Joel stopped in his tracks and suddenly looked at the lobby manager. He repeated, "What do you mean you won't allow her to bother me?"

The lobby manager was very shrewd. At the sight of Joel's reaction, something immediately clicked and he replied, "Yes, that's right. Mrs. Smith told us just now not to allow the lady at the entrance to come in. She said that this was your instruction."

He lowered his head. What he said next sounded as if he was claiming credit, but in truth, he was actually lodging a complaint. He said, "We don't have a rule like that at Club Prism, but Mrs. Smith said that this was an instruction from you, so we had to do as requested, of course."

Instructions from him...

Joel's amicable expression faded and he said dispassionately, "She's not Mrs.. Smith yet."

The lobby manager put on a show of looking scared and said, "Apologies, Mr. Smith. I've always addressed her as Ms. Jones, but she demanded that we change the term of address today..."

Joel didn't look angry. However, when he turned and saw Tanya, his eyes darkened a little.

Just as the lobby manager was about to say something, Joel looked away from Tanya and said detachedly, "We'll leave it at that, then."

For some reason, he didn't feel like letting her come in and go for her dinner appointment.

The lobby manager was dumbfounded.

For over ten years, he had always been skilled at reading people's body language and had never made any mistakes before. Had he guessed wrongly this time? Hillary was clearly acting like a donkey in a lion's skin just now, yet Mr. Smith was actually giving her actions tacit approval now?

He withdrew his gaze and became a lot more respectful. "Alright, Mr. Smith."

At the entrance.

Tanya waited idly for the parking valet to bring her car over.

Suddenly, a few people came toward her. "Hey, is that who I think it is? Isn't she Tanya?"

Tanya turned and saw a few people who used to hang out with Hillary walking toward her.

They were her high school classmates. Hillary and the Joneses were considered a moderately wealthy family, so all of them had curried favor with her back then. Why were they here though?

Were Hillary and Joel... here for dinner with them?

Tanya clenched her jaw.

Joel had despised them when he and Tanya were dating back then. Hillary had brought them over to greet Joel, but he couldn't even be bothered to pay them any attention at that time.

Yet he was actually willing to dine with them for Hillary's sake now?

Heh.

People did change, after all. Right?

While she was inwardly mocking Joel, her ex-classmates started to taunt her.

"Tanya? Are you thinking of going in for dinner? Why don't you ask Hillary, then?"

"That's right. What are you standing around here for? Didn't they say that you were the champion in an international dance competition? Why aren't you able to even enter a small club like this?"

"Man, what's the big deal about being a world champion? Did you win any prize money? Have you spent it all??

Tanya's eyes narrowed at their mockery of her.

She sneered, "Tsk, I've finally witnessed today what it means to ride on someone's coattails!"

Her choice of words was too artful, so it took a while for them to understand what she was saying. They became angry right away, and a man from among them even stepped forward and pushed her while demanding, "Is that how you should be talking, Tanya?!"

"Exactly. Do you really think you're that great just because the wealthy are being polite and inviting you to teach them dancing after you won a championship? At the bottom of it all, you're still just a dance teacher! Oh, look at the situation you're in now. Why don't you give one of your students' parents a call and ask them to bring you in?"

"She probably can't get them to! At least we can still enter because of Hillary, but what about you?"

"..."

Tanya was highly sought after among the wealthy. Given her current status, it wasn't hard for her to enter the club if she wanted to—in fact, she could even easily get a VIP card. However, the problem was that Joel had forbidden her from going in.

In the whole of New York, the Hunts were the only ones who didn't fear offending Joel.

However, she didn't want to trouble the Hunts.

Tanya lowered her gaze. At this point, the parking valet brought her car over. She walked around the group of people to the car, but just as she was about to get in, they stopped her again.

"Oh hey, that's a pretty impressive car you're driving! Only the rich can afford to drive a jeep like this!"

"Is this car a present from one of your students' parents?"

"I heard that there are some dance teachers who use the excuse of giving dance lessons to fool around with the masters of the households instead... Hahaha!"

"..."

Their comments were becoming increasingly ridiculous, causing the look on Tanya's face to turn even colder. She couldn't tolerate it anymore. She was about to step forward and teach the foul-mouthed guy a lesson when a tall and slender figure suddenly rushed over.

He moved extremely quickly and grabbed the guy by his collar. Before anyone could even react, he socked him right in the face!

As a loud bam rang out, the guy stumbled a few steps backward and spat out a couple of teeth.

His head whipped up as he shouted, "Who the hell..."

However, when he saw Joel and the frosty look on his face, his words came to an abrupt stop!

The people around them were also dumbfounded. They hastily took a step back and stammered, "M-Mr. Smith..."

Joel's frigid gaze swept across the few of them. At last, he ordered coldly, "Get lost!"

Frightened out of their wits, the few of them immediately fled.

After all of them left, the people around them started to point at them as they speculated among themselves. Someone could be heard faintly commenting, "That woman's making a scene just because she can't enter the club... How terrible!"

Joel abruptly turned to Tanya. He grabbed her wrist and walked straight to the lobby entrance.

Then, to the lobby manager who was standing there respectfully, he said, "Remember what she looks like. From now on, no one is allowed to stop her any time she comes here!"

The manager nodded. "Yes, Mr. Smith!"

Tanya's expression changed a little when she heard what Joel said after being dragged into the club by him.

Was that man sick in the head?

He was the one who didn't let her in just now, yet he was acting like a hero saving a damsel in distress now?

Seemingly sensing her emotions, Joel left the club without looking back after leaving those instructions.

—

At the Smiths.

Hillary, upon hearing the news from her cronies, didn't have the leisure of having dinner anymore. She hurriedly went home.

As soon as she entered, she said, "I'm sorry, Joel... I didn't know that my friends would do that... I went to the kindergarten this morning to thank Tanya, but not only did she not appreciate my gesture, but she even hit me..."

Hillary held her cheek that was still red and lowered her head. She said pitifully, "When my friends heard what happened, they asked me out to Club Prism, so I headed over. I really didn't expect that they would try to seek revenge for me... and even use your name to stop Tanya from entering..."

She lifted her head with her eyes reddened and said, "It's fortunate that you were there. Otherwise, Tanya would have suffered injustice this time. I'm sorry, Joel..."

She had only just said that when Joel raised his head calmly, scoffed, and pointed to the things on the table.

Hillary was taken aback. However, her expression immediately changed when she picked up the things on the table.

It was actually evidence against her that Joel had found after conducting an investigation!