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.

nearly everyone

Lancaster family, there was

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

the mattress,

the first tear tracked across her cheek, after the

she folded in on herself, forehead pressed to her

ragged sobs ripping

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Chapter 242

when the

shed a tear through humiliation, bruises,

now now she drowned in tears she'd never

suitors queued for miles, yet

singular devotion set him

now... he was gone, footsteps fading

blindness, the epiphany arriving

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

me a fraction

hourglass was

back of a rattling cab,

ounce of faith from Sophia," he muttered,

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

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

might truly care, and

end, however, her affection proved nothing more than a

lying to yourself. This is

whispered, with sorrow

***

days later, at Kane Villa, Bella sat sunk into the plush cushions of

gaze distant and

strode in, his

okay?" he asked, eyes scanning her with anxious

"Yes," Bella replied softly.

dancing through the night?" Bella inhaled deeply before letting out a sigh that seemed to bear the weight

you, Dad? Why are you still

mouth twitched with irony. "You know I lost my position as governor. I've got nothing

moment of vulnerability, Bella's voice

you hug

warmth as he drew her into

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

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

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