Chapter 833
Chapter 832:
The elevator doors parted like theater curtains, and Milton escorted Elliana into the corridor beyond.
A towering, distinguished figure awaited their arrival. His refined, aristocratic features wore an expression of raw anticipation and barely contained longing. It was Arthur. He had maintained this post since receiving Milton’s call, burning with the need to be the very first sight that would greet his daughter’s eyes upon her homecoming.
The moment that tall, striking figure came into view, Elliana froze mid-step. Milton also halted, but refrained from speaking, giving father and daughter the space to take each other in.
Elliana’s lashes fluttered as her gaze swept over Arthur, tracing him from head to toe. Milton hadn’t needed to say his name. She knew instantly. This was their father.
A surge of longing rose within her, the urge to breathe out the word “Dad” nearly overwhelming. Yet, when her lips parted, no sound emerged.
That word had been locked away for years, buried beneath the weight of Darin’s cold cruelty, stripped of its warmth and turned into something distant and almost dangerous. She wasn’t used to calling anyone by that name, and a part of her still resisted it.
Even knowing the man before her was her father, even feeling the certainty of his love, the syllable refused to pass her lips. The inability left her quietly frustrated, tinged with guilt she could neither shake nor fix. Follow current novᴇls on.net
For all her steel, for all the fear her name inspired as the Death Thorn of the Delta, she had no armor against this. When it came to family, her hands were empty and her heart unsure.
This was the shadow that had trailed her since childhood, like a wound carved deep into her heart that wouldn’t fully close. Time might dull its ache, but complete healing felt uncertain, perhaps impossible.
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Arthur’s reaction mirrored Elliana’s. His eyes roamed over her, and he needed no prompting from Milton. One look was enough. He knew, without a doubt, that the young woman before him was his daughter.
She carried her mother’s eyes, luminous and clear. Her features echoed his own so strongly that if anyone dared claim otherwise, he would defend the truth without a second thought.
Here she was, the daughter he had yearned to locate for over two decades, the one who had haunted his dreams and driven him across the world in search of her. He loved her more fiercely than his own life. In his dreams, he had always promised her the best of everything he had to give.
And yet, as she stood before him now, words failed him. The name he longed to speak caught in his throat, tangled in the swell of emotion. His lips parted, but no sound escaped, only the silent tremor of a love too vast for words.
Elliana’s silence was born of unfamiliarity; his of overwhelming love.
To Arthur, the word “daughter” had always been sacred. It was a title no one could diminish, a jewel kept close to his heart.
Here stood Arthur, the man who had commanded boardrooms and conquered family disputes with unshakable authority, now rendered as uncertain as a boy. Before his daughter, his strength dissolved into a quiet, rigid tension.
He yearned to reach out, to offer warmth, but his body stayed locked, his lips refusing to move. All he could do was look at her, a thousand emotions crashing through him like a wild river, while his outward expression remained carefully composed.
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