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.

devoid of

refusing to break. Pregnant, she could not take any medication, resorting only

fever, her breath shallow, and burst out, tears threatening to fall. “Whitney!

to her? For two days, it was as if her

was clear she was in agony.

her car as the vehicle ahead zigzagged up to the cemetery on Valentine

Tiana guessed perhaps the anniversary of her mother’s passing had

1/3

was overwhelmed with grief.

daze to the large tree in the cemetery.

there, shoveling snow from the graves of her mother and

him and said, “Uncle, let me clear

her coat. Looking back at the gravestones, a stubborn chill filled his eyes. “You can’t

the snow around her less chilling than the desolation in

condemned her.

leaned over from his wheelchair, wiping the gravestone. “To let

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 bigger the corporation, the easier it

her to break with Ludwik immediately and

her uncle saw her as a sheath, a convenient blade to be

with pain, and she instinctively

me, looking barely like a

hid schemes, his face

found herself

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

left her

wilderness in front of

her mother and grandfather. If it were the Valentine family, she

hesitate.

Why did it have to be

your mind?” Tiana called out, holding an umbrella as she approached. Seeing Whitney’s tear–streaked face, she asked with concern, “What did your uncle say to you to make

was sharp and raw,

and steadied her. “Damn it. Your fever has

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