Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

“I never claimed to be a saint, but dragging you and your uncle into this mess. wasn’t part of the plan.”

Whitney couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

“I’ve heard you were the golden boy, the apple of everyone’s eye. What did Ludwik have? Nothing. So why stoop to snatch away even the little he owns?”

“Do you even grasp the depth of a family feud? The pressure’s on me too, you know. Business is a cutthroat game. Sure, my brother had it rough growing up, but he’s outshone me in every way. That’s what really grinds.

my gears.”

Whitney nodded emphatically, “So, you’re just a bitter, petty man, jealous of him. But he’s not so easily defeated by the likes of you.”

“Is that so? Yet he’s the one in hiding now.” Orion stood up lazily, extending his hand, “Anyway, it was a pleasure doing business.”

Fuming, Whitney turned on her heel and left, her stomach churning with rage.

At the Ether Cafe downtown, Ludwik stared blankly at the ‘papers” before him, his strikingly handsome face lost in thought.

He glanced at his watch.

Sensing his impatience, Felix promptly made a call. Returning with a peculiar expression, Felix announced, “Whitney was just… just meeting with Orion, and she’s on her way here now.”

The pr

pen tip lightly dropped onto the papers, and Ludwik paused, then cracked a wry

smile.

He tossed the ‘papers‘ to the lawyer beside him, his features set in firm resolve.

Elaine sat nearby, observing every subtle shift in the man’s demeanor, a slight smirk playing on her lips.

Suddenly, there was the sound of hurried breaths.

Elaine turned her head. She was the first to see Whitney arrive.

Whitney’s gaze instinctively sought out Ludwik, who sat in a secluded booth, his figure svelte in a black suit. His face was still pale, his frame noticeably thinner and somewhat ill–looking, yet he appeared much improved from a week prior.

A flicker of emotion crossed her eyes. She hurried over, but Elaine sitting in a wheelchair near the entrance.

her eye, she caught

Had they been inseparable these past

with Ludwik all this time. Elaine’s smile deepened as Whitney passed by, her voice laced

she mean by that? Whitney stumbled, her brows knit tightly with confusion.

ponder. She saw Ludwik’s attention shift

her heart pounding with a mixture of dread and hope, Whitney took a deep breath and asked with a tinge of

Ludwik

froze as if turned to stone. Her slender fingers on

18:24

Chapter 177

trembling as they retreated beneath the surface.

of color, she stumbled backward, knocking

may review the contents, but Mr. Lippert’s time

felt as though it had been pierced by their sharp edges,

obscuring Ludwik’s handsome features from her

shook her head with

do you have to refuse?” Ludwik’s voice was a cold blade,

his return, Gone was the hysterical man from

violent, vulnerable man

he was like an icily detached statue, indestructible.

become the formidable Mr.

his eyes, there was no trace

in his chair, he looked at her with undisguised disdain and sneered, “Our marriage was a sham, a farce. Nothing was

paled, her body shaking. “L, please don’t say that. I

said, unwilling

a deep, cold

the depth of his loathing

spoke up. “Ms. Valentine, the marriage agreement originally included a compensation for bearing a child after a year, but Mr. Lippert

never wanted your money.” Whitney replied weakly, the irony of those billions hanging between them unspoken.

a fair share of loot from Orion already.

gaze turned ghostly, “I didn’t… Orion called me out of the blue.

none of my concern.” His flippant words were the cruelest, and they

of hurt must a man endure to turn so suddenly heartless and cold?

and show him its purity, covered in wounds and grievances. She had done nothing wrong.