Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Sebastian Hawthorne Asks: Do You Like Me?

Ruby Croft made no move to get up, not even glancing in Minnie Rhodes’s direction.

Caleb Keller could tell at a glance that she didn’t want to play games with them.

"Ruby, now that you’ve met Mr. Keller, you don’t want to play with your old friends anymore?"

Minnie Rhodes extended the invitation again. Though she was smiling, her words were dripping with malice.

Most of the people here were their close friends, and many of them knew about the secret relationship between Ash Quillan and Ruby Croft.

She had been holding it in all day, and at this moment, she couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore.

Minnie Rhodes and Wendy Rhodes truly were sisters; they had the exact same way of talking.

A flash of disgust crossed Cecilia Croft’s eyes as she immediately spoke up.

"Minnie, you don’t seem very happy that my sister has met Mr. Keller. Could it be that..."

She stopped at the perfect moment, leaving endless room for speculation.

Most people at the engagement party didn’t know Ash Quillan and Ruby Croft had secretly dated.

But the people still at the winery were all mutual friends of Ash Quillan and Ruby Croft.

Before Minnie Rhodes got engaged to Ash Quillan, she was supposed to be Ruby Croft’s best friend.

Publicly, everyone seemed to have no opinion on the matter, but who could say if they were gossiping in private.

Minnie Rhodes had already stolen Ruby Croft’s boyfriend; there was no guarantee she wouldn’t try something else later.

She was a repeat offender, after all.

When Minnie Rhodes saw the looks everyone was giving her turn strange because of Cecilia Croft’s words, she gritted her teeth.

"Cecilia, what nonsense are you spouting?"

Cecilia Croft looked up, meeting Minnie Rhodes’s gaze without a trace of fear.

"Minnie, you do seem really angry. Isn’t today your engagement party with Ash? Why are you so worked up?"

Minnie Rhodes’s expression froze for a moment. Only then did she realize Cecilia Croft was deliberately trying to provoke her.

Cecilia Croft had already planted a seed of doubt in everyone’s mind.

If she got angry and threw a fit, it would just confirm everyone’s suspicions.

Ash Quillan’s brow furrowed, his gaze turning sharp and cold as he looked at her.

Minnie Rhodes’s lips moved. She wanted to explain herself, but with so many eyes on her, a desperate explanation would only make her seem guilty.

She could only calm herself and say in a slightly helpless tone.

"Since Ruby doesn’t want to play, we’ll just play without her."

"I was just thinking that Mr. Keller is a guest from out of town. It’s not right for us to ignore him, so I wanted Ruby to bring him over to play with us."

After sitting down, she reached out and took Ash Quillan’s arm.

Ash Quillan gave her an indifferent glance and said nothing, his gaze simply shifting toward Ruby Croft and Caleb Keller.

"Mr. Keller, care to play?"

Caleb Keller didn’t answer him right away, his expressive eyes looking tenderly at Ruby Croft.

"President Croft, are you interested?"

Ruby Croft tossed the question back to him. "If you’re interested, Mr. Keller, then I’ll be happy to keep you company."

Caleb Keller raised an eyebrow and ultimately declined Ash Quillan’s invitation.

Ash Quillan’s jaw tightened. He shot Ruby Croft a sinister look but didn’t insist further.

The atmosphere turned stiff for a moment.

Finally, someone spoke up. "Then let’s play Misdirection."

Someone made the suggestion, others agreed, and the atmosphere livened up again.

For the first round, everyone would go clockwise and ask the person next to them a question. Anyone who hesitated or answered the question had to drink.

The second round would go counter-clockwise to ensure fairness.

Before the game began.

Ruby Croft walked over to Cecilia Croft and said softly,

"I’m heading back now."

Cecilia Croft glanced up at Caleb Keller, who was standing behind Ruby Croft, her eyes filled with wariness.

"Text me when you get home."

Ruby Croft replied, "Okay," and left the winery with Caleb Keller.

As they were leaving, Ash Quillan’s gaze fell upon Ruby Croft. Although he quickly looked away, Minnie Rhodes still managed to catch the emotion in his eyes.

Everyone drew lots to decide their seats.

Cecilia Croft’s seat was just before Minnie Rhodes in the clockwise rotation, which meant she would be the one to question Minnie.

She had already figured out the perfect question to make Minnie Rhodes freeze up.

The game officially began.

They started asking questions clockwise, and a few of them were pretty outrageous.

’Compared to theirs, my question won’t be that outrageous,’ she thought. ’But it will definitely hit where it hurts.’

While her mind was buzzing with excitement, it became someone else’s turn to question her. Only then did Cecilia Croft notice that the person on her other side—the one about to ask her a question—was none other than Sebastian Hawthorne.

Her mind went blank for a second, just like that moment in her youth when she made eye contact with her secret crush—that feeling of nervous helplessness, mixed with anticipation and uncertainty.

Sebastian Hawthorne didn’t give her much time to think, asking his question directly.

"Do you have a crush on me?"

Cecilia Croft: "I..."

She instinctively wanted to refute it, but as the word formed on her lips, she realized she had already started to answer Sebastian Hawthorne’s question.

That one-second pause was already too long. It counted as hesitation.

The group around them burst into laughter.

"With a question like that from Mr. Hawthorne, it’d be hard for any girl not to answer directly."

"If it were me, I’d instinctively say yes, too."

"Mr. Hawthorne asking Miss Croft that question with a face like his? That’s basically cheating, isn’t it?"

Cecilia Croft silently agreed with them.

She’d turned to see Sebastian Hawthorne right next to her and was hit first by a critical strike from his handsome face so close, then dealt a follow-up blow by his question. She could have cried, but no tears would come.

Cecilia Croft could only try to regulate her breathing, resolving to strike back hard when it was her turn to question Sebastian Hawthorne.

’Great,’ she thought. ’Another "enemy" at the table.’

Sebastian Hawthorne smiled without a word, simply pouring a glass of wine for Cecilia Croft and placing it in front of her.

Cecilia Croft picked up the glass and downed the wine in one go.

The moment she set the glass down, Cecilia Croft turned and asked her question directly to Minnie Rhodes. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Minnie, who do you think Ash loves more? You, or his ex-girlfriend?"

The false smile on Minnie Rhodes’s face vanished the instant she heard Cecilia Croft’s question.

She didn’t answer, her face falling as she glared at Cecilia.

The atmosphere grew tense.

Although Wendy Rhodes didn’t get along with Minnie Rhodes, she still spoke up to defend her sister.

"Cecilia Croft, are you nuts? It’s my sister’s engagement party, and you ask a question like that?"

Cecilia Croft tilted her head, feigning confusion.

"Aren’t we just playing a game? Besides, people were asking even more outrageous questions earlier, and no one got upset."

She was doing it on purpose, putting both Minnie Rhodes and Ash Quillan in an impossible position.

’It’s what that shameless couple gets for bullying my sister.’

’They’re only acting so brazenly because they know my sister cares about the Croft Group and doesn’t want to make enemies at a time like this.’