Chapter 646
She obeyed and settled into the chair at his right, with Allan taking the one beside her.
The servants began serving the evening’s dishes with practiced precision. Raymond spoke kindly. “Adah, tonight is a family banquet—no outsiders present. Please enjoy whatever appeals to you. Don’t hold back on our account.”
“Thank you, Mr. Shaw,” Adah replied with careful politeness.
Everyone expected a bumpkin like Adah to stumble through the dining customs of a wealthy household and eagerly awaited her inevitable embarrassment. But to their collective astonishment, she executed every gesture flawlessly.
Allan watched her every move, finding her even more of an enigma. Adah no longer cared what Allan thought of her.
As dinner neared its end, she turned to Raymond and spoke quietly but firmly. “Mr. Shaw, I want to break off the engagement.”
The room froze in stunned silence. Everyone had assumed Adah would cling to the engagement for the fortune that came with marrying into the Shaw family. But unexpectedly, she was the one initiating its dissolution.
Raymond’s expression darkened. “Adah, tell me the truth—did Allan pressure you into making this announcement? Don’t worry, I have your back. He can’t simply manipulate the situation to suit his whims.”
Allan’s body stiffened with tension. If his grandfather threatened to stage a hunger strike upon learning that he had already dissolved the engagement with the termination agreement, what could he do?
As anxiety rose within him, he heard Adah continue, “Mr. Shaw, Allan never pressured me. I want to end our engagement because I simply don’t fancy him…”
Adah’s declaration hung in the air like a thunderclap, and silence crashed over the room.
Every pair of eyes fixed on her with naked disbelief, wondering if this backwoods girl possessed even the faintest understanding of what she had just proclaimed. She wasn’t interested in Allan? What an absolutely preposterous notion! Given her dismal prospects, if she didn’t cling to Allan with desperate tenacity, she’d find herself trudging back to her remote village to wed some decrepit old bachelor. This country bumpkin clearly had no concept of her proper station in life.
Allan stared at Adah with genuine astonishment, his mind racing as he recalled her previous reluctance to shoulder the blame for canceling their engagement. What had prompted her to change her mind?
Raymond studied Adah’s expression with the penetrating gaze of a man accustomed to detecting deception, and when he found none, he ventured cautiously, “Adah, do you truly harbor no romantic feelings for Allan?”
Adah’s nod carried unwavering conviction. “That’s correct—he simply doesn’t appeal to me.”
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“Do you genuinely wish to dissolve this engagement?” Raymond pressed, his voice weighted with careful consideration.
Adah nodded again with the same resolute certainty. “Without question.”
Raymond found himself rendered speechless by this unexpected development. He had pressured Allan into this marriage arrangement to honor his sacred promise to Adah’s mother, but now that Adah herself rejected Allan, he couldn’t possibly force the union. The engagement would have to be terminated.
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