?Chapter 1654:


    With methodical precision, the King reviewed every unusual urrence within the pce in recent memory. Yet nothing substantial emerged from his deliberations—save for one peculiar detail. The surveince footage had captured what appeared to be mes near that small courtyard, though no actual fire had been found. Could this anomaly be connected to tonight’s events?


    His mind continued to race through possibilities. During the banquet, Katelyn had been conspicuously absent, iming a stomach ache had driven her to the restroom. But did such ailments truly require such a lengthy absence?


    Almost immediately, the King dismissed this line of thought. Katelyn was already deceased. It was impossible for her to have returned from heaven to seek out the woman.


    As for Vincent, being from Granville, he had absolutely no conceivable reason to concern himself with a deranged woman locked inside the pce of Yata. The connection simply didn’t exist.


    If Vincent had truly desired to acquire someone, he would have orchestrated his move years ago, rather than dying it until now. Though the King meticulously considered every possible suspect, the answer remained frustratingly elusive.


    Upon returning to the pce, Ryanna found herself haunted by questions about the mysterious woman. Without hesitation, she retrieved her phone and…


    Ryannaposed a message to a shadowy contact. “Help me investigate the true identity of the deranged woman imprisoned in the pce’s back garden,” she typed.


    The madwoman had been confined for years. Tonight’s bizarre sequence of events all seemed to center around her existence. Ryanna sensed that this woman’s identity was far more significant than anyone had revealed.


    Yet she knew better than to confront the King directly with her suspicions. She understood all too well that questioning the King about this matter would likely provoke his resentment—a risk she couldn’t afford to take. One wrong move could derail her carefully plotted path to the throne.


    The reply from the mysterious person came quickly. “Understood,” the message read.


    Ryanna set her phone down gently, her gaze drifting to the hazy moonlight streaming through the window. A heaviness settled in her chest. Something about tonight’s events left her with an unsettling feeling, as if everything was spiraling beyond her control.


    She sighed deeply, trying to convince herself it was merely an illusion. But the truth remained—everything had be a tangled mess.


    She had expected Katelyn’s death to smooth her path forward, yet somehow, events were unfolding in an unexpected direction. A direction that boded poorly for her ns.


    Meanwhile, far from the pce’smotion and chaos…


    Katelyn’s eyes fluttered open, her mind still clouded with grogginess. Faint noises echoed through the vi—distant, yet still discernible to her ears.


    She attempted to rise from the bed, only then registering the soreness that permeated her entire body.


    Falling back against the pillows, Katelyn closed her eyes and cursed softly. “Damn it! Was it really that intense?”


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