?Chapter 1272:


    Dirty. Everything felt dirty.


    Downstairs, William stood still as a statue before the tall windows.


    The afternoon sun cast soft gold across the floor, but he remained unmoved, his figure swallowed by shadow. He tugged at his cor, trying to ease the suffocating tightness pressing against his chest.


    No matter how he tried to steady his breath, he could still hear her faint sobs echoing upstairs—fragile, broken sounds that slipped through hisposure and dug deep under his skin.


    For a fleeting moment, William wondered if he had gone too far.


    The thought barely formed before he crushed it to dust.


    Too far?


    Hadn’t Ste crossed that line first?


    He was merely returning what she had given him—nothing more, nothing less. She deserved it. Every single bit of it.


    He repeated the thought again and again until his mind dulled under the weight of it, the silence around him stretching endlessly.


    Time crawled—slow, suffocating—until the screech of tires shattered it like ss. Then came the pounding of hurried footsteps outside, sharp and frantic.


    William’s frown deepened, his eyes snapping toward the entrance, cold and alert.


    Momentster, the doorbell red through the vi—shrill, insistent, like a funeral bell.


    His face darkened instantly. He already knew who hade. Who else would find him this quickly, storming in without hesitation? Only her friends.


    After a long, tense pause, he turned and walked toward the door, his expressionposed, movements deliberate, as if there was nothing to hide.


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    He opened it without hurry, letting them in.


    Steven and Sharon stepped through first, tension radiating off them, while Josie followed close behind, her face pale with worry.


    What William hadn’t expected was to see Luca enterst, his expression grim, eyes heavy with disapproval.


    Steven was the first to speak, his tone urgent. “William, is Ste here? What did you do to her?”


    Sharon shoved past him, anger zing in her eyes. “Have youpletely lost it? You dragged her out of her own wedding in front of everyone! That’s kidnapping! I know she’s here—let her go, right now!”


    William stood his ground a few steps away, his mouth curling into a cold, derisive smile. “This is my house. I don’t answer to anyone here. Whether Ste is with me or not—what business is it of yours?”


    Sharon’s fury boiled over. “William, be rational for once! She—”


    “She what?” William’s voice sliced through the room, his tone sharp as a de. His gaze locked onto Sharon, eyes cial and merciless. “When I was lying half-dead, she ran back to her old lover without a second thought. She even nned a grand wedding to unt it. That was her betrayal—and betrayales with a price.”


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