Talented Heiress: A Rose With Thorns

"Mr. Wick, what brings you here?"

The second Sheldon saw Joseph Wick at the door his arrogance melted away, replaced by wide -eyed shock and instant humility before the vice president of the International Medical

Congress.

Joseph, still catching his breath from rushing over, wiped the sweat from his brow. He said sternly, "If I hadn't come, I wouldn't have known that you were throwing your weight around

here."

Sheldon hurriedly explained, “You've got it all wrong! I wasn't abusing my power. Yvette made a serious mistake, leaving me with no choice but to pull her from the competition."

"Oh, really?" Joseph scoffed, narrowing his gaze. "Funny, that's not what I heard."

A sinking feeling settled in Sheldon's stomach. He could tell that Joseph had already learned

the truth.

Leaning in close, Sheldon tried to reason in a hushed tone. "Yvette dared to strike the

president's daughter. I had to do something! She's just an ordinary student-no influence, nonoveldrama

connections.

"The last thing we need is to offend someone as powerful as the president. I was only protecting the International Medical Congress' reputation!"

"You fool!" Joseph's anger flared, and he struck Sheldon across the face.

"The Medical Congress has always prided itself on fairness, yet here you are, betraying that legacy. Your actions are a disgrace to everything we stand for!"

Sheldon was caught completely off-guard by the sudden, hard slap. He was stunned as he hadn't expected that Joseph would rather offend the president's daughter than let Yvette face injustice.

Before he could recover, Joseph's voice cut sharply through the silence."And who said Yvette is just some powerless, ordinary student?"

"Mr. Wick, please let me explain." How could the president's daughter be comparable to Yvette?

However, Joseph refused to listen to Sheldon. Instead, he strode over to Yvette. Unlike his cold demeanor toward Sheldon, Joseph's expression lit up and he spoke politely.

"Yvette, the chairman wanted to come himself, but he's tied up in another meeting. So he asked me to come on his behalf."

Sheldon's jaw dropped. Yvette knew the chairman and could summon him with a text

message? He felt a pang of regret as the depth of his mistake settled in. Clearly, he'd underestimated just who he'd been dealing with

Estelle's shock was just as obvious. She didn't have influence over the Medical Congress' top officials like Joseph, yet Yvette could contact the chairman himself.

The others nearby seemed anything but surprised. They'd come to expect such displays from Yvette. She wasn't just a top medical talent; she had a string of influential ties—a student of the legendary Colin Ades, and the daughter of the wealthiest family in the city.

Any one of these titles held sway, making Yvette a formidable presence. When it came to status, Yvette never came out on the losing end.

“Estelle, are you starting to see who's in charge here?" one bystander taunted.

"Exactly! Did you think you could throw your weight around just because of your status? Yvette isn't the type to back down."

The crowd's jeers struck Estella like a slap on her face. She flushed with frustration as she snapped, "All of you, shut up!"