Chapter 150/The Worst Nightmare Returns

Chapter 150: 150/The Worst Nightmare Returns

Chapter 150

Stephanie’s point of view

I looked with hidden panic at my bare fingers... damn it, I had completely forgotten to wear it since I took it off and hid it in my other handbag when I went to see that bastard Vincenti at his house. I said with an agitation I tried to manage: "Oh... I took it off my finger when I went in to shower, and I forgot to put it back on."

He said calmly, though not without a hint of reproach: "Alright... make sure not to forget it again."

I turned my face toward the glass window, watching the rushing lights of the city streets, and began with bitterness to count and tally the sheer volume of continuous, rapid lies that had come to form the details of my life and suffocate me.

Why did I hide the details of my pregnancy and marriage at work? Perhaps I hid the matter of my pregnancy due to my fear that a large company wouldn’t accept hiring a pregnant woman, but my marriage why didn’t I tell that bastard Vincenti that I am married, so he couldn’t direct accusations at me in that insulting manner?

The car pulled up smoothly before the gates of a massive restaurant with a charming classical design. Alex said: "We have arrived."

Alex quickly got out from behind the wheel, walked around to open the car door for me, and offered his arm for me to lean on. We stepped together into the lobby of the grand restaurant, which was buzzing with people and soft music.

I asked him with anxiety as I took in the crowd: "Alex... did you pre-book a table?"

He said with absolute confidence: "There is no need for that whatsoever in this place."

The moment the head waiter in the lobby saw us, he hurried toward us with a warm welcome and bowed his head respectfully: "Master Volkov... a very warm welcome to you in our restaurant tonight."

Alex said: "I want to get a distinctive and beautiful table."

The waiter led us with quick steps to an elegantly secluded table beside a massive glass window that clearly overlooked the city and its glittering lights beneath its enchanting night sky. We sat facing one another, and the waiter immediately brought a bottle of fine wine.

As he was about to pour the first glass for me, Alexander stopped him with a decisive movement of his palm, saying in a commanding voice: "She doesn’t drink alcohol... give her a glass of water instead."

The waiter stepped back respectfully and asked: "Shall I bring you your usual orders as customary, Master Alexander?"

Alex turned and looked into my eyes with focus: "Steph... what exactly do you prefer to eat tonight?"

I said tiredly: "I will eat anything you order according to your taste, on one condition that it contains no chicken meat."

He nodded his head and proceeded to command the waiter to bring his "usual" order to us.

Then I said: "I want to go use the restroom."

He said attentively: "Would you like me to accompany you there?"

I said with a light smile: "There’s no need for that, I am obviously not a little child. Just tell me the right direction to the place."

He pointed his index finger toward a side hallway at the end of the hall, saying: "The large wooden door over there. Enter through it and turn directly to the left."

I rose from my seat lightly and headed toward the mentioned location to get away from his probing glances. I opened the designated wooden door and stepped inside, then indeed turned toward the left side, only to find myself standing before a massive door adorned with strikingly gilded classical engravings. I opened it simply, without thinking, to enter.

In that exact second, the blood froze in my veins and every movement in my body was paralyzed. I completely solidified in my place with a shock that shattered my entire being...

It was he, specifically, standing inside in front of the mirror the person who represented the worst, filthiest nightmare I had ever lived, the one who had scarred my entire life.

He looked at me in genuine bewilderment, and soon his features shifted to carry the exact same shocking surprise equal to my crushing astonishment. In those terrible moments, I truly and honestly felt as though my soul were about to leave and flee my exhausted body just from seeing his cold features and dry gaze in this sudden manner.

I took a step backward, my limbs trembling violently, and spoke in a shaking, fractured voice that barely escaped my throat, which was choked with terror: "Mr... Vincenti?!"

His sharp, hawk-like eyes widened for a fleeting fraction of a second, and his towering, well-proportioned frame stiffened, as if he truly had never expected in his worst nightmares to catch a glimpse of that very girl he had seen this morning in his loose, baggy gray trousers, now manifesting before him in her full femininity, wearing a short purple dress that clung to her with an enticingly tight fit.

A suffocating, dense silence enveloped the restroom a silence that sucked away every atom of air around me, leaving me utterly unable to breathe. Then, he began to advance toward me with deliberate, confident, and calm steps, like a leopard stalking its prey, while I instinctively retreated in sheer panic until I felt the chill of the engraved marble wall piercing cruelly through my bare back.

He anchored his piercing, cruel gaze onto the shifting contours of my face, his eyes traveling down with a lethal, meticulous, and provocative slowness to inspect the details of the purple dress: the completely bare shoulders, and the collarbones that were moving rapidly and violently due to the heartbeats hammering within my chest. He released a hot, heavy exhale from the depths of his broad chest, saying in a dry tone: "Miss Miller... it seems you are indeed quite adept at stalking me and tracking my steps, even in my most comfortable and private spaces."

I swallowed hard with immense difficulty, my throat completely drying up under the weight of his overpowering presence. I tried desperately with all the strength I possessed to gather the remnants of my wounded pride and stand firmly before his probing gaze, saying in a voice laced with a scandalous stutter and muffled fear: "I... I haven’t been stalking you at all, Mr. Vincenti! I am here purely by coincidence to have dinner outside, and I had absolutely no idea you were here."

A dark, mocking smile etched across his thin lips, carrying a massive amount of cunning and derision. He bit the tip of his index finger in a slow, provocative, and calculated motion that heightened my tension, while he said in a low voice: "By coincidence? Yet you are present in this exact place, wearing this short dress that barely covers anything of your body?"

He took an additional, decisive, and sudden step forward until his towering stature completely overshadowed me. The rich scent of premium tobacco blended with his potent woody cologne emanated powerfully from him, assaulting my trembling senses.

Then, he tilted his powerful torso slightly toward my face until his hot, scorching breath fanned the skin of my forehead, whispering in a strict, low hiss filled with threat beside my ear: "Answer me honestly... are you here tonight to complete the Chapters of your failed seduction that you started last time at my house, Miss Miller?"