She Was Never Just a Pretty Face novel Chapter 214

Lori gave a crisp nod.

She was brimming with questions but knew better than to ask.

As the private jet prepped for takeoff, Luther, clad in a sleek black suit beneath a tailored wool overcoat, descended the stairs and walked across the tarmac. His driver was already waiting, pulling the door open as he approached. Luther slid into the back seat, his voice devoid of emotion. "Take me to Mercy West Hospital."

...

An hour later, the car glided to a halt outside the hospital.

It was a place Luther had visited many times before.

Winter days were short, and the sky had already begun to darken into twilight.

He walked up to the VIP ward, his steps completely silent. He didn't alert the staff. Instead, he simply stood outside the glass doors of the private room, looking in.

The man inside was no longer lying perfectly still.

Harrell was awake. He sat heavily in a plush armchair by the window, drowning in an oversized hospital gown that highlighted his severe weight loss. Sitting opposite him was his former assistant, Sebastian. Harrell was giving rapid-fire instructions, occasionally pausing to cough violently, his hand pressed hard against his chest as if the effort was tearing him apart.

The man standing outside the glass watched with icy, unfathomable eyes.

No one understood a man quite like another man.

Especially when they were cousins who shared the same blood.

No one knew Harrell was awake.

Not even Hilda.

Harrell was biding his time, playing dead. Knowing him as well as he did, Luther deduced the exact plan: Harrell was preparing to steal Hilda and the kids and vanish to a foreign country. He was already laying the groundwork.

*Look at him,* Luther thought. *My blood. My cousin.*

He was a rival who could never be underestimated.

After a long moment of observation, Luther turned and vanished as quietly as he had arrived.

Late into the night.

Hilda woke up in a sprawling bed.

She sat up, pressing a hand to her temple. Her head felt thick and foggy, and she couldn't remember when she had fallen asleep.

It took a few moments for her to recognize her surroundings. She was at Silverlake Villa.

—The home they had shared as newlyweds.

"You're awake?"

The room was pitch black save for the moonlight spilling through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting long, menacing shadows from the trees outside. It felt as though the night itself was pressing in on the glass.

Luther stood there, entirely dressed in black, looking overwhelmingly dominant.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify