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.
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Chapter 728
The nearest guard had barely closed a hand around Alex's arm before Jennifer was between them, and the guard found himself suddenly very interested in looking at anything else."Take your hand off him." Jennifer didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to.The Warden badge at her collar did most of the work for her. "Or you can explain to your employer why a mere security had to intervene at his own daughter's guest.""This doesn't concern the Wardens." David stepped in close, chin up, playing to the room he'd already gathered. "This is a Calder household matter. An unregistered outsider, causing a disturbance—""He hasn't raised his voice once tonight. You have." Jennifer's eyes cut to him, flat and unimpressed."I've been standing right here. I watched you dig up gossip about a man's beast and go looking for a fight you didn't get. That's not a disturbance. That's you, losing gracelessly, and trying to make security clean it up for you.""You're defending him now?" David's mouth curl
Chapter 727
"Wait!"David's voice cracked on the word, urgency spilling past whatever composure he'd meant to keep. He caught up in three long strides, positioning himself square in their path."You think I'm finished." He looked past Wren, straight at Alex now, all pretense of subtlety gone."What rank is that hound of yours, really? I've heard whispers it's a random street dog."His eyes swept over Alex's plain clothes, deliberately, cruelly slow. "And what family raised you, exactly? Because I don't see one wealthy enough to sit across from a Calder heir at dinner, let alone stand beside her at a banquet like this."His mouth twisted. "We both know what this really is. You found a rich, lonely woman, and you're living soft off her pity. Eating from her hand like a man with no pride left to speak of."Alex didn't look angry. If anything, he looked faintly amused, the way a man looks at a joke that's landed badly for the person telling it."Living well because a woman's rich is its own kind of s
Chapter 726
"Actually." Alex hadn't moved, but something in his voice made both of them stop. "Change the terms."Jerome raised an eyebrow, delighted already. "Oh? Are you afraid?""No, I will make it better for you." Alex's face gave away nothing. "If I lose, I never meet Jennifer again. That's the stake."Silence. Then Jerome's grin split wide open — this was better than what he'd offered, and he knew it."Done," he said, before Jennifer could get a word out. "Gladly. Let’s fight now!""Then I surrender." Alex said it flat, no ceremony to it at all. "It is a good fight. I lose."For a moment nobody moved. Grim's ears had come up, waiting for a fight that had just stopped existing before it started."You—" Jerome blinked, caught somewhere between confusion and the beginning of triumph. Then triumph won. "You're conceding. Without even trying."He laughed, loud enough to turn heads across the yard. "I knew it. One look at Ashgard and you knew exactly what you were facing. Finally."“Yeah,” Alex n
Chapter 725
The second round took longer than the first. Cost more, too.By the time Alex pulled the last needle free, the sky outside had gone from black to thin grey.Vesper's breathing slowed, steadied.His eyes opened and tracked the room until they found Wren — the way a bond always finds the person it trusts most — and something in that huge head finally let go."He's stable." Alex sat back on his heels. His arms had stopped being reliable ten minutes ago. "Not going anywhere."Nobody cheered this time. The relief came out quiet, worn thin by what it cost to get here.Wren stayed until the staff checked Vesper twice over. Then she caught Alex at the gate before he could slip out."You're not just walking out of here." Not a request. A fact. "House Calder owes you. Twice now. A thank-you doesn't cover that.""It's fine—""It's not." She pressed something cold into his hand before he could argue — a signet, House Calder's mark stamped into old silver. "That gets you through any Calder gate, a
Chapter 724
The roar hit the battle like a fist closing around it.Men froze mid-swing. A blade an inch from a Warden's throat stopped dead — the man holding it had already stopped believing in the fight."That's not possible." Someone near the gate said it out loud, like saying it might undo what he'd just heard. "That thing was supposed to be dead by morning."It wasn't dead. It was awake. Furious. And every man who'd come expecting an easy kill understood, all at once, exactly how badly the math had just changed."Retreat!" The order cracked from somewhere near the back. "Fall back — now!"Nobody argued. The line that had been pushing through the broken gate reversed itself just as fast — men breaking off mid-fight, abandoning ground they'd bled for twenty minutes ago without a second thought.That kind of retreat only happens when the fear gets bigger than the shame of running.Jennifer wasn't about to let all of them get away clean.She caught the slowest one at the treeline — broad-shoulder
Chapter 723
Jennifer reached the east wall first, boots skidding through gravel still settling from whatever had hit it."Hold!" Her hand shot up before she'd finished crossing the yard. "Crown Wardens! Stand down, we talk this through before anyone bleeds for it!"For one breath, it almost worked. The shapes past the broken gate slowed.Then a voice cracked back, mocking. "Wardens siding with Calder now? Since when do you take a house's coin to guard its lies?""Nobody's taking anyone's coin—""They poisoned their own beast and blamed us for it! And you're protecting the ones who did it!"That was all it took. Someone threw first — Jennifer never saw who — and after that there was nothing left to argue, only a fight nobody had wanted five seconds ago and everybody was in now.Steel met steel. A beast screamed past the treeline. The gate gave up the last of its resistance, and men poured through.Inside, none of it had reached the office yet. Just sound, muffled through stone, closer every second
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Reader Comments
but he doubted the possibility
good novel
like seriously