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.

“It can’t be. L isn’t Ludwik. And wasn’t the Valentine family implicated in my

“Ten years ago, the Imperial Gem Corporation was a mess. Ludwik’s ambition knew no bounds. How else could

the floor. Pity flashed in Whitney’s eyes, her heart

to the hospital, standing at a distance

Ashton stood a tall man in an unchanged black suit. Whitney’s shaky

to mistake, a face to remember for eons. Whitney could not be

L’s face

a fake skin? Had he gone to great lengths

felt like a

12.47 CA

Chapter 141

to the most esteemed Mr. Lippert

and feared, he controlled the economic lifeline

“He is Ludwik, Whitney. He’s been wearing a mask all

moment, Whitney felt she

would only remove the mask once she fell in love with him.

Why?

wouldn’t be able to leave him, and their child

you certain about the cause of my mother and grandfather’s deaths?

consuming him, “Having been kidnapped as a child due to his looks, Ludwik had a habit of wearing masks–a fact known among Banyan City’s elite. That mask lodged in your grandpa’s heart, and what

sped through the streets.

compose himself, massaging his aching brow, “You were young ten years ago, unaware

unfairly by rivals. He brought your mom here to Banyan City. She was pregnant with you, hiding from your birth father in Emperor City. That’s why my father used

Skye Gem was his renowned jewelry company. He had a map of

went through Whitney as she remembered him claiming to

I watched the Imperial Gem Corporation soar to new heights, powered by the mining operations in Surelia District.

fists in anguish. “The Valentine family? They’re just pawns manipulated by Ludwik’s chain of