?Chapter 447:


    “Miss Lambert, now that you have finished speaking, why don’t you step out of my way before bing a nuisance?” she said sharply.


    Carole was speechless, taken aback by Ellie’s words. Frustrated and angry, she changed tactics. “I too have a marriage arrangement with the Thorpe family!” she dered.


    Ellie was stunned, feeling as if the world had gone silent except for Carole’s words, echoing like a curse.


    “Kaiden couldn’t make me, a woman bound by another arrangement, call you, a usurper of that arrangement, ‘sister-inw,''” Carole sneered.


    Ellie, shocked, took a moment to process this. “You and Kaiden were arranged to be married?” she finally asked, disbelief in her voice. She quickly dismissed the idea. “Impossible. How can one person be part of two arrangements?”


    Carole didn’t miss a beat. “Wasn’t Erick the Gordon family’s first choice?” she asked. Then she added, “Miss Gordon, perhaps you should check if the negative rumors about me have vanished. You thought you could outwit me. I told you, once I speak up, Kaiden will support me.”


    Ellie’s face lost all color.


    She remembered that the original arrangement was with Erick, but it had been changed to Kaiden at thest minute. A troubling thought crossed her mind.


    Had she inadvertently ruined the bond that might have existed between Kaiden and Carole?


    Carole, having achieved what she set out to do, quietly made her exit. As she passed Demi, who was ring at Ellie, she whispered something only they could hear, pretending to talk to herself, “Be careful with those champagne sses. They might fall.”


    Ellie, still in a daze, was standing near a towering seven-tier champagne setup.


    Seizing the moment, Demi made her move. She feigned a slip, bumping into the table holding the champagne sses.


    “Watch out!” someone yelled.


    The tower of sses cascaded towards Ellie, all eighty-four of them crashing down.


    G a lno v els  is packed with thrilling adventures


    Carole couldn’t hide her sly grin.


    Kaiden, who had been watching Ellie, acted instantly. He moved with incredible speed, using one hand to shield his head with his suit jacket and the other to wrap Ellie in a protective embrace, shielding her from the falling sses.


    The sound of shattering sses filled the air as the champagne sses hit the floor.


    The champagne drenched the carpet and sshed onto Kaiden’s suit. Yet the woman he held was mostly unscathed, her smoky purple dress only slightly damp at the corner.


    A hush fell over the room.


    Ellie, feeling her heart race, blinked slowly as she looked at Kaiden’s legs. She lifted her gaze to Kaiden, her eyes wide with disbelief and panic.


    “You…” she began, but couldn’t finish as others started to react.


    “Kaiden, Kaiden… Stand up!” someone called out.


    “Kaiden moved faster just now than I ever did in high school. He doesn’t look like someone who’s been disabled for years!” another voice remarked.


    “How… how could this be possible?”


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