Convincing her

The group of three girls gradually kept on increasing as different women that included the wives and daughters of the influential people who came to the party came forward to introduce themselves. This happened mainly because Jen's arrival with Lucas had managed to pique the interest of a lot of people that had been at the party.

It was not the first time that they had seen her as she was present at a company event that was held a few months ago, and they remembered that Hellen had also been very close to her so it was not too wild to speculate that she was going to be the future daughter in law of the Lewis family.

Fortunately for Jen, she was already used to attending parties and acting as a host, even though she might be rusty since she hadn't been able to do it for a couple of years already, she naturally interacted with the ladies that came to talk to her.

Even she was surprised by how easy it was for her to navigate and control the flow of their conversation. She knew that people won't directly ask her about her relationship with Lucas so they turned to Nancy and Sofiya. 

Since Sofiya did not know Jen well either, she felt that it would be inappropriate for her to answer these questions. Fortunately, Nancy just had to confirm a few people's suspicions before the information gradually spread among the people in the vicinity.

This just made Jen get treated even better because at the end of the day, even though Lucas was actively talking with potential partners. The dominant party in the contractual negotiations will still be Lewis & Co.

Even though Jen was smiling with everyone, she could not help but remember when it was her family that was hosting these sort of parties. It was unfortunate that a lot of people had forgotten about them after their fall from grace.

She was slowly coming to terms with the fact that the people that have surrounded her and are animatedly talking to her wouldn't be doing so if not for her connection with Lucas.

If it ever happened that she and Lucas' relationship came to an end. She could say with confidence that none of the people that were currently talking to her would come forward to talk to her if she attended a similar event in the future.

It had only been a few years since her family had gone bankrupt but no one recognised her. She would understand if it was just her that they did not recognise, it was funny that they could not even make a connection with her last name as she introduced herself with her full name.

The genuine smile that she had at the beginning when she had been talking with just Nancy and Sofiya slowly morphed into a mask that was strategically worn as a reminder to keep her emotions in check. What was worse was that she had mingled with some of the ladies that were now smiling in her direction.

Lucas was talking to a lot of people but he kept an eye on Jen as well. He glanced in her direction every few minutes and noticed the growing crowd that was forming around her.

In the beginning, she was smiling and talking animatedly with everyone but he could not help but notice that there was something wrong. 

The smile on her face changed and her eyes weren't shining like they were before. What worried him more was the grip she had on her clutch seemed to have strengthened. He noticed that the fingers that held the stem of her wine glass had become white. 

"If you will excuse me," Lucas said to the man that was talking about something that he did not particularly care about. He did not wait for him to respond before he directly drew himself away from the group.

David was confused for a few seconds until he realised that Lucas was walking in Jen's direction. He sighed to himself and turned to the men and continued the conversation as if Lucas did not just rudely leave. It wasn't like they could complain either so they decided to swallow their feelings and continued with their discussion.

Lucas was not stalled more than necessary since the expression on his face did not look particularly friendly so no one tried to stop him to talk to him on his way over to help Jen with whatever it was that put that expression on her face. 

It was the first time he saw her wear such an expression and he was worried about what was going on. He was worried that she was being bullied or something along those lines.

Jen's mood had just taken a turn for the worst when she felt an arm around her waist and a familiar scent that served to calm her down almost immediate;y.

"Hello ladies, If you would excuse me, I have something to talk to Jen about," Lucas said and smiled at Jen who had turned to look at him.

The women were not expecting him to suddenly turn up but seeing him standing next to Jen so naturally confirmed their relationship to the people who only thought they were rumours.

The chattering had also suddenly gone down as people looked at them curiously. Nancy realised that everyone was too surprised to say anything so she stepped forward to say something.

"Go ahead, we'll be alright," Nancy said and urged the two of them to go. Lucas smiled in her direction and Nancy nodded as if to tell him that she had also noticed that something was up but she wasn't sure how she could have intervened.

As the two of them were leaving, Jen leaned heavily against him and Lucas changed the position of his hand from her waist to around her shoulder. He even took the glass she was holding from her and looked at her worriedly completely unaware that they were being observed by the other party-goers.