The Almighty Dominance

Chapter 242

"Pardon me, folks-out of the room, now. The patient needs quiet if she's going to heal."

The nurse herded them into the corridor, her heels clicking like a judge's gavel announcing adjournment.

Instead of dispersing, they clustered beneath the fluorescent lights still reeling from the bombshell that had just gone off in their lives.

"Can you believe it? Alex, of all people, is the Lancaster Group's silent bankroll!" Jack's uncle whispered, voice rough with intrigue.

"Think the guy's hiding some secret pedigree?"

"Alex?" Florence scoffed.

"I dug through every record-he's a nobody. Sure, he did a stint in the military, which makes him tough enough to hit Bella, but besides that he's an orphan with empty pockets."

Heads nodded; the story was too tidy to question.

One of the family suddenly asked, "Why are all of you looking down on Alex?"

"Looking down on him?" Florence laughed.

"Impossible. We simply don't care about him. We're not heartless. We don't prejudge people. Even if he's poor, we can't look down on him, right?"

"Yeah," another added.

"He came here to marry Sophia with nothing but the clothes on his back. He's just a poor guy without anything. We're going to do whatever it takes to keep him out of our family."

Once they labeled someone poor, there was no hope.

He would be forever marked unfit, never trusted; every mistake would be laid at

He was guilty-simply because he was poor.

his feet.

"Then there's Charles Kingston," someone murmured. "Didn't see that curveball coming."

Florence rolled her eyes. "Charles is drunk on love for Sophia-lying, scheming, anything to lock down her heart."

"Honestly," another relative chimed in, "a guy who torches his own reputation for love? That's the kind you hitch yourself to forever!"

"Take notes, people! He dumped Bella Kane flat-for Sophia, our Sophia. She ought to be thanking her lucky stars."

In a dizzying U-turn, the crowd vaulted Charles from villain to folk hero.

still, nearly everyone applauded the

Lancaster family, there

right, and you're never wrong.

the room, Sophia perched motionless on the mattress, her gaze

tear tracked across her cheek, after the tremor set

in on herself, forehead pressed

the dam burst, ragged

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Chapter 242

the company teetered

tear through humiliation, bruises,

in

a headline-making CEO, suitors queued for miles, yet none had

singular devotion set him

was gone, footsteps fading

at her own blindness, the epiphany arriving

called Alex now and laid everything bare, he'd brush it off as

a heartbeat longer-loved me a fraction more-I would've shown

the hourglass was

rattling cab,

of faith from Sophia," he

reputation, women swarmed around him like a pack of treasure hunters stumbling upon the

their flirtations and flowery promises, not a single

kindness hinted that she might truly care,

affection proved nothing more than a mirage, vanishing the instant he

to yourself. This is the

whispered, with

***

Villa, Bella sat sunk

her gaze distant and

in, his shoulders

he asked, eyes

"Yes," Bella replied softly.

up in your room?" Jericho pressed. "No more parties, no more dancing through the night?" Bella inhaled deeply before letting out a sigh that seemed to bear the weight of

Dad? Why are you still here?

"You know I lost my position as governor. I've got nothing

moment of vulnerability, Bella's

you hug

paternal warmth as he drew her into his

chest, her words barely above a breath, "It's been

in his chest as he recalled

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