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,

say is considered right, and you're never wrong. Whatever you do is forgiven-it's

the mattress,

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

folded in on herself, forehead pressed to her

the dam burst, ragged sobs

1/3

Chapter 242

hadn't wept when the company teetered on

a tear through humiliation, bruises, even

now she drowned in tears she'd never

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

singular devotion

now... he was gone, footsteps fading

blindness, the

even if she called Alex now and laid everything bare, he'd brush it

a fraction more-I would've shown him I'd changed," she whispered into the

hourglass was

of a rattling cab, Alex let out a

he muttered, "and none of this would've

like a pack of

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

hinted that she might truly care, and that

the end, however, her affection proved nothing more than a

yourself.

whispered, with sorrow

***

Kane Villa, Bella sat sunk

her gaze

strode in,

asked, eyes scanning her with anxious

"Yes," Bella replied softly.

room?" Jericho pressed. "No more parties, no more dancing through the night?" Bella inhaled

Why are you still here?

twitched with irony. "You know I lost my

a rare moment of vulnerability, Bella's

can you

with paternal warmth as he drew her into

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

Jericho muttered, a pang of guilt surfacing in his chest as he recalled endless days consumed by

2/3