Who's Crying Now, Ex-Husband?

Chapter 567

Otherwise, it just wouldn't carry enough weight.

Normally, an engagement party doesn't require this level of attention. You just invite family and close friends to offer their blessings, and save the big announcement for the actual wedding.

But Mila wanted to make this engagement public-broadcast it to the world, right from the start.

This changed everything.

For most of the guests, this wasn't just another engagement. What truly mattered was the deeper meaning behind today's celebration.

Rumors had already begun swirling—

After Lysander Montgomery's sudden death, Mila, one of the two most influential figures at the helm of Montgomery Holdings, had decided to resign from the board and cut all ties with the company. In other words, the same Chairman Sutherland who, as Lysander's widow, had stepped up and steered Montgomery Holdings through those turbulent times, was now walking away from the Montgomery family?

And not just resigning quietly, but dramatically and irrevocably severing all connections.

Now, she was getting engaged to Forrest the very man who had openly clashed with Lysander. Coupled with all the rumors floating around, this engagement took on a whole new significance.

Naturally, everyone wanted to see how this would play out.

No one really knew what had happened between Mila and the Montgomery family, but today's engagement party would set the tone for the relationship between the Montgomerys and the Sutherlands going forward. Everyone was keenly aware that this would also determine how they should interact with Mila-and with the soon-to-be-married couple-in the future.

all, the Montgomery family was

Still...

stealing glances at a spot beneath the floral archway, where a few plainly dressed, scholarly- looking middle-aged men had just arrived. Among them stood an elderly gentleman with silver hair, dressed in a simple suit, his face kind and gentle as he chatted with Forrest, holding

stared in

It was no wonder.

science, a member of the National Academy,

who

impossible to pin down. Yet here he

a

of expertise were

intelligence-hardly the same thing. Unless... wasn't Dr. Ayers's recent research

exchanged subtle glances,

what anyone else was thinking, Forrest himself was genuinely surprised, though he hid it well. He greeted the old man politely,

and scolded in a warm but stern

"Dr.

be incredibly busy these

Ayers replied, feigning exasperation. "Tyrell couldn't make it himself, so he called me-insisted I come see for myself what kind of woman his

grew more resigned.