Chapter 794
Engrossed in whatever topic they were discussing, Dr. Lucas noticed that Stewart Ferguson and Charlene were missing from the group and immediately sent someone to invite them over.
Dr. Lucas looked at Stewart and Charlene with a welcoming smile. “What has been keeping you two so busy? Do you have time to chat with us for a bit?”
Stewart offered a polite, practiced smile. “Of course, we always have time.”
As he spoke, his gaze flicked toward Thorne and Vesta, the corner of his mouth twitching in a subtle, almost imperceptible sneer.
Charlene naturally noticed Thorne and Vesta as well, though her stunning features remained completely impassive.
When Stewart looked his way, Thorne offered a curt, slight nod in their direction as a standard greeting.
Stewart’s smile turned rigid, returning the gesture with thinly veiled coldness.
Dr. Lucas knew that Thorne had been married, but he was completely oblivious to the identity of his wife. After all, he spent most of his time abroad and rarely visited Starfall City.
Observing their exchange, Dr. Lucas instantly picked up on the palpable distance between Stewart and Thorne. Without overthinking it, he found the dynamic rather amusing and asked, “I heard PrimeStar Technologies and The Henderson Group have been collaborating for a while now. How is it that you two young men seem like complete strangers?”
In his eyes, both Stewart and Thorne were brilliant minds in the Al sector and roughly the same age. Logically, even if they weren’t close friends, they shouldn’t be treating each other with such icy detachment.
The other guests hadn’t paid much attention to the underlying tension between the two men.
But upon hearing Dr. Lucas’s observation, it dawned on everyone else that Thorne and Stewart truly rarely interacted in public.
Stewart threw a cryptic glance at Thorne before letting out a dry chuckle. “PrimeStar and The Henderson Group have indeed been partnered for quite some time, but we spend most of our hours working directly with their engineering teams. We rarely cross paths with Mr. Henderson himself, so…”
Hearing Stewart’s explanation, Thorne maintained a composed smile, appearing to silently agree with the sentiment.
Dr. Lucas nodded in sudden understanding.
Neither Charlene nor Vesta said a word.
Charlene didn’t spare a single glance for Thorne or Vesta.
Vesta, on the other hand, had felt her nerves pull taut the second Charlene and Stewart walked over.
While Charlene ignored her existence entirely, Vesta’s eyes were fixed squarely on her rival.
Staring at Charlene, Vesta’s grip on her wine glass tightened until her knuckles turned white.
Even though Dr. Lucas was privately dissatisfied with Vesta and had no intention of taking her on as his protégé reserving that honor in his mind solely for Charlene-he hadn’t consciously compared the two women against each other.
But seeing Charlene and Vesta standing in the same space, he cast a thoughtful
glance toward Thorne and suddenly paused.
When it was just Vesta, no one thought much of it. But with Stewart and Charlene joining the fray, the surrounding onlookers couldn’t help but draw mental comparisons between the two women.
In terms of physical beauty, both possessed stunning curves and radiant complexions that demanded attention, deciding who was more gorgeous was purely a matter of personal preference However, when came to their taw talent and prowess in the Al industry…
While Thorne’s girlfriend was undeniably a PhD graduate from a prestigious university, her professional capabilities seemed to pale drastically in comparison to Charlene’s.
At the end of the day-
Meanwhile, across the room.
Dalton Ramirez, Kelvin Scott, and York Watson had been keeping a close eye on the unfolding situation around Charlene.
Just then, someone walked up to them and interrupted, “Mr. Ramirez, Mr. Watson…”
Noticing the stunningly beautiful young woman trailing beside the newcomer, Kelvin knew exactly what this was about.
After all, this was easily the sixth or seventh time it had happened tonight.
Since Kelvin already had a fiancée, he could only watch in muffled amusement as countless executives paraded their daughters in front of Dalton and York, desperately hoping to snag one of them as a son-in-law.