?<strong>Chapter 781:</strong>


    This kiss wasn’t like the ones before — it was fierce, unapologetically aggressive. His hand gripped her head with a firmness that allowed no escape, no retreat. Had hepletely lost his mind? To pull a stunt like this in front of everyone, in such a public setting!


    When Verruckt finally released her, his words cut through the air, calm butced with an icy finality. “You’ve seen it now. She’s the one I love.”


    His gaze swept across the room, dismissive of everyone present. “No one else could everpare to her.”


    The entire banquet hall seemed to hold its breath, stunned into silence. Verruckt had never publicly acknowledged a girlfriend, let alone brought a woman to such an event. Even seeing him with a femalepanion was a rarity. Yet here he was, openly dering his affections for her in the grandest possible manner.


    Fiona stood frozen, her disbelief etched into every line of her face. She stared at the scene, her mind screaming for it to be a dream, a fabrication of her imagination. No! This couldn’t be real.


    And yet, no matter how much she wanted to deny it, there was no mistaking the truth. Verruckt’s kiss had been far too genuine, too charged with emotion to be staged.


    “Miss Smith, do you have any other questions?” Verruckt’s voice sliced through her spiraling thoughts, snapping her back to reality.


    Her breaths grew uneven as she red at him, her voice shaking with suppressed fury. “Even if she’s your girlfriend, so what? This is the Immortality Group’s banquet, and Stuart family members aren’t wee here!”


    The socialites nking Fiona quickly caught on, their eagerness to align with her palpable. They exchanged sly nces before piling on their insults. “Exactly! Letting someone like her, who climbs her way up using men, attend this banquet makes a mockery of high society!” “Miss Smith is absolutely right. The dumpster seems like a more fitting ce for Miss Stuart.”


    However, the person who had uttered thest remark didn’t even get a chance to smirk before a resounding p turned her face to the side. A thin line of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth, vivid against her pale skin.


    The ck-d figure responsible for the strike had already retreated. Verruckt calmly stood with an expressionless face.


    The woman who was pped, stunned and clutching her reddened cheek, cried out in disbelief, “How dare you!” Her eyes burned with fury as she fixed Verruckt with a scathing re, momentarily forgetting Fiona’s affection for him in her outrage. Her voice rose in indignation. “How dare you let someoney a hand on me!”


    Verruckt was far from anyone’s idea of nobility. So, it wasn’t surprising that this clique of self-important elites didn’t truly respect him deep down. What they felt, more than anything, was fear — a dread rooted firmly in the mysteries of his research institute.


    When the woman brazenly questioned him, her words reckless and poorly chosen, Verruckt didn’t so much as flinch.


    .


    .


    .