"You know about his suspicions?" Hal asked with a raised brow.

He had not even confessed what her grandmother had said in the study to her and so far only suspected the suspicions. That she knew, which he was sure was not through her family members who would most likely keep this completely under wraps, proved she was just as perceptive as he always believed.

"Of course I know. Frankly, I would be shocked if he had not been suspicious. After all, he knows practically nothing about you" she said.

"That has to be true about multiple people on the continent." Hal noted.

"Well, only one of them wants to marry his daughter." Melinda retorted through gritted teeth.

Silence...

Then Hal sighed with his head down,

"Fair point."

Then he looked at Melinda who had raised her head and was now taking a deep breath,

"Were you really expecting me to say no?" He asked with a smirk.

Melinda looked into his face and cracked a smile,

"No. No, I did not." She said and wound her arms around his waist to pull him closer and lay her head on his chest.

"I missed you" she said.

Hal's eyes widened mockingly,

"Where is all this sappy feely stuff coming from?" He asked with a mild chuckle.

Melinda tightened her arms around him and chuckled as well,

"It coming from me, you dope" she said.

Hal wrapped his arms around her as well before raising one of his hands to her head to stroke her long hair while she snuggled even deeper into his chest.

"Let's leave here" she said and there was no need to tell Hal twice since as much as he was all for public display of affection, this was not the moment for it.

Even at that moment, there were servants walking about sneaking glances at him and already moving to pass on the rumor.

Large as the Dane territory was, Hal was sure the rumor would circulate at an almost instantaneous rate...

...

Meanwhile...

In the meeting hall...

While the two love birds were looking for a private location to continue indulging in each other's presence, the elderly ones as well as Hugh Dane were still seated with the look on Damien's face looking quite close to shock.

It was probably why he did not notice the manner in which his wife was looking at where Hal and Melinda had walked out of.

The one who was causing her to pay attention to that direction was definitely the masculine of the two.

Isabella noticed but other than the quizzical raising of her brow, she said nothing and merely focused on her children.

"What the hell is going on?" Damien asked indignantly while looking from his mother to his brother.

When neither said nothing, as Isabella simply continued looking amused while Devon was still on his feet and staring singularly at the seat his daughter just stood up from, he decided to continue his indignant speech.

"Never before have I felt this out of the loop and I do not like it. When this meeting was called, I was under the impression that it was only in relation to something intimate which was why the elders were not involved..." He began but his mother cut in.

"Those old coots were not involved because I don't like them. And for all their talk about being the cornerstone of the Dane family, I would rather not listen to their input when deciding on the life partner of my granddaughter." Isabella said in a cool voice.

Damien raised a brow in a mocking surprise,

"A decision that I am only now finding out is bogus?" He asked.

Hugh looked at his father and then his grandmother before finally ending his viewing tour with his uncle before deciding that there was no longer a reason for him to be here.

He might as well return to the cultivation seclusion that he should have been in before deciding to be nosy and be a part of this discussion.

He stood up,

"I think it's best I leave now" he said but no one apart from his mother gave any indication that they had heard him. The only reason his mother noticed was that she had decided to leave as well.

As one, the mother-son pair walked out of the ball just as the heated conversation continued.

"Those old bustards should content themselves with governing the Fiery lotus sect and have no business with my family affairs." Isabella said with annoyance while gripping the arms of her chair tightly.

"They are family" Devon pointed out and this was the first thing he said since Hal and Melinda made their exit.

It was no secret to anyone in the Dane family that Isabella disliked the elders of her family.

As an only daughter of her father and groomed to the heir of the Dane family, there had been responsibilities thrust on her and she had been ready to accept them all. At the time of her reign as Matriarch, Isabella had gotten along well with the elders she now took to calling coots until they got into her husband, Richard's head.

Playing on his inferiority complex for not actually holding a position of importance in the Dane family apart from being the father of the Matriarch's sons and also being of minimal importance in his own family, they were able to convince him to go against a Dystopian general.

Victory against the general would have brought the Dane family a lot of respect and prestige. Not to mention merit points. This was not including the personal respect, prestige, and merit points Richard stood to earn individually.

Isabella had insisted on it being very foolish and unnecessary but Richard would not hear of it and considered her worry as a lack of faith in his abilities.

So he went up against the general and true to his word, he came up victorious and moved in to deal the finishing, it was then the Dystopian general self-destructed, and even though Richard moved back quickly, it was still not enough to evade the blast completely and no matter how those with him attempted to save him, he succumbed to his injuries and died soon after.

Tragic as it was, that moment was what cemented Isabella as a once in a millennia genius as quite unlike a normal cultivator whose grief would push into cultivation deviation, Isabella grew instead and finally pushed herself to the first star of Cosmic sainthood.

However, that was not to say she was not grieving because she was and it was seen in the actions she took against the Elders which was to completely exclude them from all Dane family decisions.

If it concerned her family, they were not to interfere.

Since then, all elders had been focused instead on running the Fiery Lotus sect.

However, as a sect where the Dane family had the most authority and trained promising Dane youngsters, whether they had the Dane bloodline or not, Isabella's reach still stretched there... and should she wish, she could still make decisions and even overturn decisions that did not please her.

With certain conditions met, of course.

That said, keeping the Elders out of Dane family business was not an easy task especially since the Dane family was large, and even when considering only those with the Dane family Bloodline, there were other branches separate from her immediate family branch.

Branches that came to be as a result of her father's siblings' own families and offsprings. Then before her father, there were other generations where apart from the heir who was always bound to rule, there would be siblings who also had their own children and hence, their own branch.

It was after all, out of those branches that the Elders were chosen. They were to be a voice and representation of those not part of the governing line.

If all went accordingly, once Hugh became patriarch, Melinda being a part of her father's line would become a separate branch as well.

Damien remained patriarch and just like those who ruled before him, his mother included, he kept a tight leash on everyone who had any connection with the Dane family.

The same could be said of Devon who was undisputedly the most powerful of the Dane Kinsmen. Apart from generations before him of course.

After all, he did not earn the title 'monster of the Dane family' for nothing.