Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

Chapter 141

Next to Banyan City International Hotel stood the hospital.

Whitney sat vigil in the hospital room, reaching out to check her uncle’s pulse when suddenly her fingers were gripped tightly, her uncle’s nails scraping blood from her skin.

Startled, Whitney turned to see her uncle’s eyes flutter open.

Keegan looked at her with a mixture of pain and madness, demanding, “Whitney, why did you marry Ludwik?! He’s our nemesis! How could you marry him?” His coughs grew into a fit as he tried to rise, his words laced with desolation.

Whitney stiffened, as if unable to comprehend.

Her mind buzzed as she stared into her uncle’s reddened eyes, his face contorted with pain. She denied his accusations, “Uncle, what are you talking about? He’s not Ludwik.”

She held his hand, trying to calm him, “You must be mistaken. L had a scar on his face–I saw it with my own

eyes.”

Keegan shook off her hand violently, his anger distorting his face. He turned and rummaged through his bag, pulling out a fractured silver mask and thrusting it into Whitney’s hands, “Why do I recognize him? Because of this silver mask! Familiar, isn’t it–the one he was wearing!”

Whitney shuddered at the sight of the jagged half–mask.

Keegan spat hatefully, “Foolish girl, do you know that when your mom and grandpa died in that car, I ran to save them and saw this mask stabbed into your grandpa’s heart? His last word was ‘Ludwik‘!

He was just twenty ten years ago, already hiring hitmen. I didn’t know the car was rigged. When I tried to move my sister and father, the car exploded. My leg, my face, my body…”

Keegan clutched his scarred face, trembling.

The pain from his amputated right leg seemed to surge back, suffocating him.

Seeing him struggle to breathe, Whitney quickly pressed his philtrum to ease hiş distress.

head in confusion, “It can’t be. L isn’t Ludwik. And wasn’t the Valentine family

the Imperial Gem Corporation was a mess. Ludwik’s ambition knew no

the floor. Pity flashed in Whitney’s eyes, her heart heavy. She couldn’t resist, “Uncle, please calm down. I’ll go.” Whitney’s mind was numbed. She was now

as she followed Keegan to the hospital, standing at a distance from a certain window, Whitney’s trust

room, beside Ashton stood a tall man in an unchanged black suit. Whitney’s shaky gaze traveled up to his handsome

a face to remember for eons. Whitney could not

on L’s face

gone to great lengths to hide the

felt like

12.47 CA

Chapter 141

connected him to the most esteemed Mr. Lippert of the Lippert family in Banyan City!

the economic lifeline of Banyan City.

wonder he could have everyone conceal his identity. With a single command, no one dared tell her the truth! “He is Ludwik, Whitney. He’s been wearing a mask all along and deceiving you. But

she had touched

mask

Why?

she knew everything, she wouldn’t be able to

into misery, her eyes misting as she looked up, “Uncle, are you certain about the cause of my mother and grandfather’s deaths? Maybe it

a child due to his looks, Ludwik had a habit of wearing masks–a fact known among Banyan City’s elite. That mask lodged

through the

his aching brow, “You were young ten

professional, ousted unfairly by rivals. He brought your mom here to Banyan City. She was pregnant

vast. Skye Gem was his renowned jewelry company. He had a map of the Surelia District diamond mines–a map that drove Ludwik to

chill went through Whitney as she remembered him claiming to be a self–made man.

I watched the Imperial Gem Corporation soar to new heights, powered by

“The Valentine family? They’re just