Chapter 991:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

Her words were so fueled by trauma and desperation that they shook Kole to his core. He reached out and grabbed her arms, his tone unyielding. “Have you completely lost it? If you don’t want this baby, we will go to a hospital and handle it the right way. I won’t let you do something so dangerous that might end up hurting you.”

“There’s no way my parents would ever agree to this,” Carole interrupted, her voice cracking under the weight of it all.

She wiped away a stray tear, her expression hardening with reality. “Kole, my parents already sat me down. They told me the Davis Group is failing. Projects are stalling because the money has dried up, and we’re losing everything. The Knight Group is the only thing keeping us afloat. If our families unite, we’ll own the market, but the contracts are already signed.”

Despair laced her voice. “If I back out now, the Knights won’t just walk away, they’ll become our worst enemies. My family will be destroyed from every side.”

“But is there really no other path?” Kole asked, his heart sinking. “Do they seriously expect you to trade your entire life just to save a company?”

𝗗𝘰ո’𝘵 𝗆і𝘴s ne𝗐 𝘳ele𝗮𝘀e𝘀 𝘰𝗻 𝘨𝗮𝗹𝗇𝘰𝘃𝖾𝘭𝘀.с𝗼𝗆

Carole shook her head slowly. “I’ve realized this is just my fate. I was always meant for a business marriage. If it wasn’t Mike, it would just be someone else eventually.”

“Carole…” Kole’s voice trailed off, his eyes reflecting the agony of being unable to change her world.

“I had already made up my mind before I got here,” she said quietly. “I thought I should just marry him, for my parents, for the company, and for the baby. I thought it would mean my father would leave you alone, that you could stop hiding and finally live a normal life. It seemed like the better choice for both of us.”

Kole opened his mouth to argue, but she reached out and covered his lips with her hand.

“But then I saw you,” she whispered, her voice choking up again. “And everything I decided started to fall apart.”

A bitter thought crossed her mind: maybe she should just be the daughter who failed them. If her parents were willing to trade her away like a piece of property, why couldn’t she be selfish enough to choose her own happiness?

Kole took her hand in his. “Don’t worry about me. Just think about what you want. Whatever you choose, I’m with you.”

Carole took a deep breath, her eyes clearing as she reached a final, desperate conclusion. She stepped toward him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “Then let’s leave it to fate. If we’re truly meant to be together, then let this child, someone who was never supposed to exist, vanish tonight. If that happens, I’ll take it as a sign to leave everything behind and go with you.”

Kole knew how reckless and broken this plan was. But he could see that Carole had been pushed past her breaking point. She was caught between twenty years of family loyalty and the heavy chains of a responsibility she never asked for, and now there was a baby on top of all that.

.

.

.