Love Beyond the Mask

Chapter 144

The man gazed out the window, his deep profile turning as his fingers twitched restlessly through his

thick eyebrows.

Ive spoiled her rotten, and now she’s overstepping! Such pettiness!” Ludwik’s voice was tinged with

anger, ice

cold.

“Orion’s back from abroad, Elaine’s attempted to take her own life, and I can’t afford to alienate the

Bartels family. At a time like this, when I’m surrounded by enemies, I thought she’d be smart and sharp,

but she just could not bear Elaine.”

Parker caught the disappointment in his voice, frowning as he said, “Given Whitney’s EQ, she wouldn’t

fight with you over Elaine’s incident. Could there be something else?”

Ludwik paused, then shook his head.

Elaine was the very reason for their argument in the room.

But Whitney had been acting out of character today. When she woke from her nightmare, she pleaded

with him not to touch her; her emotions were running high, and her gaze at him was inscrutable.

She had never looked at him like that before. When they first met, she was timid around him. As they

got to know each other, she became demure with a bit of sass but never so distant.

“By the end of it, she asked me if I knew her grandfather,” Ludwik said, his brows locked in a frown.

“Her grandfather, Faulkner Tennyson? Ludwik, you had your clashes with him…” Parker’s expression

shifted slightly.

Ludwik, however, remained stoic. “Just the usual business rivalry. The Tennyson family was set up. I

witnessed that accident back then; I never thought her uncle would survive.”

Parker had heard about Ludwik’s encounter with Whitney’s uncle today. “Did her uncle say something

to upset her? Is she questioning you about what happened to the Tennyson family back then?”

Shaking his head, Ludwik replied, “They don’t even know who I am now. Besides, if they have a

grudge, it should be with the Valentine family.”

“You’ll have to wait until after she’s had the baby to explain your beef with Skye Gem, right?” Parker

gestured

towards Ludwik’s mask.

Ludwik nodded, continuing to brood over his drink, his face as cold as ever, piecing together the puzzle

· Whitney was just harping on Elaine’s return to Banyan City.

On this death anniversary, heavy snow blanketed the entire city.

The chill was bone–piercing, devoid of any warmth.

Whitney had been ill for days, her fever refusing to break. Pregnant, she could not take any medication,

resorting only to acupuncture at specific safe points.

It brought no relief. Tiana watched her face flushed with fever, her breath shallow, and burst out, tears

threatening to fall. “Whitney! You can’t go on like this!”

What on earth had happened to her? For two days, it was as if her soul had been drained, and she

would not speak a word.

It was clear she was in agony.

Tiana followed in her car as the vehicle ahead zigzagged up to the cemetery on Valentine Mansion’s

hill.

Parking at the foot of the hill, Tiana guessed perhaps the anniversary of her mother’s passing had

come, and

Whitney was overwhelmed with grief.

Whitney walked in a daze to the large tree in the cemetery.

Her uncle was already there, shoveling snow from the graves of her mother and grandfather with great

difficulty from his wheelchair.

Carefully, Whitney took the shovel from him and said, “Uncle, let me clear the snow.”

“You’re here,” said Keegan, refusing her help as he glanced at the swell beneath her coat. Looking

back at the gravestones, a stubborn chill filled his eyes. “You can’t do this, Whitney. You don’t even

have the right to kneel. Carrying Ludwik’s child, I doubt mom and grandad have found peace.”

Whitney stiffened, the snow around her less chilling than the desolation in her heart, doused by her

uncle’s icy words.

He had condemned her.

Staring at her suddenly pale face, Keegan leaned over from his wheelchair, wiping the gravestone. “To

let them have peace, we must seek vengeance and reclaim what belongs to the Tennyson family!”

Keegan grasped Whitney’s hand, plotting step by step. “I’ve thought it through. You said Ludwik trusts

you in the company? For now, don’t leave him. Stay by his side; be my insider. I’ve prepared for a long

time; the bigger the corporation, the easier it is to topple, only if you’re willing to help me!”

Whitney’s face stiffened. She had thought her uncle wanted her to break with Ludwik immediately and

plot their revenge another way.

But now, her uncle saw her as a sheath, a convenient blade to be concealed by Ludwik’s side.

Her heart felt punctured, panic mixing with pain, and she instinctively cradled her head, “Uncle, I…”

“You can’t refuse. Look at the gravestones. Look at me, looking barely like a human. Does our suffering

count for nothing against your private emotions?”

Keegan’s eyes hid schemes, his face etched with sorrow.

Whitney found herself speechless.

“Take your time to think, and when you’re ready, arrange a meeting with Ludwik,” Keegan said, his

eyes dark with cunning as he gripped her cold hand tightly.

He left her there.

Whitney stood like a forsaken spirit in the icy wilderness in front of the gravestones, her mother and

grandfather’s smiling faces causing her unbearable pain.

She had always wanted to avenge her mother and grandfather. If it were the Valentine family, she

would not

hesitate.

But why him? Why did it have to be him?

“Whitney, the snow’s getting heavier. Have you lost your mind?” Tiana called out, holding an umbrella

as she approached. Seeing Whitney’s tear–streaked face, she asked with concern, “What did your

uncle say to you to make you cry like this? What’s wrong? Can’t you talk to me?”

The pain in Whitney’s heart was sharp and raw, yet she could not utter a word.

Watching her unsteady stance, Tiana cursed under her breath and steadied her. “Damn it. Your fever

has not broken! Come with me to the hospital!”

At the hospital, Whitney shook her head. “I’ll just grab some herbs for an herbal bath. I can’t take

anything else.* “I go register. Please give me the list of herbs, and don’t you move from here. Wait for

me,” Tiana said, guiding Whitney to a chair.

Whitney did not sit. Dizzy and congested, her face burning with fever, she leaned against the window

sill and stepped into the hospital’s garden for air

Looking up, she saw a familiar figure.

Across the garden, down the corridor, a man cradled Elaine in his arms, heading toward her.

Their eyes met, and Ludwik’s hawkish gaze beneath the mask briefly stiffened.

Whitney stood there, her fever–flushed face slowly turning ghostly pale, her gaze sharp with pain.

“Bro… What’s wrong?” Elaine weakly lifted her head from his chest to glimpse at Whitney. Her face

was deathly pale as she flinched, “Is that Whitney?”

Her hand, which was draped around his neck, tightened instinctively.

Ludwik, however, was fixated on Whitney’s frail little face, unnaturally flushed with fever, her lips a stark

contrast in their pallor. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes were bloodshot.

What on earth had happened to her?

He was about to transfer Elaine to the wheelchair when, suddenly, she slumped towards the floor.

Ludwik had no choice but to hold her tight as Elaine burrowed into his embrace.

“I’m sorry, Bro, there are so many men around… I’m afraid…” Elaine’s gaze darted at the men walking Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

down the corridor, her eyes filled with aversion.

Ludwik’s brows knitted together in concern, holding her close as his heavy gaze shifted back to

Whitney.

Just as he was about to approach, his lips parted to speak…

Whitney suddenly withdrew her icy stare, a mocking and self–deprecating smile curling at her lips. All

her inner turmoil and agony hardened into a bone–chilling coldness in that instant.

She had fallen for this man, but what was she to him?

While she was lost in excruciating pain, he was devotedly attending to Elaine.

Perhaps he saw her as nothing more than a trophy of conquest, kept hidden, toyed with at his leisure.

Her uncle was right in his scathing words–she had placed too much weight on a laughable infatuation!