?Chapter 852:


    eculiar of all, his father intended to abandon his own son’s engagement celebration, as though he were desperately avoiding the entire affair. Cole had noted that the remaining family members disyed simr peculiarities. They maintained proper deference toward him, yet something darker lurked beneath their respectful facades. Repeatedly, he had interrupted hushed conversations that died the instant he appeared. They would freeze like guilty children, their expressions suggesting unmistakable concern that he would overhear something.


    Every sign pointed toward one inescapable conclusion: something monumental had urred, something they were collectively concealing from him. But what could it be? What secret demanded such desperate protection that even he, the current family head, was being kept in the dark?


    Cole assembled these fragments in his mind before fixing Ruben with an unwavering stare. “Grandpa, are you and Dad concealing something significant from me?”


    Ruben’s body went rigid. He searched Cole’s face intently, his mind racing to formte an appropriate response. He couldn’t prate Cole’s thoughts, nor could he determine exactly what dangerous territory Cole’s question was probing. After the silence stretched taut between them, Ruben selected his words with surgical precision. “What specifically are you questioning?”


    Cole said quietly, “Grandpa, all of you are acting strangely. The look in your eyes… the way everyone downstairs reacted when I walked in. Something’s not right.”


    Ruben’s lips pressed into a thin, firm line. He said nothing. Cole wasn’t wrong. Cole was sharp, perceptive. Of course, he had noticed they were hiding something. The more they tried to hide it, the sharper his suspicion would grow. But Ruben couldn’t tell Cole that this sudden tension, this uneasy air in the house, all came down to one name—Elliana.


    “Why?” Cole asked, his tone harder now. “What are you hiding from me, Grandpa? What could be so important that I, as the current family head, have no right to know? If I’m not allowed to know what concerns this family, then what’s the point of being the head at all?”


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    Ruben exhaled softly. In that instant, he settled on a usible excuse. “It’s about Eva.”


    Cole stopped short, caught off guard. He had considered countless possibilities, but Eva was thest one he had expected. In his mind, she didn’t hold enough weight in the family to cause such a stir. Yes, he knew his grandfather and father still resented Eva, but that alone couldn’t exin why everyone was acting so oddly. Still, now that Ruben had said so, he didn’t push further.


    Ruben remarked, his voice heavy, “Your engagement to Wanda troubles me. You’ve probably heard—Eva’s marriage was a disaster. Her rtionship with Arthur is nothing but storms and fire, and it’s put the Evans and Campbell families in a precarious position.”


    Cole said nothing. He had been far too young to understand the details when Eva forced her way into marrying Arthur. And for years afterward, her name had been buried, banned from conversation. It wasn’t until his engagement to Wanda that he began to learn the truth. Now that he did, he could see the root of Ruben’s worry.


    Ruben continued, “I fear the rift between our families will only widen. I admired Arthur long before he took over Sun Group from his father. I saw the leader he would be. Thest thing the Evans family needs is an enemy as formidable as him. When your father and I disowned Eva, it was to calm him, to keep his fury from burning us all. We cast her outpletely. But your engagement threatens to stir all that up again.”


    Pausing for a beat, he added, “If Wanda were the Campbell family’s real daughter, maybe it would mend things. But she’s not. She’s an adopted girl Eva brought in without their consent.”


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