Chapter 12

Beside Damon Brown, Mitchell Cook took notice of Yvonne as well.

Only, before he could take a good look at the face of the girl, his vision was blocked by Damon Brown who walked forward to speak to the Director.

When Damon Brown moved away later, the woman had moved from her previous position into another one that he could not see anymore.

Being here only for some negotiations, Damon Brown and Mitchell Cook did not stay long to finish the tour. Before long, they both left MSRA Labs.

On Sunday afternoon, Yvonne received a package from Erick: a dinner gown.

Yvonne had always found Noelle York to be pretty—a young and youthful sort of pretty. But when she put on the dinner gown and stood in front of a mirror, she could not believe that Noelle York could be ravishingly gorgeous.

The girl in the mirror looked hardly twenty. The features on her ivory fair skin were flawless. Perfect—long, flowing black hair down to her fair shoulders, rosy-red and luscious lips, and a captivating pair of eyes that carried a certain air of mystique. With just a simple look from her, she could be like Medusa, turning any man that looked at her to stone.

Yvonne felt the edges of her lips curling, feeling satisfied with how she looked.

Twenty minutes later, Erick's car came for her.

He was wearing a deep lavender tie; an addition that added a tinge of enigma to the serious staidness of his full black suit.

He strode straight to the restroom and the clicks of his heels alerted to Yvonne of his approach and she wheeled around quickly, their eyes meeting.

Erick Brown stopped, looking positively surprised, clearly not expecting this, although his expression quickly wiped bare, replaced with the usual contempt and disgust he reserved for her.

Still, all the disdain could do little to erase the consternation swelling inside him, "She's only 20, yet this gown seems to fit her perfectly?!"

Together, they came to the manor where the Brown held the ball.

The outside of the manor looked like a supercar motor show with numerous rare and exotic cars parked outside, the paragons of wealth and superfluous as embodied by the guests that graced this function tonight.

As soon as Yvonne stepped down the car, she commanded the attention of every pair of eyes around her.

The elegant cuts of Yvonne's flowing dress of deep garnet showcased the full benefit of her curvaceous figure. Under the shower of the warm lights in the evening, the rich yet evocative color of her gown made her look as if Mona Lisa herself had stepped out of Da Vinci's Renaissance masterpiece, appearing dignified, courtly, and yet, mystifying.

Erick Brown disembarked his car from the other side.

Yvonne gracefully held out her cream-white arm to coil around his and together, wallowing in the attention of the audience, they sauntered casually towards the entrance hall of the manor.

Inscrutable and reserved, youthful and refined—every man and woman they drifted past felt as if they had forgotten how to breathe.

When they finally disappeared out of sight, the silent compound once again broke out into excited whispers and exclamations. "That's Erick's girlfriend?! Damn... she looks way better than her photos in the magazines!"

"Humph, it's rare enough that Erick Brown appears at such functions with female company. You can bet he'd be meticulous in selecting one! Anyone he chooses must either be rich and powerful or enchantingly gorgeous!"

"Indeed, indeed! So young Erick Brown's gonna get married before his uncle, I guess!"

Roving in the midst of the heated discussions blazing all around him, a lone, silent man could not help straightening his back.

Miles York looked so immensely pleased with the prospect of having his daughter married into a family as prestigious as House Brown. He beamed so broadly that one could have thought him as one of the Browns as he ambled amongst the guests with an air of magnitude and pride.

After all, both Damon and Erick of House Brown were the two lone bachelors that were the apples in the eyes of almost every unattached woman in the entire Emperie City.

However, Damon Brown's indomitable position at the peak of the social ladder and ruthless disposition only made him too unreachable, if not impossibly transcendent—reasons which had continually daunted one too many lasses from orbiting anywhere close to him.

But the same could not be said for Erick. Despite looking usually cold and distant, he seemed a more feasible and realistic target for any single girls hoping a quick ride into the upper echelons of the social hierarchy.

Be that as it may, Erick appeared to be a more realistic target only if compared to Damon Brown. Being the most powerful of aristocratic families in the Emperie City, House Brown nevertheless remained but merely a distant fantasy to most people.

As Erick and Yvonne traipsed by, upper-class ladies by the score ogled hungrily at him, even though that was all that they managed to do.

And before anyone knew it, the pair had entered the main hall.