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

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

snapped, her eyes flashing with malice as she

by a scene of carnage, with several of her men severely injured, some with bites or severed wrists. A violent shiver ran

weren’t here. That dying woman 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 and car keys. She was

stand there. Gather everyone and

room and commanded, “And

woman who

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 prevent Elaine from

blood and amniotic fluid soaked the seat. She could no longer feel her baby moving; if she did not act fast, it would suffocate

to do? The road

her, Elaine’s men, like relentless predators,

a slope, and fled in the opposite direction, vaulting over the highway barrier into the trees lining the slope.

sharp, salty sea breeze cut through the

still within the

away to safety for her and her baby, but a sudden gush of

the baby’s tiny, desperate head

her mouth. In the bone–chilling wind, she lay back, opened her legs, and began to push with all her might, with one hand holding the knife and the other

Chapter 237

cries of agony pierced the night, unanswered as if swallowed

never imagined that one day she would be giving birth alone in the wilderness, secretly enduring

driven to such despair

them to

ounce of pain reminds me to

mouth filling with blood. She had no strength left; she was gravely injured at the B&B and was

she deliver?

baby had grown so quickly like she was carrying twins, but the doctor had said it was just excess amniotic fluid.

baby in the wrong

Whitney bit down hard, her oxygen–starved brain growing fuzzy, the world darkening as she forced

would suffocate

surged out with a rush

her child, but another surge of pain wracked her