Sorry Sir I Don’t Want You Back by Little Angelic Devil

Dahlia, Polly, and Emely's heads jerked as they heard the patriarch of the Alster family's words while the rest of the guests gasped in shock.

Hudson froze, and Finley's jaw hung open; it might as well have hit the floor with how wide it appeared, his eyes going round as saucers. Keith was the only one who didn't seem surprised, but he had a frown marking his gentle face.

No one said a word, thinking they heard everything wrong, because how could a country bumpkin and someone the Amery family had always called “gold-digger’ turn out to be the granddaughter of the most influential and wealthiest family in Country A?

The silence in the ballroom was broken by laughter, followed by Tristan’s voice. “Way to go, Grandpa Alster! What an introduction!”

Tristan’s words caused Cherise to giggle. She knew her grandpa would bask in the glory and wouldn't stop telling whoever would listen how he had successfully shocked everyone. Charles Alster, known for loving doing everything dramatic, smiled smugly. He had hoped that was the case with how he first let Logan and Julian tell everyone how much they loved their sister.

He felt he was smart enough to use the commotion caused by Dahlia and Polly to make the introduction more dramatic than he had planned.

Suddenly, everyone heard a shriek, and it turned out that it was Finley's voice. “Cherise is a member of the Alster family?!”

Cherise smirked and looked at Hudson's friend, who used to constantly belittle her and compare her to Emely, saying she couldn't hold a handle against Emely.

“Not only that, I am also the heiress of the Alster family,” she said with her smirk still in place. “Ah yes," Charles Alster spoke again as if he had forgotten to let out another secret. “Cherise is the heiress of the Alster family. She would take over everything after I passed away, not Julian.” “Oh, but I will still leave Julian a lot of assets and money since he is my grandson. He will be the second richest person in Country A after Cherise, and Logan will get everything from the Jenning Group,” he added quickly.

He didn't want anyone to think his two grandsons would end up poor, and no ladies would want them thinking they would be stay-at-home husbands. He still wanted to see them wed before he died!

“Oh my God, Hudson!” Finley couldn't contain his disbelief. “Cherise is actually richer than you!"

Keith, who had been silenced, finally chuckled at the bluntness of Finley's words. “That she is," he said.

Hudson glared at his two best friends, who he felt weren't making him feel better. He remembered again how he kept calling his ex-wife a gold digger and treated her harshly.

He finally knew the depth of her love for him during their marriage. He swallowed the lump in his throat. Someone who was as wealthy as Cherise, who he was sure had never served anyone in her life but was used to being served, had humbled herself to do it for him and his family. The tumultuous emotions in his heart nearly made him want to vomit or made him want to punch and kick himself again. Maybe he could ask Cherise to hit him, and this time, he wouldn't block or evade any of her attacks.

“This is impossible!” Polly shrieked.

Charles looked at her with annoyance. “I knew some of you might doubt it, but here are the DNA tests for me, Cherise, and Julian.”

The butler showed the results of their DNA tests on the big screen, and Polly still wanted to shout that those could be faked, but Dahlia held her arm, digging her long and sharp fingernails into her daughter's flesh.

Polly winced and glared at her mother, who quickly tried to rectify the situation. “I'm truly sorry for what my daughter and I said before, Old Master Alster. I didn’t know Cherise was the heiress of the Alster family," she apologized with all the sincerity she could muster.

Dahlia felt like she had been slapped in the face. She wouldn't have treated Cherise poorly if she had known she came from Country A's most influential and wealthiest family.

Charles snorted and threatened her, “Cause one more trouble for my granddaughter, and I'll make sure there won't be Amery Group in the future.”

His commanding, chilling aura gave Dahlia goosebumps, and she knew Charles would deliver on his threat.

She swallowed nervously and nodded. “I'll promise it will never happen again.” She had a mind to apologize to Cherise as well.

Charles ignored her and spoke to the guests again. “I know there are still so many questions in everyone's mind, but I can assure you everything will be answered during the press conference we have set up for tomorrow.”

“For now, let's enjoy the banquet, and let me introduce my granddaughter individually to some of you,” Charles added with a smile. With his hand still holding Cherise’s, they walked toward the steps on the side of the stage to mingle with the rest of the guests.

But as Cherise moved slowly to help her grandpa, her gaze caught Hudson's eyes, and she smirked as she mouthed the word “Surprise’.

Hudson couldn't keep his eyes off his ex-wife. Suddenly, everything seemed to click into place in his mind - Angelworld Jewelry that suddenly offered to cooperate with their smaller La Jewel after he married Cherise, how she was able to fight like a professional, her identity as Miss X and Angel, her closeness to Julian and Logan as well as Katherine Sterling and Paula Laurent who both were renowned in each of their fields and also the way the waiter last time addressed her as Miss Alster.

How could he be so blind and stupid not to connect all the dots? He even thought Julian was her new love interest!

A self-deprecating smile grazed his face, especially when he remembered how he had told her she wasn’t worthy to have his child.

He turned toward Keith. “Keith, slap me,” he ordered.

“Hudson, what are you talking about?” Finley asked anxiously as he looked around. “There are too many people here. We can do it in priva-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a loud sound of flesh hitting flesh. His eyes widened, and he nearly yelled, “Keith, what are you doing?" He was aghast that Keith would follow Hudson's order, disregarding the guests who had looked over to see them.

What was worse was that Keith had put all his power into that slap, judging from the loud sound, the way Hudson's head snapped sideways, and the red imprint of Keith's hand on Hudson's cheek.

“Feel better?” Keith asked, ignoring Finley's question. He knew Hudson needed it and was more than willing to help him.

Hudson rubbed his cheek instinctively and shook his head. “Not at the very least,” he replied with a sad smile. Maybe only Cherise could make him feel better since he had wronged her. Cherise was too busy mingling with her grandpa, Julian, and Logan, being introduced formally to some business bigwigs that his grandpa had invited from all over the world, and she didn’t notice what had happened to Hudson. Even if she knew, she wouldn't care.

As she passed Hudson, she ignored him. Julian smirked mockingly at him, and Logan glared dagger at him.

Katherine, Paula, and Tristan, who knew Cherise had made her decision not to go back to him, acted like guards around them.

Emely, who had been watching the whole thing silently, couldn't control her anger and envy. How could someone be as lucky as Cherise when she had tried her best to fit in but never could? How could life be so unfair?

She had tried to get Hudson to divorce Cherise, but instead of how she imagined Cherise would suffer, she helped to push Cherise back into her biological family and became the heiress of the Alster family. She really wished to kill Cherise now. No one should have such luck in this world!

She turned to Dahlia and spoke softly, “I can't believe Cherise lied to everyone. She had been playing all of us.”

To her surprise, Dahlia turned to see her and scolded her, “What are you saying? We should apologize to Cherise and her family and try to get Cherise and Hudson back together.”

Emely clenched her dress tightly and rolled her eyes inwardly, thinking Dahlia would never change. Dahlia was a hypocrite who called others gold diggers while she herself was one.

Now that she knew Cherise was the heiress of the Alster family, she wanted Cherise to be her daughter-in-law again. Everyone who heard her would know what she truly wanted. She didn't want Cherise. She wanted the connections she could get from having an Alster as part of her family.

Soon, it was time to dance, and Hudson contemplated asking Cherise to be his partner, but he was too ashamed to ask her.

Emely nudged Polly and gestured toward Julian. “Aren't you going to ask him to dance? You said you like him. I think this is the best time to get close to him and at the same time apologize for what you had done to Cherise,” she encouraged and advised Polly with a gentle smile like how a big sister would talk to her little sister.

“Why should I apologize? I will never apologize!” Polly replied stubbornly. So what if Cherise was the Alster’s heiress? Polly was an Amery, and their family was the richest and most influential in Country B.

Emely rolled her eyes inwardly. Polly was really stupid. “It is to show Julian that you have repented,” she said with fake concern. “That way, Julian might not think too badly of you, and you can get closer to him.”

Polly thought about it for a moment and seemed to think Emely’s idea was brilliant. “Okay, I'll do it”

With that, Polly greeted Julian and said, “Hi, Julian. I'm Polly. I want to apologize for everything I had done to Cherise."

Julian, who knew what kind of people the mother-daughter duo of the Amery family was like, didn't want to hear anything from her.

“Can I ask you for a dance?” Polly asked shyly.

“I'm sorry. I have no desire to hear your apology, nor do I want to dance with you,” Julian said coldly, mincing his words. “And he already agreed to dance with me” Suddenly, Katherine appeared beside Julian and looped her arm with his.

Julian frowned but didn't say anything as he let Katherine lead him to the dance floor. Embarrassed, Polly went back to her mom and sulked.

Dahlia patted her hand comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Polly, if you want Julian, I'l make sure you'll get him."

Polly trusted her mom, so she nodded happily. She didn’t know Dahlia was already thinking of using her. If she could get Cherise and Julian, her status would be elevated, and she could already imagine how envious all the other mamas would be.

Emely tugged on Hudson's sleeve, finally shifting his gaze, which had been glued to Cherise, who was smiling and laughing as she danced with Logan.

“Hudson, I want to dance,” Emely said shyly.

Even though Hudson's trust in her had started to diminish, he still remembered his promise to Luis, so he agreed to dance with her without having any other thought other than showing some courtesy to her.

Emely looked smug toward Cherise’s direction but found she wasn't even paying attention to them. Emely got annoyed but quickly became happy because she was dancing with Hudson. Julian, who was dancing with Katherine, was frowning hard. Katherine had practically pressed herself against him, which was not the appropriate distance for their dance.

And whenever she talked to him, she always whispered in his ear, pressing their bodies even closer together so that he could feel the curves of her breasts pressed against his chest.

“Can you be less shameless?” Julian reprimanded her.

“Oh, I can't,’ Katherine said in a breathy, seductive voice and winked. “You see, Julian. I like you, and I always get what I want.”

Julian was relieved when it was time for everyone to change partners.

Katherine patted his chest and winked again. “You'll like me soon, Julian."

julian shook his head and quickly escaped the dance floor before some ladies could ask him to dance. He did not want to entertain those ladies who had been batting their eyelashes at him, trying to get his attention. Katherine had given him enough headache; he didn't need to add more.

Cherise stepped away from Logan when it was time to switch partners, and as if God would have it when she turned around to place her hand on her next partner, she found herself face- to-face with Hudson, who was already waiting for her.

Cherise rolled her eyes and smirked. “Dream on, Mr. Amery.”

She then turned around and left the dance floor, leaving Hudson standing alone, feeling embarrassed.