?Chapter 1721:


    Gillian locked eyes with Alban’s frost-cold stare, and a sharp rush of dread surged through her.


    Her lips parted instinctively, an apology forming—but before a sound could escape, she saw him move. Fast. Dangerously fast. She didn’t even have time to gasp before he flipped her beneath him, forcing her wrists down and pinning them with an iron grip.


    “W-what are you doing?” Gillian demanded, her voice quivering, terror etched tightly across her face.


    Alban looked like a predatory beast, his presence savage enough to make her pulse thunder wildly. She understood all too well that to men of his standing, she was nothing more than disposable—something that could be erased without consequence.


    But she couldn’t die. She had to live, for Adide, for her future.


    Staring into his merciless expression, Gillian’s heart hammered violently. Was he about to kill her in a burst of fury? Regret flooded her mind, sharp and bitter, for the p she had delivered without thinking. Against someone like him, she had no chance—she would be crushed without mercy.


    “Y-you… I’m warning you—don’t touch me. I work for the Jones family…” Her words tumbled out in panic as she clung desperately to the hope that the family’s name might give him pause. There was nothing else left to grasp at.


    Alban remained wordless. Gillian opened her mouth again, but before another syble could escape, his lips came down on hers, cutting her offpletely.


    Her eyes flew open in pure shock.


    Had he lost his mind? He had actually kissed her.


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    He didn’t pull away immediately, lingering against her mouth and discovering a sweetness he hadn’t expected. The sensation tugged at something buried deep within him—oddly familiar, though he couldn’t say why.


    Reality mmed back into Gillian, and she thrashed fiercely beneath him. It was useless. Her strength was nothingpared to his. Left with no alternative, she sank her teeth into his lip with all the force she could manage.


    “Ouch—” Alban hissed sharply, the sting drawing his brows together.


    His gaze turned cial once more, fixing on her like a predator poised to consume its prey.


    Gillian went still with fear, biting down on her own lower lip to stop herself from sobbing. She wanted to cry—but she didn’t dare. The moment dragged her back to a night long ago, a night with a stranger, a mistake that should never have happened. She had never seen his face clearly, yet the scent surrounding her now felt disturbingly familiar, echoing something of Alban’s presence.


    For an instant, his features ovepped with the hazy memory burned into her past.


    Her body shuddered faintly. They couldn’t be the same man.


    If Alban truly were that stranger, then he would be Adide’s biological father. Gillian prayed desperately that it wasn’t so. If he ever learned Adide existed, he might take her away—or erase them both entirely. A noble family like the Martels would never tolerate a stain on their lineage. They would never allow a woman from the slums to have borne Alban’s child.


    The more her thoughts spiraled, the deeper her terror grew, her body trembling uncontrobly. Had it not been for the fear of being cast into the ocean and left for sharks, she might have already lost consciousness. She clung to awareness with everything she had.


    She had to survive for Adide. No matter what.


    Alban watched her tremble beneath him, her face stripped bare of everything but fear, and an unfamiliar ache tightened in his chest—as though something unseen had closed around his heart. A flicker of sympathy surfaced, unexpected and unwee. His brows drew together in quiet confusion.


    How could he feel pity for her? She had manipted him without hesitation, wing her way upward through society by any means necessary.


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