.
For reasons he could never quite articulate, Shin Keir always felt like a shadow cast over him. Was it merely because he had once been beaten so thoroughly by him that his body remembered?
Across the chaos, Yeri stood in stunned silence.
She had already heard fragments of the truth from Xian Song. But for it to explode like this, at such a grand occasion…
Is Shin Keir okay?
Before she could finish the thought, she was suddenly shoved forward.
When she turned, Venice was already clinging to her arm, grip ironclad, smile sweet as poisoned honey.
"Madam Keir, you've misunderstood," Venice announced brightly. "Calin Ricci isn't Young Master Keir's fiancée. This person is. Yeri Zhi."
Yeri "…"
Of course Venice would never let her slip quietly into the background. Not when flames were already dancing so invitingly.
Venice and Calin exchanged a glance, with the latter giving the faintest nod.
"Madam Keir, I know you care deeply for Young Master Keir and only want the best for him, but Yeri is also the cherished daughter of the Zhi family. I hope you'll bless their union."
Venice's tone was gracious yet her eyes were calculating.
Seeing the attention fully shift to Yeri, Venice prepared to deliver the final blow.
She would mention the abduction. Madam Nafplion taking revenge over Leo's death and Yeri in a bad state.
But no matter what, Shin's feelings for Yeri hadn't wavered.
It may seem like she's supporting their passionate relationship but she's also planting the seed that Yeri had been tainted.
While subtly implying that Shin is being a complete simp for a woman who does not deserve even a fraction of that devotion.
A perfect social execution.
Just as she opened her mouth, her expression flickered, feeling a splitting headache tore through her skull, and she swayed.
Yeri instinctively reached out to steady her, but Linda was faster.
"Venice! What's wrong?" Linda cried, immediately pulling her daughter close. Her gaze snapped to Yeri, thick with accusation. "What did you do? Don't you know she's pregnant?"
Yeri "…"
She darted a glance at Hadi Keir. For a fleeting second, it looked as though he intended to check on Venice, but then his gaze shifted to Calin's reddened cheek and of course, he stayed beside her.
'What a sanctimonious bastard,' Yeri thought, ignoring Linda's shrill cries about ambulances.
Eleanor, who had moments ago been thrashing like a storm unleashed, suddenly shifted her focus.
Upon hearing Venice, her eyes locked onto Yeri filled with murderous intent.
She stepped forward and stopped.
The rage drained from her features as if someone had pulled a plug.
Confusion replaced fury.
Shin had already used his ability on Venice the moment he sensed her malicious intent coiling like smoke, and then toward Eleanor.
Oblivious, Lianna hurried to stand in front of Yeri, protective and poised.
But when she saw Eleanor standing blankly, she exhaled, the tension easing from her shoulders.
Yeri offered her a grateful smile. "Thank you."
Before she could say more, Shin's hand closed around her wrist, firm enough to anchor her at his side.
A statement without words.
Security quickly escorted the bewildered Eleanor away with Master Keir following.
Calin and Madam Ricci were ushered to a private lounge for treatment, the ballroom slowly attempting to stitch its dignity back together.
Inside the lounge, Calin's fury simmered like oil about to ignite.
They had succeeded in exposing Shin's illegitimate upbringing, yes.
But she had intended for Eleanor to turn her madness toward Yeri as well, instead, the lunatic had struck her.
Worst, her own mother had leapt into the fray like an enraged street fighter, annihilating any chance of salvaging sympathy.
She could have played the victim. Instead, the spectacle had devolved into hair-pulling theatrics.
"You knew she was crazy," Calin hissed once they were alone. "Instead of talking it out, you stooped to her level. Aren't you a socialite? What were you thinking, pouncing on a lunatic?"
Madam Ricci stared at her daughter, stunned. Then her face crumpled in indignation. "I watched my daughter get slapped! How could I stand by? What reasoning is there with a madwoman?"
Calin pressed her fingers to her temples. "It's not as if I'm helpless. Do you know where we are? With that many people watching, do you think they would let her beat me senseless? Everyone was just caught off guard."
She let out a sharp breath.
It was truly unfortunate to have a pig teammate.
Before Madam Ricci could respond, the lounge door swung open.
Serenity stood at the entrance.
Her eyes were red, glossy, as if she had been crying for hours instead of minutes.
She looked small, lost, almost fragile.
Calin's expression stiffened.
Unlike Venice, she was painfully familiar with Serenity's peculiar performances.