Love Beyond the Mask

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She trembled with unprecedented rage at the sight of Ashton, her fingers quivering with fury. “It’s all

because you’re blind and foolish, siding with the devil, supporting Elaine’s lies! To hell with all three of

you! I was blind to give everything to marry a scoundrel like you. I regret it!”

“What… What did you say?” Ashton frowned, taken aback by her vitriolic outburst. He had never seen

her this angry before.

“Ludwik!” Valerie cried uncontrollably. “You have no idea what Whitney went through in that sanatorium.

Last night, she finally escaped, intending to find you. Why were you so conveniently not in Banyan City

at that critical moment? Can’t you see what’s happening?”

She was consumed with hatred on behalf of Whitney and Tiana. Tiana was now ruined, her

whereabouts unknown, likely hiding, and terrified.

And Whitney, oh, Whitney…

Valerie covered her face and ran out, filled with despair.

At the entrance, Parker arrived late, his seductive, tired eyes barely concealed by his glasses.

Nolan was furious. “Where the hell were you last night? Ludwik’s child was born prematurely, and

Whitney abandoned the baby and fled. We don’t know if she’s lost at sea or has escaped! Elaine

claims it was a conspiracy between Whitney and Tiana, and now Ludwik is broken.”

Parker paused, glancing toward the ward.

“Tiana tried to set up Elaine by hiring thugs, only to be humiliated by them. Now she’s hiding

somewhere, her reputation in tatters by morning.”

Parker’s frown deepened. That bubbly girl?

“Where were you last night?” Nolan demanded again.

Parker averted his eyes, the heat in them fading as he said, “I didn’t mean to be absent, but you know

how it is in the underworld, always in trouble. I was ambushed last night and nearly killed, saved by a

woman.”

He had risked his life, and now he feared he had brought disaster upon that woman.

When he woke up this morning, she was gone.

Parker did not want things to end up this way, regretting the unexpected loss of his innocence, but he

knew he had to take responsibility. Thus, he turned and ordered his subordinate, “Keep looking for that

woman.”

Nolan understood but refrained from teasing Parker, urging him to enter the ward. Parker was always

able to get through to Ludwik.

“Ludwik?” Parker called out to the man sitting there, pale and cold as a statue. In one night, Ludwik

seemed to have changed, his calm exterior hiding a chilling distance.

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“Ludwik, I’ve heard the details from Felix. There are a few things you should consider.

First, why did your company face trouble last night? I heard you planned to take Elaine to the South,

but she claimed she had stomach pains and didn’t go.

And coincidentally, Whitney teamed up with Tiana to frame Elaine, escaping the sanatorium to

‘rescue‘ Bryce?

Don’t you think it’s all too convenient?”

Ludwik’s eyes lifted slowly, his gaze piercingly cold. “Didn’t you tell me some time ago that you

personally checked on my mother’s transplant surgery at the nephrology department and found nothing

suspicious?”

“I only did a preliminary investigation of that surgery.”

“Last night, Whitney and Tiana schemed and found a girl to falsely accuse Elaine of a sham kidney

donation, and Ashton confirmed Elaine indeed has one kidney after a physical exam. When you

checked the nephrology department, did you encounter Tiana or Whitney?”

Parker hesitated, recalling Tiana. He was impartial. “Indeed, I saw Ms. Melford at TriMed Hospital that

day, leaving Dr. Horatio‘ office. She was probably investigating the transplant surgery or Elaine.”

Ludwik snorted coldly, his gaze becoming indifferent. “I don’t think so. She went to the hospital to find a

girl selling organs, already planning to frame Elaine by then.”

Parker remained silent, unable to refute, remembering Tiana’s evasive response when he asked her

about her visit to the hospital.

Ludwik’s eyes turned to the incubator, his fists tightening with a creak. “Felix, send the word out.

Boycott the Melford family.”

“Ludwik, Whitney is still missing. She might have really fallen into the sea. There could be more to this

story.”

“Anyone else who speaks for that woman, I shall show no mercy!”

Parker frowned but persisted. “Ludwik, I know you’re deeply hurt, but even if Whitney is heartless, she

left you this child. Consider the child’s sake, if not hers.”

Ludwik sneered. His icy heart and frosty expression seemed to solidify into impenetrable ice.

“No, she didn’t leave me the child. She abandoned it. She didn’t want it! Parker, you’ll never understand

how I feel. It’s like I’m already dead inside.”

His eyes were like a bottomless abyssal, and his hatred was perhaps just as deep.

Elaine listened outside, feeling triumphant. She turned and confidently made a call, her head held high.

“Ludwik has ordered a boycott of the Melford family. You know how to help it along, right? Jaxon, take

more compromising photos of Tiana. Threaten her–if she speaks out, her

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parents will pay with their lives. Spin her story, turn her into the rat everyone despises!”

With this, Tiana’s ‘evidence‘ would not be a worry anymore.

Days later, news came from Emperor City that no woman had been caught attempting to rescue Bryce.

Felix reported to Ludwik with a heavy heart, “Mr. Lippert, it seems Ms. Valentine didn’t attempt a

rescue. Was Elaine mistaken, or was it a rumor? Perhaps Ms. Valentine really did fall into the sea. We NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

need to intensify the search in the waters.”

The flash of divine insight, lasting but a mere second, was enough for Ludwik to picture another child,

so tiny, being cast into the ocean’s vastness, and from then on, no ripple could stir his

heart.

With a tired, cold smirk, he muttered, “Then it will be a companion burial. When I find my child, I’ll give

him a proper send–off.”

A month later, the coast guard captain, whose loyalty Elaine had bought, covertly informed her, “Ms.

Bartels, two incomplete bodies have been found near the coral reefs–one adult and one infant.”

Elaine’s eyes sparkled with a nearly joyous light, relieved that the ordeal was finally settled, certain now

that Whitney was indeed dead. She promptly transferred a hefty sum to the captain, instructing him to

doctor the report to only the discovery of an infant.

When Ludwik received the news, it was met with nothing but a scoff, his heart as cold as ice. He had

lain alone on the ocean floor for a month, and his mother had indeed cruelly discarded him and moved

on.

He rushed to the morgue to claim the pitiful tiny body, covering his long, damp eyes as he sat alone in

the chilling silence for a day. Later, he would lay the child to rest in Banyan City’s most prestigious

cemetery.

Afterward, the name Whitney was erased overnight from Banyan City, disappearing without a

trace.

No one dared to utter that name in the presence of Mr. Lippert – the woman who was the business

prodigy, who had scandalously married two of Banyan City’s most formidable men within a year, whose

actions led to Bryce’s misfortune. Her scandals, much like the city’s relentless downpours, ceased

abruptly, leaving no trace as if they had vanished with the first light of dawn.

Elaine firmly secured her position as the future Mrs. Lippert, her victory absolute. Whitney was dead,

and she had led Ludwik to believe Whitney had escaped alive, embedding hatred in his bones.

She had thought that after the initial guilt, Ludwik would come to loathe the child as an

extension of his resentment. But she had underestimated how deeply ingrained the child was in

Ludwik’s heart.