Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

Chapter 144

The man gazed out the window, his deep profile turning as his fingers twitched restlessly through his thick eyebrows.

Ive spoiled her rotten, and now she’s overstepping! Such pettiness!” Ludwik’s voice was tinged with anger, ice

cold.

“Orion’s back from abroad, Elaine’s attempted to take her own life, and I can’t afford to alienate the Bartels family. At a time like this, when I’m surrounded by enemies, I thought she’d be smart and sharp, but she just could not bear Elaine.”

Parker caught the disappointment in his voice, frowning as he said, “Given Whitney’s EQ, she wouldn’t fight with you over Elaine’s incident. Could there be something else?”

Ludwik paused, then shook his head.

Elaine was the very reason for their argument in the room.

But Whitney had been acting out of character today. When she woke from her nightmare, she pleaded with him not to touch her; her emotions were running high, and her gaze at him was inscrutable.

She had never looked at him like that before. When they first met, she was timid around him. As they got to know each other, she became demure with a bit of sass but never so distant.

“By the end of it, she asked me if I knew her grandfather,” Ludwik said, his brows locked in a frown.

“Her grandfather, Faulkner Tennyson? Ludwik, you had your clashes with him…” Parker’s expression shifted slightly.

Ludwik, however, remained stoic. “Just the usual business rivalry. The Tennyson family was set up. I witnessed that accident back then; I never thought her uncle would survive.”

Parker had heard about Ludwik’s encounter with Whitney’s uncle today. “Did her uncle say something to upset her? Is she questioning you about what happened to the Tennyson family back then?”

Shaking his head, Ludwik replied, “They don’t even know who I am now. Besides, if they have a grudge, it should be with the Valentine family.”

“You’ll have to wait until after she’s had the baby to explain your beef with Skye Gem, right?” Parker gestured

towards Ludwik’s mask.

Ludwik nodded, continuing to brood over his drink, his face as cold as ever, piecing together the puzzle · Whitney was just harping on Elaine’s return to Banyan City.

On this death anniversary, heavy snow blanketed the entire city.

was bone–piercing, devoid of any warmth.

she could not take any medication, resorting only

breath shallow, and burst out, tears threatening to fall. “Whitney! You can’t

happened to her? For two days, it was as if her soul had been drained,

was clear she was in agony.

followed in her car as the vehicle ahead zigzagged up to the cemetery on Valentine Mansion’s hill.

hill, Tiana guessed perhaps the anniversary of her mother’s passing had come, and

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overwhelmed with grief.

the large

already there, shoveling snow from the graves of her mother and

from him and said, “Uncle, let

filled his eyes. “You can’t do this, Whitney. You don’t even have the right to kneel. Carrying Ludwik’s child, I doubt

chilling than the desolation in her heart, doused by her uncle’s icy words.

had condemned her.

the gravestone. “To let them have peace, we must seek vengeance and reclaim what belongs

thought it through. You said Ludwik trusts you in the company? For now, don’t leave him. Stay by his side; be my insider. I’ve prepared for a long time; the

uncle wanted her to break with Ludwik immediately and plot their

uncle saw her as a sheath, a convenient blade to be concealed by Ludwik’s

and she

Look at me, looking barely like a human. Does our suffering count for nothing against your

eyes hid schemes, his

herself speechless.

with Ludwik,” Keegan said, his eyes dark with cunning as he

her there.

front of the gravestones,

mother and grandfather. If it

hesitate.

why him? Why did it have to be him?

face, she asked with concern, “What did your uncle say to you to make you cry like this? What’s wrong? Can’t you talk to

heart was sharp and raw, yet she could not utter a

her. “Damn it. Your

bath. I can’t take anything else.* “I go register.