Dumping The Ice King His Mini-Tyrant novel Chapter 355

“Carrie!”

Daph’s eyes lit up the moment she spotted Carmel. She bounced over, practically skipping with excitement.

Carmel’s thoughts were still tangled up with Selene, her breath warm and heavy as she exhaled.

“Carrie, I missed you so much!”

Daph’s sweet, childlike voice rang out. Carmel knelt to her level, noticing Daph was still in her costume from the performance. She shrugged off her own coat and wrapped it around Daph’s shoulders.

“You look beautiful, Daph.”

She saw that Daph’s hair was a little messy and gently smoothed it with her fingers.

Selene approached, a gentle smile on her lips. “You’re back.”

Last week, Carmel had to leave suddenly for an urgent matter. Before she left, she only said she’d be back soon.

Selene hadn’t pressed for details. She and Daph simply waited for Carmel to return.

No one had expected that as soon as Carmel got back to the capital, she’d come straight to the school.

Gwyneth spoke up just as she came within a step of Carmel. “You’ve worked hard this time.”

Carmel paused, her features—usually serene and striking—turning suddenly serious.

Selene could sense it: standing before Gwyneth, Carmel was tense from head to toe.

Carmel nodded to Gwyneth, her voice husky as she quietly pleaded, “Mom, about Selene—”

Gwyneth’s red lips curled in a faint, unreadable smile. The wind caught her soft, voluminous hair, making her look impossibly glamorous and untouchable.

“Go catch up with your good friends,” Gwyneth said, not sparing Selene a glance. Then she addressed Carmel, “Tonight, come to the hotel and give me your report.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Carmel replied respectfully.

Once Gwyneth had left, the tension in Carmel’s posture finally eased. She took Daph’s hand and walked over to Selene.

“Did Ms. Lockridge give you a hard time?” she asked gently.

Selene shook her head. “The first year you went to Morgania, you told me a powerful investor had taken a special interest in you, and that’s how you managed to get your footing there. Was that investor Gwyneth?”

Five years ago, Carmel had taken the money Selene gave her and gone to Morgania. The distance was vast, oceans between them, and Carmel always chose to share only the good news, never the bad.

The warmth from Selene’s palm seeped into Carmel’s skin, spreading all the way to her heart.

She had known it—if she told Selene that she’d taken the CEO of The Lockridge Group as her foster mother, Selene would only be happy for her.

Carmel’s smile was tinged with bittersweet emotion as she curled her fingers around Selene’s.

Then Selene asked, “When Gwyneth was in Morgania, did she ever mention me?”

Carmel hesitated, then nodded.

“I only caught Ms. Lockridge’s eye because of you. She’s got her ear to the ground—she knew we were friends.

She told me that years ago, she wanted to make you her foster daughter, hoping you’d work for her someday.

You were still underage back then; if she wanted to adopt you, she’d have had to come back to Aldonia and go through the paperwork. But every time she tried to return, something always stood in her way.

She said there was some invisible hand, blocking her at every turn from coming back to adopt you.

That’s just who Gwyneth is—she loves a challenge. The more resistance she faced, the more determined she became to draw out whoever was opposing her.

She clashed with that mysterious force again and again. Years went by, and eventually, she realized she’d been played for a fool by an enemy she could never quite pin down.”