Chapter 1241
Outside, Elliana walked hand in hand with Cole, a faint smile playing on her lips. Cole’s fiery display back there had thrilled her more than she cared to admit. Still, he had gone a little too far. Those family elders would be losing sleep for days. Catching her gaze, Cole smirked.
“What? Dissatisfied with my performance?”
Elliana chuckled.
“Not at all. But maybe next time, take it easy. Anita is not getting any younger. If you give her a heart attack, it’ll make life very hard for your mother and grandmother.”
After Elliana finished speaking, Cole reached out and tapped her nose with tender affection.
“Every bit of this—I orchestrated it all for you.”
“For me?” Elliana’s brow creased as confusion flickered across her features.
Cole gave a slow nod.
“Maxine’s death is still fresh, and the Griffiths family remains consumed by grief. But soon enough, their focus will shift to you—to your bloodline. You’re a Campbell, after all.”
Understanding bloomed within her like dawn breaking through storm clouds.
“You feared they would force me to abandon the Campbell family entirely, swear absolute loyalty to the Griffiths, and worse—command me to march against the Campbells themselves?”
“Precisely that,” Cole confirmed, his voice steady.
“I’ve always known you’d never bend beneath their demands. You possess the strength to weather their storm alone. But I refused to let their poisonous politics consume you, and I certainly wouldn’t allow it to cast shadows over our daughter’s future.”
Warmth flooded through Elliana’s chest, spreading like sunlight through winter branches. She hadn’t imagined he’d planned so meticulously or looked so far into the uncertain terrain of her future. Earlier, when she’d stood in that council hall surrounded by ancient grievances between the Griffiths and Campbell families, she had wrestled with the weight of the feud. Yet no clear path had revealed itself to her searching mind.
“My mother grew up beneath Maxine’s watchful eye, shaped by her hand,” Elliana began, her voice thoughtful.
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“And yet, my mother tumbled headlong into love with my father and bore him two children. Now, here I stand, thrust into leadership of the Griffiths family through sheer accident of fate.”
A wry laugh escaped her lips.
“I can’t decide whether to admire destiny’s twisted sense of irony or rage against its cruelty. But perhaps this was always meant to be—perhaps I’m the one who must finally extinguish the hatred burning between the two families. This feud has scorched its way through a thousand years, poisoning every generation that inherited its burden. The time has come for it to end.”
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