novelraw Chapter 438: Simply break all her wings and make her unable to go anywhere except by his side.
Chapter 438: Simply break all her wings and make her unable to go anywhere except by his side.
"If you have something to say, say it here," Delphine lowered her eyes and spoke softly, her voice tinged with a slight hoarseness.
The man cast a cold glance at Desmond, who stood to the side. If looks could kill, Desmond, acting as the third wheel, would have been pierced through the heart by a thousand arrows.
With an innocent baby face, Desmond shrugged helplessly, stood up, and said with a cheerful smile, "You two talk. I’ll go sit next door. Miss Delphine, if you need anything, just call."
As soon as Desmond left, the atmosphere froze instantly.
Ignatius Leclair stared at the woman who had been avoiding him for three days. His sharp, cold face carried a faint smirk as he suppressed his anger. "How much longer are you going to keep this up, Delphine Carter? Since Chinese New Year’s Eve last year, you’ve been stirring trouble. On the eighth, you schemed against me, against Melody Cloud, and now you avoid me entirely. Do you think I’m a man you can take or toss away at will?"
"You’re mistaken, Ignatius," she said with an indifferent gaze and a soft, raspy voice. "The relationship between us has always been one of benefactor and beneficiary. When I first came to your estate, I was lost and alone, and I depended on you. Last year, when I returned to Nanyang, penniless and desperate, I leaned on you again. But now, I have my father, I have a family, and I can no longer bring myself to act so shamelessly."
"Someday, Ignatius, you’ll marry and have children. Constantly keeping a mistress isn’t something your future wife would be pleased to discover," she said lightly, as if it were only an afterthought.
With every word she spoke, Ignatius’s anger burned brighter, his fingers trembling faintly in fury.
"Are you serious about this?" The man asked, pausing between each word.
Delphine nodded.
Ignatius responded with a cold laugh, his sharp eyes dark as ink. She was always this stubborn, this naive—and yet, that’s exactly what drew him to her. He loved seeing her cold indifference toward him, loved the way she scorned him yet was forced to rely on him. A mere Melody Cloud, no matter how much international fame she had garnered over the years, was still just one person. How could she possibly contend with the deep-rooted power of a family like his? It was like comparing a lone, seemingly robust tree to a centuries-old one, its roots sprawling endlessly beneath the mountain.
"If that’s the case, I won’t insist." He contained all of his emotions and delivered his verdict in measured, icy words. "This past year, although you were lifeless in bed, I suppose it was still some effort on your part. From now on, if you face any troubles, I’ll grant you three favors." With that, he spun around and left.
Delphine turned pale, her hand gripping a glass, her entire body trembling visibly.
From start to finish, Desmond had been eavesdropping with great relish. Shaking his head in the end, he muttered to himself about how absurdly emotionally unintelligent these people were—frighteningly so, dooming them to be alone forever.
"Delphine, let’s go," the baby-faced man said with a bright smile. "Coming to Nanyang was absolutely the right decision. Without these clueless and emotionally stunted men, how else could my brilliance possibly shine?"
Once inside his car, Ignatius’s expression turned icy, exuding a solemn aura that warned strangers to stay away.
"Look up that Desmond Wood. Within thirty minutes, I want every detail of his life from birth until now," he commanded coldly.
The driver, Maximilian, didn’t dare make a sound as he hurriedly arranged for someone to investigate. Over the past few days, the third brother had been even more unlucky than him, sleepless for three days and nights trying every possible means to get Miss Delphine out of the lawsuit.
"Tell the third brother to drop the lawsuit preparations," Ignatius suddenly added.
What? Maximilian was stunned.
Ignatius’s sharp eyes betrayed no emotion. Delphine Carter—he had indulged her far too much. So much so that she had the audacity to plot her escape. Since that was the case, he would simply clip her wings, leaving her with nowhere to go but by his side.