Chapter 244
"Where'd those two men go? One left. The other left too." She tilted her head, her tone mocking. "What happened? They don't want you anymore? Or did you not 'serve' them well enough? Lost interest?"
Lucinda frowned but didn't turn around.
Her gaze remained fixed on the shop across the street. Her tone was flat. "Do you need something?"
"Not really. I just wanted to see how you're doing." Allegra took half a step closer, her voice dropping lower. "You're supposed to be so capable, right? Playing two men at once? What now—cover's blown, huh? Neither of them wants you anymore!"
Lucinda didn't even blink. She looked at Allegra the way someone might look at a cricket chirping its last before winter.
That indifference pushed Allegra over the edge.
She jabbed a finger at Lucinda's face and spat, "Let me tell you something! No matter how high you climb, you can't change the fact that you're trash from the sticks! You'll never have anything good in your life! Not only are you cheap, you shamelessly scammed money from that old hag in the nursing home! You conned her entire inheritance—aren't you afraid you'll drop dead for it?"
At the words "old hag", Lucinda's hands, buried in her pockets, clenched into fists.
The air pressure around her plummeted.
The cold fury in her eyes could have frozen the air solid.
Allegra didn't notice. She glanced down at the muddy soil the rain had churned up in the flower bed below the steps. She crouched, grabbed a fistful of wet, filthy dirt, and stood up again, teeth bared.
Then she hurled it at Lucinda's designer coat.
"You bitch! Once the Wipere family makes it big with this land, once we're rich again, I'm going to make you die screaming! I'll make you kneel in front of me and eat dirt!"
She flung the mud and cackled at the sight of the stains spreading across Lucinda's coat. Then she spun around to run.
But before she could take a second step, a shadow flashed.
Lucinda moved with terrifying speed. Her hand shot out and clamped down on the back of Allegra's skull.
"Let go of me!" Allegra shrieked in terror.
Lucinda's expression turned savage. She grabbed a fistful of Allegra's hair and slammed her head into the wall.
The dull thud of bone meeting stone echoed through the empty corridor, followed by Allegra's agonized scream.
Lucinda loomed over her, pinning her down.
The coldness in her beautiful eyes was gone. In its place was towering rage.
"Insult me, and I'll treat it like a rabid dog barking. I don't argue with animals."
Lucinda's voice was low and lethal. "But you should never, 'ever' have used that filthy mouth of yours to say one word about my grandmother."
Her grandmother was her breaking point.
The one warmth in this world she would die to protect.
"What… what are you going to do? Let me go! My dad won't let you get away with this!" Allegra's whole body shook as she clawed at the wall, struggling.
A slap rang out—so hard it left Allegra's head ringing and her vision black.
Lucinda didn't stop. She gripped Allegra's throat with one hand and raised the other, bringing it down again and again, mercilessly striking Allegra's face.
"Help! She's killing me!"
The sharp crack of each slap echoed through the corridor.
Lucinda's wrist flew in a blur. Slap after slap after slap—more than a dozen.
Under the sheer force, Allegra's screams weakened into pitiful whimpers.
Her face swelled into a grotesque mess. Her lip split. She looked utterly wrecked.
"This slap is for my grandmother."
"This one's to teach you what respect for elders means."
"And this one's for that filthy mouth that spews nothing but garbage!"
Lucinda's expression was vicious. With one final shove, she hurled Allegra's mangled form onto the ground.
Allegra collapsed into the mud, her body convulsing violently.
The Lucinda standing over her… was no country bumpkin.
She was a devil.
"Stop! You bitch, stop right now!"
A shrill scream tore through the air. Gemma came running.
The moment she saw her precious daughter bloodied and beaten, she lost it.
She lunged at Lucinda, fingers clawed, aiming straight for her face.
Just before Gemma could reach her, a dark figure blocked her path.
Reginald had returned.
He stood half a step in front of Lucinda, positioned squarely between her and Gemma.
He didn't even spare Gemma a glance. He simply extended one arm and pulled Lucinda firmly into his chest.
With a single sweep of his hand, a powerful force sent Gemma stumbling backward several steps.
"Anyone who interferes while my fiancée is teaching someone a lesson will regret it."
Reginald stood on the steps, his face dark and menacing.
Gemma, still reeling, and Preston, who had just arrived, froze the moment they met Reginald's gaze. Their blood turned to ice.
They went pale, rooted to the spot, too terrified to move.
Fiancé?
When did this country bumpkin, this nobody, get such a terrifying fiancé?
Allegra, still seeing stars, heard the word 'fiancée' and felt like her chest was going to explode.
A man this handsome, this commanding, this clearly powerful—was Lucinda's 'fiancé'?
Why? How?
She, Allegra, considered herself a daughter of high society, and yet here she was, eating dirt. How could Lucinda have all this?
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed from inside the hall.
Reginald's assistant, Aiden, appeared, leading a group of black-suited bodyguards. His expression was grim as he strode over.
Preston, who'd been frozen in fear, suddenly lit up when he saw Aiden.
Aiden!
The legendary top-tier assistant known nationwide—even globally!
In Starlight City, Aiden could walk into any billionaire's party, any first-tier family's banquet, with his head held high. Countless elites would kill for a chance to meet him and fail.
The Wiperes used to not even qualify to request an audience with Aiden.