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 reduced to ashes, all the secrets would die with Whitney

others?” Elaine snapped, her eyes flashing with malice as she spun the

the B&B, she was greeted by a scene of carnage, with several of her men

blood from his eyes as he pointed toward the back road from the B&B. “She took a scalpel

fury. “Don’t just stand there. Gather

glanced nervously around the room and commanded, “And

cursing the resilient woman who dared

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 killing

seat. She could no longer feel her baby moving; if she did

road was pitch

men, like relentless predators, were surely

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

a cold light, and the sharp, salty sea breeze cut through the

still within

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

desperate head pressing down, fighting for life.

opened her legs,

Chapter 237

the night, unanswered as if swallowed

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

would be driven

led them to this

reminds me to

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

she deliver?

The baby had grown so quickly like she was carrying twins,

baby in the

hard, her oxygen–starved brain growing fuzzy, the world darkening as she forced herself to stay awake.

would suffocate otherwise.

surged out with

child, but another surge of pain wracked her