Chapter 1776:
Elwood hesitated, then offered a measured reply. “To be honest, there’s a certain matter because of which I owe Baker a considerable favor. That’s why.”
“I see,” Lucas murmured. His gaze settled firmly on Elwood, and this time his voice took on a weightier tone. “Given the bond between our families, I ought to grant your request. But…” His eyes sharpened, and a chill crept into his voice. “Anything else, I might have considered. But when it comes to Baker, I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse.”
Elwood’s brows drew together. He looked at Lucas, a trace of confusion flickering in his eyes. After a brief silence, he asked, “May I ask why you’re so adamant about this? What grudge do you hold against Baker?”
.Elwood paused briefly, choosing his next words with care. “Strictly speaking, Belinda is your girlfriend, and Baker is her father. Have you ever stopped to consider how she might feel about what you’re doing to her father?”
“Father?” Lucas let out a scornful laugh, as if he’d just heard something absurd. His voice turned sharp, frosted with contempt. “A man like Baker has no right to be called Belinda’s father.”
Elwood froze for a second, visibly stunned by his words. His curiosity deepened. What could Baker have done to make Lucas speak with such venom?
Wearing a grave expression, Elwood pressed further. “For you to speak of Baker with such bitterness, he must have done something terrible to Belinda. What exactly did he do?”
Since it involved Belinda, Elwood was all ears, his concern genuine.
Lucas fell into a long, heavy silence before finally speaking. “When Belinda was a child, she was chubby and carried a large, dark birthmark across her face. Because of her appearance, she grew up painfully self-aware, constantly targeted and treated unfairly by people.”
He paused for a moment, then continued. “But a few years ago, she went overseas. When she returned, the birthmark had vanished, and her once-overweight body had transformed entirely.”
C𝒉𝑒ck ⓐuthor’s ⓒo𝓹𝓎 h𝑒r𝑒: gⲁ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⫷𝓬𝗈𝗺
Lucas’s voice dropped, carrying the weight of revelation. “She later confided in me that her weight gain had been caused by hormone injections given to her since childhood. And the birthmark? That, too, had been deliberately created using some strange topical liquid. She spent a long time trying to uncover the person behind it all. She couldn’t fathom who would carry such hatred toward her and do something like this.”
He let out a cold laugh. “Who would have guessed? The ones who had hurt her so deeply were none other than her own parents.”
Elwood visibly shuddered, as if jolted by a sudden chill. His face shifted, clouded with disbelief.
He fixed his eyes on Lucas, words catching in his throat before bursting out. “Why? Why on earth would they do such a thing to Belinda?”
Lucas’s sneer lingered. “Holley claimed she had suffered from heartbreak herself and wanted to spare Belinda the same pain of romance, so she deliberately made her unattractive and overweight. Do you think that’s a reason anyone with a brain would believe?” No sane person would.
Lucas pressed his lips together, a glint of cold fury in his eyes. He continued, “To poison their own child’s body with hormones—what sort of parent does that? They are not worthy to be parents!”
