Chapter 765
It was a wildly inappropriate and intimate thing to say to a stranger.
Dane’s brow furrowed in deep disgust.
Claire found the pathetic attempt at manipulation almost amusing. Did Cindy honestly think pointing that out would make him throw the antique away in disgust?
For one, Dane wasn’t even the one using it-his grandfather was, and the old man couldn’t care less.
More importantly, Pandora had sewn the rare agarwood core inside an entirely different, mundane pillow.
The outer casing Cindy had drooled on for years had been stripped and tossed long before the sale was ever made.
Registering Dane’s freezing indifference, a wave of bitter injustice washed over Cindy.
That pillow had belonged to her! Claire had sold it out from under her and pocketed the cash, leaving her with absolutely nothing.
That was millions of dollars!
If she were actually Latham’s legitimate heir, she might have been annoyed, but she wouldn’t be obsessing over the money.
The agonizing reality was that she was nothing but a bastard child now.
She had been avoiding Wade’s calls, fully aware that a suburban doctor could never offer her the lavish lifestyle she had been promised at The James Family estate. Wade would probably never see a million dollars in his entire lifetime.
What could a man like that possibly provide for her?
She had already quietly done her digging-Wade had a wife and kids of his own.
If he divorced his wife, his modest assets would be slashed in half.
Even if he worshipped the ground she walked on out of sheer guilt, the inheritance he could leave her was practically pocket change.
The thought made her physically nauseous. A suffocating wave of despair crashed over her as she realized she had let millions slip through her fingers simply because she hadn’t recognized the pillow’s true value.
Seeing Cindy planted in their way like a stubborn roadblock, Claire finally lost her patience. “We’re busy. We’re leaving.”
The takeout they brought for her aunt was going to get cold, and she wasn’t about to let this nuisance ruin it.
“Are you really not going to see him?” Cindy asked, her eyes instinctively darting back to Dane. “He misses you.”
“Then he can keep missing me. I’m busy,” Claire shot back, utterly devoid of sympathy.
Resentment boiled in Cindy’s chest, but before she could launch into another guilt trip, Claire grabbed Dane’s arm and steered him straight toward the elevators.
Cindy took a step to chase after them, but her phone suddenly vibrated in her purse. “Fine, I’m on my way.”
It was Wade.
He had just found out about Octavia’s arrest.
Panicked for Cindy’s safety, he had been obsessively calling to check in on her.
Cindy despised it. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, even if he was her biological father.
His very existence was a suffocating, constant reminder of her dirty bloodline.
She wasn’t the purebred heiress she had believed herself to be.
Her entire life, her superiority, her pride-it was all a pathetic joke.
But with Latham entirely consumed by his crumbling empire and her mother locked away, no one was looking out for her.
If she completely alienated Wade now, she ran the risk of being abandoned by both sides.
“Cindy,” Wade’s voice echoed from down the street.
He had booked a private dining
room at a quiet restaurant justet
around the corner from the hospital
།
ensuring they wouldn’t be seen
together.
FindNovel.net
He was pacing nervously by the entrance. The moment he spotted her dragging her
feet toward him, his shoulders sagged in immense relief.
“You finally made it.”
Cindy plastered on a painfully
flawless, apologetic expression. I’m
so sorry, Wade. There was no one my brother at the hospital
watching
sol got delayed.”
FindNovel.net
“You have such a good heart,” Wade murmured, his chest aching for the daughter
he had been forced to hide.
The moment she had been brought back into the city, he had desperately wanted to claim her.
But Octavia had brutally shut him down.
He knew deep down that growing up in The James Family’s mansion was a far
better life for her than anything he could provide.
So he swallowed his pride and stayed away.
But the tables had completely turned.
Latham was drowning in debt and scandal. Staying chained to that sinking ship was
no longer a safe bet for his little girl.
“Did you need to see me about something specific?”
Cindy asked, her skin crawling with visceral discomfort.
She had absolutely nothing to say to this man.
All she wanted was for him to spit out whatever pathetic reassurance he had prepared so she could end this humiliating meeting and get the hell out of there.