?<strong>Chapter 467:</strong>


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    He wasn’t sure if Allison had misunderstood, but he needed her to understand.


    “I was supposed to honor the arranged marriage between our families, but I broke it off. The Perry family stayed silent about it because they knew Miss Perry and I were too young at the time, and the arrangement wasn’t serious.”


    He nced away, a trace of vulnerability creeping into his voice. “She’s not my fiancée. I could never marry her.”


    “I know,” Allison replied softly.


    She took a slow breath as she stepped toward the sink. This time, the cold water wasn’t needed to clear her head.


    “In reality, I’m no different from her. You and I… we’ll never end up together.”


    The Lloyd family needed Ken to uphold their legacy. And she had her own battles to fight—finding her mother still weighed heavily on her mind.


    The cramped restroom, which had felt so intimate just moments before, now stood as a quiet battlefield between them. Eyes locked, a silent tension hanging in the air.


    “We need to cool off,” she said finally, meeting his gaze. “The thrill of uncertainty is addictive, but that doesn’t make it love.”


    A thick silence settled between them.


    Neither moved nor spoke.


    Your escape begins with ga ln ov els .


    Then, finally, Ken responded, his voice tight, “Fine.”


    The word felt almost forced from his throat, as if agreeing with her was more painful than he could bear. Yet he knew that pushing her further would only drive her away—thest thing he wanted.


    Still, a sharp ache spread through his chest, suffocating and relentless. He felt as though he were teetering on the edge, barely holding on.


    It was getting harder to breathe.


    A dense shadow enveloped the VIP room of the Eternal Night Club, filled with the faint haze of lingering smoke.


    “What’s got you hitting the bottle tonight?” Ferdinand leaned in, eyeing Ken as he silently downed drink after drink, his gaze fixed on the wall, as if the answers to his troubles might appear there if he stared hard enough.


    Despite his sharp features and immacte suit, Ken exuded a cold, dangerous aura—the kind that dared anyone toe too close. Empty bottles cluttered the coffee table, silent witnesses to his descent.


    Ferdinand sighed, pouring Ken another drink and pushing it gently toward him.


    “I don’t need you to say it—this has ‘Allison’ written all over it,” he murmured, shaking his head. “It’s always her. She’s the only one who could make you drink like this.”


    At the mention of Allison’s name, Ken’s grip tightened around his ss, and a shadow flickered across his face. He downed the drink and endlessly refilled the ss until it was brimming.


    Ferdinand quickly intercepted the ss, catching it before it overflowed. “Alright, that’s enough. This is overkill. Got your heart broken or something?” He paused, quickly dismissing his own thought with a scoff. “But wait—heartbroken? You two never even dated, so how could she break your heart?”


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