Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

Chapter 237

At the airport in the South, Ludwik stepped off the plane and immediately turned on his laptop, eager to check the live feed from the sanatorium’s surveillance system.

But the connection was frustratingly spotty, the feed lagging in real–time.

His gaze was icy as worry creased his brow. Without a moment’s hesitation, he dialed the sanatorium.

The director picked up, his voice hesitant and filled with excuses about poor reception in the mountains and ongoing repairs.

Meanwhile, Felix was rambling on about a litany of issues cropping up at the factory,

Yet, Ludwik, standing tall and imposing in the midst of the bustling airport, paid him no mind. A chill surrounded him, his brow twitching with unease.

Suddenly, his phone pinged with a notification.

An unfamiliar number with an international prefix – probably spam?

It rang just once!

For reasons Ludwik could not fathom, he found it unsettling and impulsively tried to call back, but it would not go through.

What the hell was going on?

Something felt very wrong tonight. His right eye twitched, a premonition of impending trouble.

“Mr. Lippert? Mr. Lippert?” Felix called out several times before getting his attention.

Ludwik slowly turned, noticing an inexplicable film of sweat on his palm. “I can’t connect to the sanatorium’s feed. Damn it, what good are they if they can’t get this right? Forget the factory issues. I need to go back.”

Taken aback by Mr. Lippert’s unusual demeanor and evident agitation – he had not rested at all on the flight – Felix did not dare say more and immediately instructed the airport manager, “Prepare Mr. Lippert’s private jet for a return flight.”

“Plot the shortest course. Get me there in two hours. And find out what’s going on at the sanatorium!” Ludwik ordered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he strode back to the cabin.

“What did you say? Imbeciles! She was in labor, and you let her escape?!” Elaine could hardly believe the call from her henchman.

Fuming with rage, she had left the scene to cover her tracks and was busy planting ‘evidence‘ to’turn tonight’s events in her favor. She even planned to cast herself as the ‘victim‘ of a kidnapping by Whitney and Tiana.

Chapter 237

that the child was killed during an emergency C–section and the B&B

get away? Where are the others?” Elaine snapped, her eyes flashing with malice as she spun the car around

with several of her

was terrifying. She fought us tooth and nail to protect her child…” Only one henchman was left unscathed, wiping blood from his eyes as he pointed toward the back road from the B&B. “She took a scalpel

there. Gather everyone and find her! Kill her on sight, and make

the room and commanded, “And burn this place to

the resilient woman

her a blur. She could not recall how she managed to escape from that room; all she knew was that as a mother, she had done everything to prevent that blade from slicing open her belly, to

unbearable; her abdomen throbbed, and blood and amniotic fluid soaked the seat. She could no longer feel her baby

road was

relentless predators, were surely on her trail.

careening down a slope, and fled in the opposite direction, vaulting over the highway barrier

cold light, and the sharp, salty sea breeze cut through the air.

the coast, still within the territory of the

to safety for her and her baby, but a sudden gush of blood signaled the onset of labor. She collapsed

could feel the baby’s tiny, desperate head pressing down, fighting for

cloth and stuffed it in her mouth. In the bone–chilling wind, she lay back, opened her legs,

Chapter 237

cries of agony pierced the night, unanswered as if

imagined that one day she would be giving birth alone in the wilderness, secretly enduring all the pain and

thought she would be driven to

them to this

reminds me to hate you. I hate you, Ludwik.”

bit down on the cloth, her mouth filling with blood. She had no

she

was nearly blacking out. The baby had grown so quickly like

baby in the wrong

the world darkening as

baby would

surged out with a

her child, but another surge of pain