?Chapter 1555:


    Marc’sugh was bitter and cold, his eyes boring into Sharon. “Whether I show up here is hardly your concern. What gives you the right to fill Ste’s head with all that garbage? Or have you forgotten what the doctor said? Are you trying to get her killed?”


    Sharon knew exactly what he meant, and her voice dripped with contempt. “Please. You are just scared people will find out what a fraud you are. I told Ste the truth because I am done watching you string her along. What is wrong — now that your house of cards has copsed, you cannot handle it?” The truth would surface eventually. It always did. And Marc was exactly the kind of person Ste needed to see clearly.


    “The truth?” Marc’s voice dropped, low and dangerous. “Is your version of the truth actually helping Ste?” His words came faster, sharper. “You turned her against me. Made her refuse to leave with me. You are putting her in danger — leaving her trapped with that lunatic William. And you think you are doing her a favor?”


    Sharon did not flinch. “At least William did not cheat on her and steal her work. At least he did not y the devoted fiancé while she was lying there unconscious.”


    That stopped Marc cold. After a long pause, he forced the words out through clenched teeth. “So you want her to stay chained to William forever? Let him control her, lock her away? Sharon, you im to be her best friend, but you cannot even see what actually matters right now.”


    Sharon’sugh was sharp and humorless. “Do not try to guilt-trip me, Marc. Put your hand on your heart and tell me — how much do you actually care about Ste? You just want to use her and the Carter family connections to w your way back to the top. Now that everyone sees through you, you want to make me the viin? Dream on.”


    Josie’s voice cut in, cold and measured. “Marc, Ste does not want to see you. Stop harassing her, or we will be forced to take action.” If anyone started digging into Marc’s past and really turning over stones, he would have a great deal to answer for.


    Under the weight of their usations, Marc’s face cycled from pale to flushed with rage. He knew he was cornered, but the frustration boiling inside him had killed any trace of self-control. “Fine. So you are all on William’s side now? Sharon, mark my words — this is not over. I will take Ste away. Count on it.”


    He shot them onest venomous look before storming off, his exit closer to a retreat than a departure. There was nothing left to gain here anyway.


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    Sharon and Josie watched him go, exchanging a nce loaded with disdain.


    “That waste of space,” Sharon muttered. “Useless when you need him, but suddenly full of bravado.”


    Josie’s brow furrowed with worry. “His showing up today was not random. And the way he was talking — so confident he could take Ste away — I think someone is backing him. Otherwise, knowing him, if he had a real n he would have acted on it long ago. He would not have waited this long.”


    Sharon fell quiet, her thoughts tangled and heavy. Finally, she sighed. “I think he went to see Ste today, got nowhere, and threw a tantrum. We should warn her to stay on guard. Thest thing she needs is to fall for his maniptions again.”


    Back at the vi, Ste held Felix as he bounded into her arms, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. Marc’s words kept circling back, relentless. Then another image surfaced — eating lunch with William, sunlight catching the side of his face and softening the hard edges he usually wore.


    Two men. One a liar. The other an enigma. She did not know what to do with either of them.


    Meanwhile, after being shut down by Sharon and Josie, Marc returned to his studio like a storm cloud ready to break.


    He mmed the door hard enough to rattle the frame, then swept his arm across the entrance table. A tall cdon vase crashed to the floor and exploded into pieces. The thin thread of control he had been clinging to finally snapped.


    “Why?” he roared, kicking over the trash can, his face twisting with rage and something uglier — bitterness. “Why is everyone working against me?”


    He had been so close. He had already won Ste back. If William had not reappeared out of nowhere, they would be remarried by now, living the life Marc had mapped out. But everyone kept getting in his way — William, Sharon, Josie, everyst one of them. And now even Ste looked at him as though he were a stranger.


    He had nned everything down to thest detail. Once he got Ste back, his studio would recover. He would reim his reputation, his sess — everything that was rightfully his. But now it was all falling apart.


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