Love beyond the mask (Whitney)



Tiana lingered near the entrance of VIP room 088, her eyes wide with concern. Before long, Cody and the senior investors were dragged out by a team of burly bodyguards, confined in the adjacent private room. Tiana's heart raced. She knew trouble was brewing.

She quickly stood, scanning the chaotic crowd for Whitney's figure. Had their plan been exposed? Cody, amidst the intimidating bodyguards, managed to sneak a glance at her. Tiana was sure he was signaling her. But before she could decipher his message, Cody was taken away! The door to VIP room 088 slammed shut from the inside. Whitney hadn't emerged.

That meant Hugh might have gotten to her. Panic set in. Tiana dared not knock on the door directly, fearing exposure. Disguising her intention, Tiana paced nervously outside. Peeking through the crack of the neighboring room's door, she saw several elderly investors and Cody being violently subdued by the bodyguards. The guards, armed and dangerous, were conducting a thorough search on them. Every investor was gagged; any resistance met with violence. The once-peaceful room was now a scene of silent brutality.

Tiana's mind raced as she retreated step by step. Whitney's plan had surely been uncovered. The bodyguards were searching for Hugh's hair among the belongings of the investors! With Whitney trapped in VIP room 088, her plan to bring down Hugh had backfired. Could Hugh, feeling cornered, decide to eliminate Whitney first?

Sweat beaded on Tiana's forehead. She had to save Whitney. But who could she turn to? Ludwik crossed her mind first. He was somewhere in the Treasure Restaurant. No... Whitney might not approve. Bryce! Yes, Bryce, Whitney's fiancé. She ducked into a corner and dialed Bryce's number- Inside VIP room 088, Hugh, with a sinister grin, had Whitney thrown to the floor. His henchmen quickly bound her with ropes, leaving her tied and helpless on the table's edge. Whitney, blood trickling from her mouth, defiantly said, "Hugh, if you dare harm me, the law won't let you off. My dad will wake up soon, and when he learns of your deeds, do you think you'll have any escape?"

Hugh scoffed at her pale face, "My dear niece, I thought you were smarter," He leaned closer, his cold gaze locked on her, "Still so naive and impulsive. What do you have now? Your father lies in a coma, and without him, who are you? The law? The Sheldon family, one of Harmonia Country's top three families, knows too many ways to evade it. Didn't I handle your father's shooting incident smoothly? Did your grandparents notice anything? If you disappear here today, I'll be rid of a future problem. And your father waking up? Without you as a thorn in my side, I believe he'll soon follow you."

"Hugh, you finally admit it. You orchestrated my father's shooting!" Whitney hissed, her eyes blazing with hatred. "He was your own brother, yet you betrayed him with his wife, maintaining an illicit affair with Holly for over twenty years, resulting in Florence, your illegitimate child. You betrayed my father, and now you plot against his company, his reputation, his wealth! He treated you with nothing but kindness, and you repay him with betrayal. Your day of reckoning will come."

Hugh's face darkened. Gripping

Whitney's chin, he sneered, "He didn't love Holly. If he couldn't keep his wife, who's to blame but himself? As for me, I did what I had to. The only good thing he ever did was fathering you, a daughter with such a sharp eye. The moment you looked at me in the hospital, I knew you'd figured out my affair with Holly. But I didn't expect you to connect me with Florence so quickly... Since you've chosen this path, don't blame me for being ruthless. Survival of the fittest. You thought to use my hair, and

Florence's, to expose us with a

paternity test, to bring us down

within the Sheldon family and the company? That day will never come."

Hugh's cold declaration hung in the air as he stood, his contemptuous gaze fixed on Whitney, "Take her to the washroom, force-feed her whiskey, then make it look like she drowned in the toilet. Tomorrow's news will say it was an accidental death by intoxication."

"Yes, Mr. Sheldon!" The bodyguard dragged Whitney by her hair across the floor. Whitney struggled fiercely, "My friend is outside. She knows my schedule today, and she'll contact the police and the media the moment something happens to me! Hugh, you can still back down. We're family, after all. I'll pretend none of this ever happened. I don't want your hair anymore! Just promise not to harm my dad, and I won't cause any trouble!" Whitney's desperate struggle was a race against time, a ploy to buy herself a moment. But Hugh was unmoved, his eyes narrowing as he pondered her words. Then his phone rang, and he answered on speaker, a smirk playing on his lips. "Riley, after a thorough search, we found none of your hair on them. Not a single strand."

Whitney's heart sank. Impossible!

She had laid several traps, with the investors' confrontation being a mere distraction. The real attempt to obtain Hugh's hair was made by Cody's bodyguard! Hugh's smirk was as cruel as it was confident, clear he thought he had

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Whitney cornered. "You're willing to gamble your own hair? You must think I'm a fool," he sneered. "I've had you pegged as a trickster from the start, my dear niece. But you're in for a disappointment. All those people you've roped into this haven't managed to secure a single strand of hair. You're so confident, clashing with me, banking on the idea that one of them succeeded, aren't you?"

Whitney was momentarily speechless, her eyes ablaze with unspoken rage, utterly out of options. In a roar of defiance, she countered, "If you kill me, do you honestly think Ludwik will let you off the hook? You might not fear the cops, but the Lippert family? That's a different story. Florence must have told you I bore Ludwik two sons! He was here, schmoozing in this very tavern not half an hour ago. I met with him!"

Internally, she was berating herself. Yet, witnessing the slight shift in Hugh's expression, she had to admit that invoking Ludwik's name was her best play in these dire moments. The Sheldon family, despite being the third most powerful in Harmonia Country, couldn't hold a candle to the Lipperts. Hugh, newly in power, couldn't afford to ignore Ludwik's influence.

But Hugh's momentary lapse was quickly masked by a cold, mocking laughter. "Dear niece, you seem to have forgotten how publicly you disowned Ludwik, mocking him no less. Oh, and Florence mentioned Ludwik would rather see you dead. Didn't you assault one of his children? Do you really think he cares whether you live or die? Tonight, your life ends here. Go join your father in hell!"

With those chilling words, Hughnovelbin

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pale

ordered his bodyguards into action, tossing three bottles of potent liquor at Whitney's feet, his eyes as merciless as the grim reaper's. Dragged into the washroom, whiskey forced down her throat, Whitney's face turned ghostly her heart struggling to beat. Was this really how it was going to end? Her eyes flickered down, Ludwik's stern face haunting her vision. Of course, he wouldn't come to her rescue. They had just had a massive argument in the hallway. Lately, everything she had done was

designed to cut him off completely. Her only hope now was that Tiana could get a message to Bryce, to think of something, anything....