Chapter 315 The Engagement Banquet
Chapter 315 The Engagement Banquet
After Andrea left, Carla picked up her chopsticks and forced herself to eat some more.
Before, she would definitely have enjoyed the meal.
But now that she was in a strange place with unfamiliar people, she had lost her appetite despite the
fact that her hosts were treating her well.
She, however, did finish the meal like it was a duty she had to perform. She then tried the dress on and
found that it was the perfect size for her.
Carla knew that she couldn't whine about her situation since it was her own decision to come back
here.
She had made her own choice and this meant that she couldn't complain about it even if everyone else
did. There was no way out of it and she had to go through it no matter how tough it threatened to be.
It was deep into the night, but Carla couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about what Terence had told her
and what Rainer had said.
Terence had wanted her to give up her inheritance from the Hua family.
Carla had understood Terence's intentions and she knew that he didn't care a cent about the Hua
family.
At first, she hadn't cared about it either.
But as time passed, she changed her mind. Why would she give up her inheritance?
She hadn't asked for it; the Hua family had forced her to take it. But now that she had it, why would she
even think of throwing it away?
She could definitely take advantage of that and take charge of Hua Group shares. And when the right
time came, she could come up with some excuse and cancel the engagement with Noah.
She could then marry Terence as the daughter of the Hua family.
Although Terence didn't care if she was rich, Carla still thought that being rich wouldn't do her any
harm.
There was nothing bad with being the daughter of the Hua family.
The An family was at the top of the list of rich families in JA City. If she could be the daughter of the
Hua family, she would be a good match for Terence. That would save her and Terence from a lot of
trouble, mostly of persuading people around them that they made a perfect couple.
If everything would only end up as she wished, then all the difficulties she had lived through would
automatically disappear into the past.
Carla felt better as she thought this. A bright future might not be as easily accessible as she wished,
but as long as she firmly held on to the idea, she believed that she would realize it someday.
After all, she was Carla and whining was not her style.
She was brave enough to earn what she deserved. And that was exactly what she was going to do.
It was as if sleep was eluding her only to help her figure all of this out. Once she had, it wasn't long
before she became drowsy.
It was two o'clock in the morning by the time she finally fell asleep.
But despite this, she got only four hours of restless sleep before she had to wake up.
She changed into a stunning dress, had breakfast, got her makeup done by a professional artist, and
left with Noah.
"Sweetheart, you are so beautiful!"
Noah complimented her as he helped her into the car.
Carla whipped out a small mirror from her bag and examined her face. She touched the leather
decoration on her hair and wrinkled her nose as she replied, "I look like a witch."
"Even if you were a witch, you would be the most beautiful and the kindest one," said Noah, trying his
best to hold back his laughter while his eyes were fixed on Carla.
Carla was gorgeous today. That was for sure. She was wearing a short light blue dress with little
shining diamonds splattered across the chest and the waist of her dress. Her hair had been prettily
curled, making her look more mature and charming. But the smile on her face told everyone that she
was just a fun-loving, naughty girl.
"Oh, I almost forgot! This is the guest list for our engagement banquet. I've marked the important ones.
You can take a look and be prepared,"
Noah said as he passed her a document.
The Hua family was big. They had filtered through the guests for the engagement banquet several
times but there were still a lot of guests coming.
And some of them were really important, so it was better for Carla to memorize tidbits about them in
advance.
Carla opened the file and allowed her eyes to scan through the details. But there were so many pages!
Carla's eyebrows bunched as she turned to look at Noah. "There are so many guests! How about this?
Once we arrive, you greet them first and I will follow you."
There were too many names on the list. That made it hard for her to memorize the names and details
of so many strangers. Furthermore, it would be way worse if she made a mistake at the banquet while
addressing someone.
Noah saw her frustration and laughed gently as he took the file from her hand.
"Sure. That's alright. It will be your first time meeting these guests so it won't be a big problem if you
make a mistake. But just in case, you still need to learn about these important guests. Here. These are
the ones I'm insisting about."
Pointing to a name on the first page, Noah said, "This is Uncle Albert, our father's younger brother. He
owns twenty percent of the shares of the real estate branch and fifteen percent of the shares of the e-
commerce branch of the Hua Group He's pretty important.
And here-"
Noah continued to explain and with his help, Carla felt it easier to memorize details about the guests.
Though the Hua Group didn't cover as many business areas or developed as much as the AJ Group, it
was still one of the biggest companies around.
Even a small percent of Hua Group shares was worth a lot of money—an amount was still beyond her
imagination.
At this thought, Carla suddenly realized exactly how much money she would have once she came into
the ownership of a majority of Hua Group shares.
They soon arrived at the venue for the engagement banquet.
Carla had thought that the banquet would be no more than a family meal. But when she saw the vast
garden that had been decorated for the engagement banquet, she realized how far from reality her
imagination had been. After all, that was what imagination was.
The decorations were so lavish that it looked like someone was going to get married here. But given
the fact that the Hua family was extremely rich, she knew it would be even more exaggerated when she
and Noah got married.
A huge heart made up of pink and white balloons stood sentry at the banquet. Flowers lined the red
carpet. Uniformed waiters served the guests, a crowd that was way more than what Carla had
expected.
And this was just to announce the engagement. They would later have lunch in another lavish hotel.
Almost all the guests had arrived. Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.
The host was saying something on stage but Carla couldn't care less. Her injured leg meant that she
couldn't move around by herself, so she chose to stay on the wheelchair.
To her surprise, she didn't feel nervous at all. She knew she was supposed to feel nervous since she
was getting engaged. But on the contrary, she felt rather calm, even though she was facing a large
crowd of strangers.
It was probably because she didn't care about her engagement with Noah.
But if it were her engagement with Terence, she would have been extremely thrilled and nervous.
A pang went through her. She knew that her nervousness and thrill would have been because she
cared about Terence. She loved him to no end and had dreamed of their engagement for so long. But
things weren't always as one expected.
After the announcement, the guests headed to the hotel for lunch.
"Thank you all for coming to take part in Carla and Noah's engagement. Although Allen is gone, we still
have Carla and Noah, and every one of you. I believe the Hua Group will keep developing and getting
better and better!"
Andrea greeted everyone as she stood at the front of the hall, holding a glass of wine and staring
fondly at her beloved daughter and son.
The guests were all closely related to the Hua family. So they all knew that Carla was actually Allen and
Andrea's only biological daughter, who had gotten lost when she was a kid.
Noah, the CEO of the Hua Group, was one of their adopted sons.
His capabilities and ambition were obvious and the talk of the town. It was a given that the Hua Group
would become even steadier once he married the only biological daughter of the Hua Group.
"Andrea, why don't you marry Carla off to Noah right away since they are so in love? Then we could be
drinking to their wedding right now,"
Albert said, raising his glass.
"We did think about this. But they didn't want to get married right after Allen passed. So I'm afraid that
you'll have to wait until next year to drink to their marriage,"
Andrea explained, clinking her glass to Albert's as she turned to the guests with a smile.
There weren't any rules that they needed to obey, but Andrea felt it would be fitting to show respect to
Allen and give dignity to his death by postponing the wedding.
"Noah, where's Callie? It's almost time to propose a toast," Andrea asked as she walked up to Noah.
Noah checked his watch, looked around, and said, "I think she's upstairs changing. Let me check. She
must be done now anyway."