Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

Chapter 390

It was 4 A.M. when Ashton stumbled home from another late-night networking event, slightly tipsy and all over Valerie, only to be interrupted halfway through their intimacy...

His phone erupted with the sound of an incoming call from Elaine.

Without hesitation, Ashton picked it up. Immediately, Elaine's voice, weak and tearful, filled the room. "Ashton, please, you have to protect me. Ludwik's got it all wrong. You're the only one I can turn to now..."

Ashton paused, his gaze still filled with desire as he looked down at Valerie beneath him. But the call was a clear interruption, and he rolled off, urgency taking over.

Valerie watched the ceiling with a hollow laugh, her smile laced with sarcasm, cold and bitter.

As Ashton hurriedly put on his shirt, trying to calm Elaine on the phone, Valerie's pale, delicate arm snatched the phone from his grasp and hurled it across the room!

"What the hell, Valerie?" Ashton turned, his imposing figure outlined with anger, a hint of rage in his sharp features.

Valerie chuckled dryly, reflecting on the years of their marriage, tired of being caught in Ashton's whirlwind. She could never openly support her friend Whitney in the face of Elaine's manipulations, always overshadowed by Ashton's blind loyalty to Elaine, whom he defended unconditionally. "Why won't you just divorce me if you're so obsessed with her?" Valerie's voice was cold, filled with years of pent-up frustration.

helicopter after a sudden emergency. After hours of

that Elaine had vanished, but

head to the Fuller Mansion," Ludwik decided, his voice devoid

Ludwik and

this, Ludwik?" Ashton's voice trembled under

the mood for games," Ludwik cut him off.

was unmoved, revealing the shocking accusation

Ludwik was determined, his past naivety replaced with a resolve to

point, revealing the deep fractures and deceptions

tears, "Ludwik's got it all wrong. Whatever his mother said, it might not even be true. Is Ludwik really gonna take me away now? Ashton, please, you have to protect me..." She turned to Ashton as her last hope, while Ludwik

so innocent, but he hadn't noticed how skillfully she'd been playing her

side, facing off with Ludwik

Everything's still up in the air.

word is the proof. I'm settling this today! Are you

"I won't!"

belt, stepped over the garden fence, and pressed it against