2024-08-21 09:43:49As Alex approached the house entrance, Sophia noticed that Alex
was behind her."Haven’t you had enough?"
"Believe me," Alex replied, "running into you is the last thing I wanted today."
Sophia stepped out, blocking his path.
"So, what is it then? Are you here to remind me of the biggest mistake of my life?"
"Mistake?" Alex’s tone grew colder.
"I could say the same. You think I enjoyed waking up and realizing I’d wasted my time with someone so shallow?"
"Shallow?" Sophia’s eyes flashed with anger.
"You’re just bitter because you know I’m right. You’re nothing but a loser, a gold-digger."
Alex laughed, shaking his head.
"You’re delusional. I don’t need anything from you, least of your money."
Sophia stepped even closer, her finger jabbing the air between them.
"Then what do you want? To ruin my life even more?"
"No, I’m not here to ruin anything." Alex locked his eyes with hers. "I’m meeting my fiancée."
"Your fiancée? You have a fiancée?" Sophia shocked.
"I’m here to meet someone named Sophia Lancaster at this address," Alex’s patience wearing thin.
"I’m not looking for you. So, if you can help me out, call her, and I’ll leave as soon as possible."
WTF?!
Sophia paused, her expression shifting from shock to realization.
"Wait... you're here for that Sophia Lancaster?"
Alex coldly replied.
"Yes! Can you please just get her? I don't have time for games."
Sophia bit her lip, trying to mask the confusion swirling inside her.
"There’s no need to call anyone. I’m... I’m Sophia Lancaster."
They stood there, staring at each other in stunned silence.
Just then, a voice called out from inside the mansion.
"Alexander Leonhart!"
An old man stepped out, his face lighting up with a wide smile.
"Master told me you would come today! What are you doing out there?"
"Grandfather," Sophia called.
The old man, Abraham Lancaster, turned towards them, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
He looked between them, his smile growing even wider as if he had been waiting for this moment.
"So, you've met Alex, your fiancé. It’s great to know you both know each other."
Sophia quickly interjected, "We are not—"
"Call your parents, Sophia," Abraham said, cutting her off.
"Gather everyone in the Great Hall. I have an announcement. You both are going to get married today."
Sophia stood, shocked.
"Finally, my long-held wish can be fulfilled today," Abraham’s voice trembled with happiness.
He walked over to Alex, his hand reaching out to grasp Alex’s.
"Come, let’s go to the Great Hall. You’ll meet your in-laws."
Sophia watched them walk away, disbelief and anger surging through her.
She had lost her virginity to that man, and now she was supposed to lose her future too.
"This can't be happening!"
She had dreamed of an extraordinary fiancé, someone worthy, someone heroic, not any rubbish!
Instead, she was now being handed to a man she could have picked off the street.
As CEO of Lancaster Group, known for her beauty and bright future, how could she marry such a man?
What would people think?
"No," she decided. "I'll stop this marriage, no matter the cost."
***
In the Great Hall, Abraham guided Alex to an honored seat.
"How is Master?"
"Still healthy after a hundred years," Alex replied.
"You’re young, successful, and humble. I’m fortunate to have a grandson-in-law like you. Sophia is a good person; please give her a chance to get to know you better."
Alex nodded politely, but he doubt the possibility.
Sophia didn’t look like she wanted the chance.
"Wonderful, wonderf—" Abraham laugh joyfully.
However, just then, an angry voice cut in.
"Are you insane?! Sophia cannot marry him!"
Lady Lancaster, Abraham's wife, angrily stormed into the Great Hall.
She was flanked by their two sons and two daughters-in-law, with Sophia trailing behind them.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 706
The Commander walked Rael Rydell out of the Knight Office himself. Dawn light cut across the steps. Six knights formed a corridor of white tabards. Rael’s legs were still splinted. He moved like a man who had already won.“We will see you home,” the Commander said.Rael smiled with blood still dried in the corner of his mouth. “You should. And Febyella will be returned tomorrow morning. Clean. Unharmed. As agreed.”The Commander did not answer. He only nodded to the waiting flyer. When the vehicle lifted and cleared the courtyard wall, the Commander turned, tile already at his ear.“I have sent him home. Exactly as instructed.”Beatrix’s voice came back flat. “Thank you. We take it from here.”Rael laughed the entire flight. The sound bounced off the flyer’s glass. Fifty million. That was the number. She would hand it over, or the girl stayed buried.He had the city by the throat again. The knights had folded. The chairman’s people had folded. Everyone folded eventually.The flyer set
Chapter 705
The knock came at nine, and it wasn't a knock. It was the front doors of Rydell House hitting the wall hard enough to crack a hinge.Rael was in the study with the ledgers. He heard boots on the entry marble — eight men, maybe ten, moving in the drilled rhythm that meant warrant. Four seconds to decide who he was going to be.He chose grief.By the time the first knight reached the study door, he was on his feet, dressing gown half-tied, face already arranged. "What in the name of the Nine—" He let his voice crack. "Is it Febyella? Have you found her? Tell me you've found her.""Rael Rydell." The Commander himself, gauntlets on, holding a folded warrant like something he didn't want to touch. "You're under arrest.""Arrest." He said the word like it was foreign to him. Behind the knights, his mother appeared in her nightclothes, one hand pressed to the wall beneath the portraits — four generations of Rydells in oil and gilt, all of them watching. "My niece is missing, Commander. I rep
Chapter 704
They came for Alex at dawn. Six knights of the City Watch, a warrant tile glowing official blue, and a broad-shouldered sergeant who read the charge loud enough for every neighbor on the stairwell to hear it."Alexander Leonhart. Provisional registrant. You are detained on suspicion of the abduction of Febyella Steinmeyer."Alex knew those shoulders. One week ago they had marched Feby out of a Knight Station lobby, her heels scraping tile, while an inspector buried the alley case behind them. Now the same man stood on his doorstep, performing justice for an audience.Near the back stood Dax — the young knight who had biometricked Alex into existence on his first night in this world. Dax stared at the floor. He couldn't look at the man he'd given a name to. He knew what this was.For one second, something moved behind Alex's eyes. The sergeant's hand drifted toward his baton. Then it was gone — filed, shelved — and what remained was a man in yesterday's coat studying six armed knights
Chapter 703
Across the city, Alex sat at the small table in his flat. His tea had gone cold. A magic book lay open in front of him.All morning, he had been thinking about his decision. And every way he looked at it, the answer seemed right: he should leave her.The engagement was only on paper. It was never real love.And every day he stayed, he hurt her more. Or hurt himself for lying to her.He had secretly paid 50 million dollars and arranged everything so she would be accepted and protected.She didn't know. Last night on the tram, she almost guessed it. He lied to her face, with a smile — and she believed him.That scared him. He was becoming a good liar. He didn't want to become that kind of person.So he made his list of reasons: She was safe now. She was rich. The contracts he wrote protected her. She didn't need him anymore. They were just strangers — a kind woman helped a stranger once, the stranger paid her back, and now everything was even.He repeated this to himself, again and agai
Chapter 702
"Are you the chairman of the Reagent Group?"The tram hummed. Amber rail light crossed his face — once, twice. Feby watched him the way she'd learned to watch her family: for the flicker. The skipped beat. The seam.Alex laughed.Not a performed laugh. A real one, low and easy, and it reached his eyes — and that was what cracked her certainty.Five years cataloguing liars, and not one of them had ever laughed like that."Feby." He turned to face her. "Three weeks ago I didn't legally exist. You fixed that. You, personally."He drew out his identity tile, the battered gray one, and laid it flat on his palm. Nothing up my sleeve. "Issued twenty-two days ago. Provisional class. Guaranteed by the signature of one Febyella Steinmeyer, because no bank in this city would touch a man with no past. I can't open an account without your name under mine. I couldn't rent our flat. The chairman of the Reagent Group is a sealed registry, a vault, a hundred lawyers deep."He tipped the tile toward he
Chapter 701
Rael was mid-toast when the Reagent seal came through the doors.The hall saw the gray livery before it saw the man. Four hundred people rose by inches — him, it's him, the chairman — and the orchestra scrambled for its fanfare.Then the room registered, in one long deflating rustle, that what had entered was a lawyer.Mr. Harrow walked to the foot of the stage without being invited. He opened his case on a table a waiter surrendered to him and spoke at the volume of a man who had learned that quiet reading forces a room to do its own listening."By instruction of the chairman of the Reagent Group, received this evening. Notice of termination." He lifted a single page. "The engagement for the launch campaign of the Reagent Group's forthcoming product line is hereby cancelled. Whole and entire. Effective upon this reading."The silence was total. Even the enchanted constellations seemed to slow.Marta reached the stage's edge in four steps. "Cancelled? On what grounds? We are partners.
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Reader Comments
but he doubted the possibility
good novel
like seriously