Love Beyond the Mask by Adelaide Sinclair

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Chapter 105
The assistant peered down at the photograph of Whitney, and her hands trembled ever so slightly. She lifted her eyes to Elaine,
knowing this was no laughing matter.
Clearly, Elaine had been plotting this for a long time. Despite her young age, it was terrifying how cunning and
malicious she was
Elaine leaned back into her leather chair, gazing out the window at the cars scurrying like ants below. A sly smirk crept across
her face. “Time to spring Whitney from her gilded cage,” she said.
“Check on the schedule for the doctor who’s attending to Mr. Lippert’s mother in her cottage retreat. Find out when he’s off–duty,”
Elaine commanded.
The assistant quickly responded, flipping through her notes with practiced ease.
Elaine chuckled lowly, a sinister plan clearly forming in her mind. “And get me a burner phone,” she added.
As per routine, Taryn delivered meals to Whitney on the sixth day. Natalie’s villa was nestled behind the golf course, a fair
distance from the main manor.
It was a considerate gesture from Mr. Lippert, who wanted his mother to convalesce in peace, the forest air rich with oxygen.
But now, with Whitney confined by Ludwik and Natalie oblivious to her plight, the help from both households remained unaware
of each other’s affairs.
Today, the day the doctor was off–duty, Xandra had been reassigned to fill in.
Around noon, with her health seemingly stable, Natalie retired upstairs and received an unexpected call from an unknown
number that reeked of telemarketing.
She answered the phone with her usual warmth. “Hello?”
“Natalie!” The sing–song voice of Elaine carried through the line, its sweetness veiling malice.

In a flash, it ignited something in Natalie’s memory–a warning signal, an echo of danger, telling her that this was the voice of a
venomous snake and that she should stay away from it. She stiffened. “Elaine, what can I do for you?”
Elaine’s voice was dripping with feigned innocence. “Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to ask why you dislike me so. Why have you
made Ludwik hold off marrying me? He’s indifferent to everyone else; he could marry anyone. You’re quite the thorn in my side,
you know? Why are you afraid of me? Could it be because of the time I pushed the girl who liked Ludwik...”
“Ah!” Natalie could not grasp the details, only that this girl was a source of terror. No, she was no girl. She was a scorpion. What
had she done? Natalie could not remember, but her head throbbed with pain and fear, an urgent need to escape this
conversation...
Natalie gasped for breath, her chest tight, her complexion fading to an ashen hue.

Elaine listened silently as the old lady fell ill, then hung up the phone with a cruel twist of her lips.
She instructed the assistant, “Natálie is going to have an episode. Keep an eye on the cottage. Once chaos ensues, Whitney will
get wind of it.”
Sure enough, as Natalie’s illness acted out, the cottage descended into disarray. Xandra scrambled to contact Ludwik, but his
phone went unanswered–likely tied up in a meeting. It was office hours, after all!
Confusion reigned. Natalie had been improving and eating every meal well. Why this sudden epileptic relapse? Xandra could not
understand it.
With no doctor present and staff overwhelmed, a housemaid rushed to the main house for help.
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Chapter 105
Taryn had just served Whitney when the landline shrilled from below. She dashed to answer it, leaving the upstairs bedroom door
ajar.
Moving with a deliberate slowness, Whitney stepped out of her room, overhearing Taryn’s panicked voice. “The matriarch is ill?
No doctor? Is she foaming at the mouth?”
“What’s wrong with Mom?” Whitney’s eyes narrowed with concern.
Taryn spun around. “Madam, I must check on the situation at the cottage. Please stay put.”
“Let me see her. If Mom’s foaming at the mouth, it’s no small matter.” Whitney swiftly pocketed a needle kit from her room,
concealing it within her clothes.
Taryn ushered her onto the e–bike without a second thought and drove toward the cottage.
As dusk approached, the sky grew overcast. Whitney dashed into the cottage. This was her second visit, and she was very
familiar with the place, heading straight into Natalie’s room.
Inside, chaos reigned, and the nurses were too afraid to intervene. Whitney ordered everyone out. “Stay outside. I know some
first aid.”
They complied, leaving Whitney to shut the door behind them.
Natalie’s face was pallid, her body spasming. Whitney, recalling some basic emergency procedures, swiftly administered the
needle, targeting the acupuncture points. Then, she carefully fed Natalie a sedative pill, one her mother had crafted.

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After half an hour, Natalie’s spasms ceased, and her complexion stabilized.
Whitney knew she had bought some time, though she was unfamiliar with the specific medical details. She continued with the
acupuncture, coupling it with a respirator, until Natalie drifted into a tranquil sleep.
Once Whitney was sure the crisis was averted, she called the nurse back in.
“When will the doctor arrive?” She asked.
“He’s been notified. Should be here in an hour or so.”

Whitney let out a sigh of relief and stepped outside. The lawn was deserted, and everyone’s attention was fixed on Natalie’s
condition upstairs.
She eyed the silent expanse of the estate. Behind the cottage lay a path leading to an exit, the keys still in the e–bike’s ignition.
After six days of confinement, perhaps longing for fresh air or perhaps driven by an innate survival instinct, Whitney saw her
chance.
The next moment, she jumped onto the e–bike.
She had to get out, to go anywhere, just to escape the confines of the mansion.
As the e–bike sped away, the security detail inside the gates realized Whitney had vanished.
Panic ensued. It was clear Whitney had fled through the back exit. Taryn, ashen–faced, immediately redialed Ludwik.
That moment, Ludwik had just concluded a lengthy meeting and was on the way back from the company’s north district office to
downtown./
The news on the phone hit him like a one–two punch: his mother was ill, and his wife had taken advantage of the commotion to
escape. His gaze turned to ice.
Elaine swung her long legs as she sat, a devilish glee in her eyes. “Where has Whitney fled to?”
“She’s likely headed to her best friend, Tiana Melford’s place,” Elaine’s assistant murmured, handing over a map
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Chapter 105
with Tiana’s residence clearly marked.
Elaine’s gare held a venomous gleam. It’s getting dark. I remember there’s a construction site on that route. Herd her there and
let that guy take action. I want her dead tonight! Ludwik’s busy up north; even if he gets the call, he’d check on his mother first.
Whitney’s escape will only infuriate him... He won’t go after her.”
The assistant was already coordinating the trap over several phone calls.
Elaine’s heart pounded with anticipation, a sinister smile playing on her lips as she awaited the outcome.
Whitney’s e–bike was no match for the main highway, and a traffic cop stopped her at the intersection, still a good distance from
Tiana’s place.
She felt like she had been cooped up for ages, emerging without a dime to her name, her cell phone confiscated.
The night was a heavy blanket of gloom, the fog thick and suffocating as if dampening the very depths of her
eyes.
Truth be told, she never intended to run away; she just sought refuge at Tiana’s, a safe haven. She knew L would come looking
for her, but at Tiana’s, he could not just barge in; she could call the cops.
That bastard... To instill such fear in her. In fact, when she heard Nolan’s words at the dinner party, her heart nearly softened,
But his constant misunderstandings, even grounding her–how could any relationship survive that?
When they met again, it might just be to clear the air and then break up.
Even the thought of those two words brought an unexpected pang of reluctance, a subtle ache in Whitney’s
heart.
She blinked her trembling lashes as a passerby pulled out a phone and asked, “Are you going to keep waiting?”