Chapter 110/No Easy Escape

Chapter 110: 110/No Easy Escape

Chapter 110

Stephanie’s Point of View

Those crude words fell upon my head like a scorching bolt of lightning that shattered my entire being. I felt a searing, agonizing heat rush rapidly through every single inch of my body. The humiliation and degradation had reached their absolute limits boundaries that no shred of dignity could bear or tolerate in silence. My mind flashed back to that ill-fated, cursed day when that wretched plastic toy dick had accidentally slipped from the depths of my bag, landing directly before his eyes in the elevator! Damn this wretched luck... He was now weaponizing that moment to hand me a cruel, calculated insult dripping with venom, without a single hint of shame, and without even batting an eye!

He scanned my pale face with a provocative, condescending, and dominant gaze. Straightening his posture with supreme arrogance, he spoke in a dry tone completely stripped of mercy:

"What is the matter, Miss Miller? Why have you fallen silent all of a sudden? Where is that eloquent, booming tongue that was speaking of injustice and oppression with such absolute confidence only moments ago? I see your words have suddenly knotted and vanished."

My breath came in terrifying, hysterical gasps. It felt as though thunderous drums were beating violently within my pale, bloodless chest. I fought with every ounce of my remaining strength to gather my composure and patch up my shattered pride before his eyes. Raising my head with a rigid defiance, the features of my pale face hardened as I spoke in a voice trembling with pure rage and resentment:

"That matter was a mere unintended, passing mistake! Under no circumstances do you have the right to bring it up or imply it inside a professional office just to humiliate me!"

He leaned his massive back against his luxurious chair with a lethal, icy coldness that instantly locked over the entire room. Looking at me with narrowed eyes filled with harshness and disgust, he countered in a mocking tone:

"I don’t have the right? You are the one who began crossing boundaries with your tongue, throwing random judgments at me and claiming at the top of your lungs that my management style is abusive and unfair to the employees."

My hands clenched into fists with such excessive force that my knuckles turned bone-white. I took a single, wide step toward him, speaking with a blind agitation that threw all logic to the wind:

"But what you uttered regarding my morals is entirely inappropriate, disgusting, and has absolutely nothing to do with work, Mr. Vincetti!"

A sharp, biting, and arrogant smile etched across his thin lips. He tilted his head with a provocative slowness, delivering a harsher jibe that thoroughly slaughtered my remaining dignity:

"I highly doubt that anyone who, with full awareness and confidence, carries such an object inside her private bag knows a single thing about tact or decency, Miss Miller."

Right then and there, the absolute limit of what I could endure was breached. A volcano of suppressed rage and bitterness erupted violently through my veins, completely uncontainable. I surged forward, slamming both of my palms with excessive force onto the edge of his desk. Drawing my face now flushed with burning wrath dangerously close to his, my tone blazed with pure malice and vengeance as I yelled at the top of my lungs:

"Listen to me very carefully, Mr. Vincetti! That specific matter belongs to my private life! You can never, and will never have the right to speak about it like this within the workplace!"

He responded with a rigid, sculpted expression, his eyes as cold as death, entirely unmoved by my explosive fury:

"But unfortunately for you, I witnessed this object fall from you inside the workplace."

I screamed in his face blindly, completely losing control over my nerves, my entire body shaking and twitching in pure terror:

"It is none of your business! I will carry whatever I want and whatever pleases me in the depths of my bag! You are merely a manager here, and you cannot interfere in my privacy in this manner!"

He locked his gaze into mine with the unyielding stability of a mountain, uttering a rough, low, and deadly voice that shook my very core:

"Miss Miller... remember very well that this is a respectable fashion design company."

I could not tolerate this degradation for a single second longer. My vision clouded over with a thick darkness, and I suffocated under every toxic word this tyrannical despot used to crush me. In a single second of blind madness and reckless impulse, I raised my hand with a swift, blinding motion and swung it with all the force and might I possessed across his face delivering a powerful, resounding, and thunderous slap that echoed violently through every corner of the office!

His rigid face barely shifted an inch from the sheer force of the blow. His massive frame locked tight like solid stone. Then, he turned his head back with agonizing slowness a movement that struck absolute dread into the soul and locked his dark, terrifyingly predatory eyes directly into mine without uttering a single word.

I took a massive step backward as a sudden fear gripped my heart, panting violently with jagged breaths. Yet, I forced my trembling posture upright, putting on a fabricated defiance to salvage my dignity:

"I will not allow you to cross your boundaries with me or humiliate me ever again, Mr. Vincetti!"

Turning my shivering frame around, I bolted from the office with frantic, chaotic paces, my heart hammering with a wild violence that felt ready to shatter my ribs. I walked down the long corridor, the floor seemingly shifting and spinning beneath me from the absolute shock, until I reached my desk. I collapsed onto my chair, my limbs as cold as ice, my body completely undone.

I buried my head between my frantically trembling hands. Oh my God, for heaven’s sake, what had I just done?! I should have walked right out of the building and left immediately without wasting a single second! I had actually slapped the manager across the face! I needed to escape at full speed before he came out himself to fire me humiliatingly in front of all the employees, turning me into a laughingstock and a piece of gossip traded between tongues. Or worse, perhaps he would call security and maliciously order them to come and drag me forcefully out of the building in a shameful, scandalous scene. Yet, despite all these terrifying thoughts, I remained pinned to my seat, paralyzed by sheer, overwhelming shock.

During those bitter moments, my colleague Lily approached with quiet steps, her eyes scanning me with deep curiosity and questioning. She spoke in a low voice:

"What exactly happened in there? You stayed inside Mr. Vincetti’s office for a very long time."

I swallowed with immense difficulty, my throat completely parched. Forcing a natural, stable expression over my pale face, I murmured in a faint, strained voice:

"It’s nothing worth mentioning, Lily... he was just giving me some directions and outlining the new work tasks for the day."

She nodded, clearly unconvinced, and said quietly:

"Ah, alright... best of luck, then." She then walked away, leaving me to my unknown fate.

My hands were still shaking in a blatant, obvious manner that I couldn’t control by any means. I felt entirely helpless and utterly lost on my own. I thought to myself with deep bitterness that perhaps I should call Alexander at this exact moment. Maybe I should have let him recommend me to his friend from the very beginning. Perhaps my life wouldn’t have reached this level of terrifying, fatal complication if I had just done that and swallowed my stubborn pride!

I pulled my mobile phone from the depths of my bag with fingers shaking like a leaf, frantically searching the contact list for Alexander’s number. The exact moment I tried to press the green call button to cry out for his help, a cutting, dry voice shattered the quiet of the space:

"Miss Miller."

I flinched in genuine, raw dread, snapping my head up instantly. I found Mr. Vincetti’s private secretary standing majestically before my desk, her features incredibly grave and rigid.

I swallowed, speaking in a low, apprehensive tone:

"Yes? Is there something else?"

She looked down at me with expressionless eyes, stating in a mechanical, dry voice:

"Mr. Vincetti wants you to report to his office immediately."

My stomach clenched with a terrifying violence, my eyes widening in sheer panic and horror. Oh my God! Why did he want me back in his office after what had just happened? Did he want revenge? Should I run away right now, bolting wildly toward the emergency exit? Should I leave the company immediately, never to return, just to save my skin? What was I even doing still sitting here, and why hadn’t I physically fled before things escalated into this fatal, cruel trajectory?!

I rose from my chair with quiet steps, my movements completely paralyzed by the sheer weight of the terror consuming me. My body shook like a weak branch in the middle of a violent storm. With ice-cold fingers, I dropped my phone back into my bag, leaving it abandoned on the surface of the desk. I walked with slow, heavy steps behind the secretary, my feet barely able to support my weight. The long corridor stretched before me like a terrifying path where one is led mercilessly toward the guillotine, while the gazes of the surrounding employees practically pierced through my back with their silent questions.

We finally arrived at the large wooden door of the executive office. The secretary stepped aside with formal decorum, gesturing with her hand for me to enter alone. I swallowed, a burning dryness consuming my throat. Raising my trembling hand, I knocked on the wood with ultimate gentleness before gathering my courage, pushing it open, and stepping inside with my breath locked tight in my chest.

Mr. Vincetti was standing at his full, towering, and tyrannical height before the massive glass window overlooking the city. His back was completely turned to the door, his large hands laced behind his back with a lethal coldness and absolute superiority. He turned around with an agonizingly slow, measured movement when he heard the lock of the door quietly click into place behind me. He locked his dark, hawk-like eyes directly into my pale face, instantly freezing the blood inside my veins.

I stopped at a distant, safe parameter, my entire body coiled tight and ready to bolt and run if the situation called for it. I fought hard to suppress the wild, audible panic of my racing heart. I cast my eyes to the floor in sheer confusion before raising them with a tense stubbornness to face my fate.

He cleared his throat with a rough, husky rumble that echoed powerfully across the office, suffocating the very air I breathed. Not a single trace of redness or bruising showed on his stony skin from that powerful slap he had received from me; rather, his features remained as rigid and cold as sculpted marble. He spoke in a calm, dry tone that instantly snapped every tightly pulled nerve inside my chest:

"Sit down immediately, Miss Miller."

My eyes widened in deep apprehension and doubt, and I didn’t move a single inch from where I stood. Instead, I gripped my clothes with greater force, speaking in a strained voice that desperately fought to maintain stability and decorum despite the panic:

"I prefer to stand here, Mr. Vincetti. The secretary outside told me you wanted me for an urgent matter. Can you say what you want quickly so I can return to my work?"

He took a wide, balanced step toward his luxurious desk, drawing a long, extended breath from his core as he sat in his leather chair, maintaining absolute control over the situation. Lacing his long fingers over the table, he pressed his scorching, piercing gaze directly onto my pale, terrified features, speaking with a provocative coldness that utterly demolished all my defenses:

"I truly thought that after that childish, immature stunt you pulled, you would possess at least a single shred of courage required to resign, pack up, and flee immediately. But the fact that you have remained settled at your desk until now proves to me clearly that you are either an incredibly reckless woman who fails to comprehend the consequences of her actions... or you are, quite simply, waiting to receive your official termination notice and destroy your own future inside this very office."

My stomach clenched with violent cruelty, and I felt my blood boiling at his mocking tone. This wretched man was deliberately trying every method to play with my nerves and provoke me into losing my sanity once more! I surged forward two paces, my entire frame shivering and blazing with pure rage, as I spoke in a booming voice that filled the room:

"I am not afraid of you or your threats, Mr. Vincetti! If you truly want to fire me from this company or call security to drag me outside, then do it right now without wasting any time! There is absolutely no need for all these sarcastic, provocative preambles that insult my dignity!"

He tilted his head slightly with a lethal coldness devoid of any human emotion. That same sharp, mocking smile etched across his lips the very smile that drove my sanity and nerves to an intolerable edge. He spoke with a detachment that perfectly mirrored his tyrannical authority:

"Firing you so easily? No, Miss Miller... that would certainly be a simple, quick, and highly convenient solution. But I am a man who does not handle matters with such superficial simplicity in his own company."