ADRIAN VANDERLEIGHAdrian couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Betrayal and disappointment twisted inside him, cold and suffocating, tightening around his heart until it felt like he could barely breathe.“What are you doing, Alyssa Auremont?”Adrian asked, his voice broken.His voice distracted them and Alyssa turned immediately and when she saw Adrian her brows squeezed only in surprise, Alyssa didn’t look ashamed.She looked annoyed. “How did you get out of prison?”That was the first thing she said. Not Adrian. Not you’re alive.Just a question, as though his return was an inconvenience. Reese glanced toward him and scoffed.“Has your trash husband become a fugitive now?” He looked him over with contempt. “How did you escape prison, delivery boy? And where did you steal that army uniform?”Adrian heard them, but the words barely registered. His gaze was fixed at Alyssa, he couldn’t believe his sight, His wife. Alyssa. With the very man who had destroyed his life. The same man Adri

The same day at five o’clock in the evening, decorative lights illuminated the extravagant Auremont Grand Residence.Tonight was the seventieth birthday banquet of Lady Dowager Cressida Auremont, the head of the Auremont family.Her children, grandchildren, their spouses, close family friends, and several of the country’s most prominent socialites had gathered beneath the glittering chandeliers, each waiting for their turn to present their gifts.Lady Cressida sat proudly at the center of the grand sitting room, slowly caressing her Persian cat as the gifts continued to arrive.“Happy birthday, Grandma… Lady Dowager Cressida,” her second granddaughter said with a bright smile. “May you live as long as the oldest and most expensive wine in the world. For you, My husband and I brought something that has been in our family for generations.”She gestured toward two attendants. They carefully carried forward a large wooden case covered in deep red velvet.The room immediately quieted. Her

“You poor nuisance. Would you quit making noise and get on your knees to apologize for ruining Lady Cressida’s banquet?”Reese D’Aubery spoke with a filthy smirk, one arm wrapped possessively around Alyssa’s waist.Adrian’s gaze slowly shifted toward him.For a moment, his eyes settled on Reese’s hand resting against the woman he had once called his wife.Then he looked into Reese’s face.“The very man you assaulted years ago is standing before you now,” Lady Cressida said, mistaking Adrian’s silence for fear. “Do you see what he brought as my birthday present? Something you couldn’t afford even if you sold every organ in your body.”She gestured proudly toward the antique gift.“That is what a worthy first son-in-law looks like.”Adrian said nothing.His heart was already shattered by the news of his mother, but he couldn’t yet believe it. His sister was somewhere out there, and nobody seemed willing to tell him where she was.Yet instead of answering him, they were casually discussi