She Was Never Just a Pretty Face novel Chapter 243

The media in Alpha City exploded.

The wife of Aegis Group's CEO was dead.

Reporters staked out the hospital all night.

Specialists sifted through the rubble until dawn but found no trace of DNA. However, they did find a small, gleaming object, which they eventually handed over to Luther.

It was the wedding ring he had given her.

A pear-shaped diamond ring, nearly ten carats.

Wiped clean of the ash, it was still blindingly brilliant.

But it had lost its mistress.

Luther looked down at the diamond ring in silence.

After a long while, he slowly lifted his eyes to the pale glow of the eastern sky.

Harrell Judson had rushed all the way from Havenworth City.

He grabbed Luther by the collar and drove a heavy punch into his face, screaming until his voice broke: "Is this your love? Letting her burn to death while nine months pregnant?! Are you even human, Luther? What the hell were you doing? Were you just playing with other women? If you didn't love her, why did you trap her? Why did you keep messing with her when she did absolutely nothing wrong except fall for you when she was young and naive? If you didn't love her, why couldn't you just let her go? Did you really have to possess her until it cost her life?!"

Luther didn't fight back.

It was raining.

He fell into the mud, his palms pressing into the dirt, looking utterly pathetic.

He clutched the ashes in his hands.

Wondering if Hilda was somewhere inside them.

Wondering if he had just let her go back then...

Would she have been happy with Harrell?

But life didn't come with "ifs."

Hilda was dead.

Burned to ashes in the fire.

No trace of her alive, no body to bury.

The incident became Alpha City's darkest open secret.

Though no remains were found, experts concluded there was zero chance of survival. They advised Luther to process the death certificate.

Unwilling to accept it, Luther brought in excavators, swearing to find even the smallest clue.

The machines dug for three days and three nights.

They practically turned the entire site upside down.

But there was nothing.

Hilda was dead. Dead in the very sanatorium Luther had meticulously built for her. Dead inside the millions he had poured into it... Gardenia had come stumbling over that day, her voice growing closer, constantly calling out for her daughter. She refused to believe her little girl was gone.

Hilda was dead.

Her funeral was exceedingly grand.

Everyone who loved her and hated her attended.

Little Annie was already old enough to understand the tragedy.

Half a year ago, her mother had suddenly disappeared.

Her father told her she was getting medical treatment.

The next time they met, there was only an empty casket and black mourning ribbons. Her mother was gone, and her unborn sibling was gone too.

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