Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

Chapter 240
In the neonatal ward of the hospital, Ludwik paced the sterile hallway for what felt like an eternity, unsure how he managed to
endure the agonizing hours outside the operating room.
His eyes were bloodshot, his fingers stained with the remnants of one cigarette after another as he chain–smoked, waiting for
any news.
Ashton and Nolan had also arrived in a rush, their expressions grim.
Soon, the corridor swelled with an influx of people, including police officers.
Voices swirled around him, recounting the night’s harrowing events. Elaine’s fragile sobs echoed against the walls, her body
marred by bruises and cuts.
The director of the sanatorium said, “Around seven this evening, a girl disguised as a nurse broke into the sanatorium, drugged
many of our staff with sedatives, and kidnapped Ms. Valentine. I was terrified and tried to contact you immediately, but your
phone was unreachable. I wanted to show you the hospital’s security footage, but the signal was jammed. With no other option, I
reached out to Elaine to come to the sanatorium and figure out what to do.”
“But before I could get there, Tiana abducted me!” Elaine interjected, her voice laced with distress. “She and Whitney were both
in the car. They bound me and took me to a B&B. It turns out Whitney was the mastermind behind the plan, instructing Tiana to
find a kidney donor at the hospital. They wanted to frame me for a fake organ donation to Natalie, manufacturing evidence to
turn you against me, Ludwik. Their aim was likely to make it seem as though I intended to harm her child, securing Whitney’s
release from the sanatorium so she could go rescue Bryce.”
At the mention of Bryce, a flicker of life sparked in Ludwik’s otherwise vacant gaze.
Elaine knew words alone carried little weight and produced two pieces of evidence. “Ludwik, I had Jaxon dig up this–Tiana
bought two plane tickets to Emperor City tonight.”
Ludwik studied the ticket confirmations, signed by Tiana, for a flight at eight o’clock. Finally, a sardonic laugh escaped him.
She had escaped and was now desperate to save her lover.

“They intended to deal with me first, fabricate evidence, and slander me to you. But at the B&B, they, that girl, and the hired
thugs couldn’t agree on a price, and a conflict erupted. Ludwik, Whitney is more deranged than you can imagine. She actually
ordered the thugs to...”
Seemingly too fearful to continue, Elaine made a slashing gesture across her throat.
Ludwik frowned deeply, incredulous. Ms. Valentine could not even bear to kill a chicken at his villa!
“Everything was so chaotic. I was tied up when Whitney and Tiana set the B&B ablaze to erase all traces. Fortunately, Jaxon
arrived in time to save me! My throat was injured, but I was still
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worried about Whitney’s premature birth. Knowing how much you value your children, I
followed Jaxon here. We found the baby, but Whitney was nowhere to be seen, and who knows what happened with Tiana and
those thugs.”
She clasped two medical reports, one confirming her throat injury from the fire. The other was a health checkup.
“Ludwik, to prove my innocence, I just had an examination confirming that I truly only have one kidney left. Whitney’s
misunderstanding of me led her to this madness and attempt to frame me.”

“She’s getting her just deserts. That woman is venomous. The schemes she and her best friend concocted are just malicious,
even resorting to murder and arson, not to mention abandoning her child!” Ashton scoffed with disdain. “Ludwik, there’s no need
for doubt. I was with Elaine during her medical examination; she has only one kidney. Plus, around nine, she indeed called me
for help, saying she was trapped in a B&B. Check the call log!”
Exhausted, Ludwik pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes and heart felt dead. “Felix, send someone to Bryce’s interrogation
facility in Emperor City. Wait for her there.”
“Mr. Lippert, I think we need to find Tiana Melford to confirm all of this,” Felix cautiously added.
Elaine’s eyes cooled slightly, her voice even and calm, “Ludwik, since it appears to be my word against theirs, perhaps it would
be best if you confronted Ms. Melford directly.”
Ludwik shook his head. “With proof of your throat injury and the marks on your wrists from being bound, it’s clear Whitney
couldn’t stand being confined to the sanatorium. Desperate to save Bryce, she tried to use you as a bargaining chip by framing
you!”
He sneered bitterly, haunted by the memory of blood from another child’s fall from a cliff, a stain that washed over his hatred time
and again. He remembered how that woman made countless excuses in the sanatorium, claiming Elaine was out to get her,
pleading with him to let her go.
His belief was firm; because he had her confined, she would use the premature birth of their child as revenge against him. He
was done with talk of love and hate; it was a desecration. He loathed her to his very marrow.
“Find Tiana,” he said coldly. “Someone must be punished to quell the hatred in my heart.”
Felix shivered, uncertain whether to pursue Ms. Melford any further.

Elaine’s lips curled up in a hidden smirk, pleased with her successful counter–strike tonight.
The child was Ludwik’s Achilles‘ heel, and Whitney had no evidence to defend herself. As for Tiana, Elaine had countless ways
to silence her.
Despite searching all night, Felix found no sign of Tiana.
But at dawn, a sensational news story overtook the headlines in Banyan City: The Melford
Chapter 240
heiress was raped and humiliated in a club after her hired thugs turned on her, with explicit photos leaked online!
Felix’s heart skipped a beat as he opened the photos, only to be confronted with the disturbing images of Tiana being humiliated
by various men. Her face twisted in pain, her cries and struggles heartbreaking, her clothes torn to reveal bruises and wounds–a
testament to the nightmare she had endured.
He rushed to the Melford estate to confront them, but they, too, claimed ignorance about their daughter’s whereabouts. Tiana’s
mother wailed, clueless about the source of the leaked photos.
As he left the Melford estate, he bumped into Valerie, who had been waiting anxiously all night. Valerie joined Felix in rushing to
the hospital.
Inside the OR, the newborn baby had been fighting for life through the night and was finally wheeled out by the doctors, out of
immediate danger.
Ludwik’s patience had worn thin, his energy depleted, and in his cold gaze, there was only room for his surviving son.
He couldn’t hold him. Due to premature birth, his son was barely 1.9 pounds. Perhaps if he had stayed in the warmth and safety
of the womb a few more days, he might have made it to two pounds.
Maybe if he hadn’t been discarded in the biting chill of the wind, left beneath the harsh clatter of the mill wheel, he wouldn’t be
clinging to life by such a precarious thread...
Ludwik stood there, a silent, icy sentinel, separated by the glass of the incubator, treating his cigarettes as a lifeline.
Valerie was roaring in his ear, her words like a tempest he refused to hear.

“Mr. Lippert, believe me! It’s not the slick tale Elaine’s spun. She struck while Whitney was lost at sea, while Tiana was left
shattered and accused. Elaine’s the culprit, pretending to be the victim! We had the proof that she was behind your mother’s
condition, but Elaine found it and destroyed all the evidence. Now, there’s no one to testify,
Poor Whitney, she must’ve been in such despair to leap into the ocean. She didn’t run away; if you’d talked to her, you’d know
she never thought of saving Bryce. She was devoted to you, and you repaid her by locking her away, freezing her out...”
“I don’t care who you are. If you don’t want to end up in a world of hurt, get out now. My son needs peace.” Ludwik’s voice was
as unyielding as granite.
Ashton came over to pull her away with displeasure. “Valerie, what are you still doing here, stirring up trouble? I know you’re
Whitney’s best friend, so you’d say anything to defend her, but Elaine’s the victim of their cruel plot. She’s endured so much
suffering.”
He was cut off mid–sentence as Valerie, overtaken by rage, whipped her hand across his stoic face with a resounding slap!