The Billionaire's True Heiress From Fake Jewel to Real Crown novel Chapter 1718

"I think I ate way too much," Claire groaned, rubbing her slightly bloated stomach.

Between the lack of sleep and the adrenaline, her diet had been completely chaotic over the past few days.

While the cafeteria food at Dewitt's mining camp was decent, she had only managed to eat one or two actual meals there.

Once they initiated the emergency extraction, they had survived on whatever scraps they could find in the armored cars.

Furthermore, foreign ingredients always sat a little heavily in her stomach.

If she forced herself to eat the local cuisine, she usually felt nauseous.

But since they hadn't packed tactical rations, she hadn't had a choice.

"Nonsense, you should eat more."

Padgett watched her with aching fondness. The poor girl had definitely lost weight during her deployment.

During the holidays, Claire had finally managed to put on a few healthy pounds.

But thanks to this brutal, high-stakes mission, all that progress was gone.

Between the stress and the sleep deprivation, she had easily dropped four or five pounds.

Padgett wasn't the only one who noticed; Dane's eyes were dark with concern.

He frowned sharply. "For the next month, I am personally managing your diet. We're getting that weight back on."

Initially, Padgett had harbored some serious resentment toward Dane for aggressively pursuing his young granddaughter.

But seeing the ruthless, obsessive care Dane provided, that resentment had slowly evaporated.

He was gradually accepting the young billionaire as his future grandson-in-law.

Besides, the arrogant kid had already announced to the entire elite circle that Claire was his fiancée. Even if Padgett wanted to execute him, the damage was done.

And since Claire genuinely seemed to adore the guy, tearing them apart now would just cause unnecessary heartbreak.

Padgett would never admit it out loud, but aside from his own grandsons, Dane was the most lethal, brilliant heir of his generation.

If Dane wasn't good enough, Padgett had no idea who would be.

Victoria, sitting across the table, smiled warmly at Dane's flawless performance.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify