?Chapter 373:


    “You’re despicable,” I muttered, unable to contain the venom in my words.


    He merelyughed again, unbothered by my insult, replying with a malicious smirk, “Despicable or not, I’m still your child’s father.”


    yton’s POV:


    I sat in the dimly lit corner of the banquet hall, my gaze fixed on Makenna and Bryan, their closeness sending ripples of agony through my chest like a de that twisted deeper with every passing second.


    Makenna was carrying Bryan’s child.


    The thought settled over me like an unbearable weight, and the wine in my hand felt like the only remedy, though its relief was fleeting and hollow. I drank deeply, hoping to blur the pain, but each sip seemed to sharpen the image of them together.


    My vision started to blur, the alcohol clouding my senses, but the scene in front of me remained vivid and haunting. The anguish that clung to me like a shadow was inescapable.


    “Your Highness…”


    “Leave me alone.”


    Several women, their faces painted with false sympathy, tried to approach, but I waved them off, their presence only aggravating the solitude I couldn’t escape.


    In the silence that followed, a ss suddenly appeared in front of me, clinking gently against mine.


    I looked up, irritation simmering just beneath the surface, only to see Dominic standing there.


    For once, the expression on Dominic’s face, typically inscrutable, carried a hint of mncholy, an unusual vulnerability that I hadn’t expected.


    Without a word, he downed his drink, his throat working as he swallowed before he spoke, his voiceced with a bitterness I hadn’t heard from him before. “I never imagined the child would be Bryan’s.”


    More to discover gα?ησνe?s?c?m


    I forced a smile, though it was more a grimace, and clinked my ss with his, the sound hollow against the tension hanging between us.


    The wine burned as it slid down my throat, but it was nothingpared to the ache that hollowed out my chest.


    After finishing my drink, I couldn’t help but let the bitterness spill into my voice. “And who did you think the father would be?”


    Dominic turned his ss in his hand, his eyes heavy with thought. “I thought it might be yours.”


    His answer caught me off guard. Iughed, though there was no joy in the sound. “Why? Or perhaps the better question is, don’t you wish it was yours?”


    “Because when Makenna looks at you, it’s different. Her smile, her eyes—they change around you. It’s obvious she cares about you.”


    There was an odd certainty in his tone, a calm acknowledgment of something I hadn’t fully recognized myself. His words, simple yet filled with weight, hung in the air between us.


    I was stunned, my ss frozen mid-air, unsure how to respond. Dominic’s gaze wandered over to Bryan and Makenna, and for a brief moment, I caught a flicker of sadness in his eyes, something rare and unguarded.


    I managed a bitterugh, though it felt like a mask for the storm churning inside me. “So what?”


    Even if Makenna and I had feelings for each other, it didn’t matter now. She was already carrying Bryan’s child, and that reality was a weight we couldn’t escape.


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