55

Kara took a deep breath to calm her anger down and returned to the table to avoid any commotion in the party. As much as she wanted to get away from the arrogant man, she did not want to interrupt Damon over this slight inconvenience.
"I am Jacob." The man extended his hand towards her with a smile. Though he was handsome and clearly was thinking he was doing a great job at casting his charm on the poor looking girl, for this reason alone Kara avoided shaking her hand with him and lifted up a glass of wine instead, drinking a few sips while looking around to avoid meeting Jacob's eyes.
Her gaze landed on Damon who was talking to some investors at the end of the hall. The girl in the red dress was still standing beside him, chiming in the conversation every now and then.
"What is your name?" Jacob asked and offered Kara another glass of wine, breaking her view, "delicious wine, right? First time drinking something this expensive?"
By this point, Kara lost the patience entirely. She slammed the glass back on the table and swiftly turned around to get away from his annoying presence. But as soon as her body moved, her foot got stuck in the cloth covering the food table, making her stumble on her feet while taking one table of food down on the ground with a loud clattering sound.
She already felt the disaster coming before the things even fell on the ground to make the noise. Everyone's attention turned towards her while the hall fell in complete silence. Before she even had a moment to react, the manager of the event came rushing towards them along with the girl in red dress.
"What is going on here?" She snapped, eyeing Kara with distaste, "who is she? I don't think I recognize you. How did she get in?" She turned her attention to the manager with a furious gaze.
"A worker, she says." Jacob chimed in with a smirk.
The manager was looking at all of them with panicked gaze, perhaps worrying about losing his job because of a nuisance.
"None of our workers are allowed in without dress code, Ms. Lina." His attention turned to Kara, "Mam, can you please show me your invitation letter?"
Kara was standing clueless in front of them and silent. She did not have the invite on her as it was in Damon's pocket. When she had looked around earlier, he had not been in sight. Having all eyes on her made her even more nervous.
"Please escort this girl out. How can you let just anyone in without checking?" Lina snapped furiously, "my whole party is in ruins because of her."
The manager approached Kara to take her with himself, but before he could come within touching distance, Kara felt a hand sliding over her shoulders, pulling her back and away from the approaching hand.
"She is with me." Damon said with a flat smile.
"... she is with you?" Lina asked with shock clear in her voice. Her tone had turned from suspecious and upset within a milisecond, "but Damon, she does not look like she... I mean I don't think I have seen her before. Who is she?"
Damon looked around the hall and found all the people gawking at them with curious eyes. They needed a topic for gossip, as always.
Damon cleared his throat and wrapped his arm around Kara's shoulder protectively, "I am sorry, I forgot to introduce her to you." His fingers pressed on her skin softly, "this is Kara. Owner of Sera Enterprises and my fiancée."
The gasps could be heard clearly echoing in the hall as well as the stare that changed from suspecion to shock. None of them had gotten invited to his and Kara's engagement party as it was only for close relatives. No outsiders and business people had gotten invited to it so the news of Damon and Kara's marriage was a shock to whole industry since both of them were heirs to big individual businesses. Marriage between such big businesses meant more power combined to be used against others in the ruthless business competition.
"Damon..." Kara grabbed his hand to stop him from saying anything else but ignored it and continued,
"Ms. Lina, I hope it is not an issue that I brought my fiancée along? We are allowed guests, right?"
Lina was so startled at his comment that the glass in her hand almost fell. Even Kara could see the disappointment as clear as day on Lina's face. It was pretty clear that she had a crush on Damon and from his sudden announcement she had gotten the shock of her life.
Jacob turned his head towards Lina and then at Damon. Realizing the situation he quickly tried to pour water over it, "Ah, yes, of course, Damon. My sister was just worried there had not been unknown people given entry since we have to worry about security of our guests."
He clapped his hands laughing, dispersing the crowd, "sorry for the false alarm everyone. Please get back to the party."
Turning around back to Kara he smiled again, this time a lot more enthusiastically, "Uh... congratulations."
At that moment Lina turned around and stomped out of the hall, and straight out of the door. Damon, Kara and Jacob's attention turned to her but only Jacob was the one who went ahead to follow Lina.