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

the Lancaster family,

say is considered right, and you're never wrong. Whatever

motionless on the mattress, her gaze hollow

after the first tear tracked across her cheek, after the tremor set

she folded in on herself,

dam burst, ragged sobs ripping

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Chapter 242

hadn't wept when the company

a tear through

she drowned in tears she'd

suitors queued for miles, yet none had loved her with Alex's fierce, selfless

devotion

now... he was gone, footsteps fading beyond

at her own blindness, the

Alex now and laid

heartbeat longer-loved me a fraction more-I would've shown him I'd changed," she

hourglass was

the back of a rattling cab, Alex let out a heavy

from Sophia," he muttered, "and none of

around him like

for all their flirtations and flowery promises, not a single one of them

hinted that she might truly care, and that faint hope was why he lingered

than a mirage,

lying to yourself. This is the

with sorrow and

***

few days later, at Kane Villa, Bella sat sunk

gaze distant

strode in, his

he asked, eyes scanning her with

"Yes," Bella replied softly.

through the night?" Bella inhaled deeply before letting out a sigh

you, Dad? Why are you still here? Usually you never

lost my

moment of

can you

warmth as he drew her

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

a pang of guilt surfacing in his chest as he recalled endless days consumed by political

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