Chapter 153/A Toxic Feast

Chapter 153: 153/A Toxic Feast

Chapter 153

**Stephanie’s Point of View**

His sharp, hawk-like gaze darted with quick agility between Alexander’s warm palm resting tenderly against my cheek and the contours of my deathly pale face. For the very first time since I had known him, his customary icy detachment shattered, replaced by an expression of genuine, glaring astonishment that he could neither conceal nor disguise behind his stern mask.

Alexander immediately noticed my locked posture and the slight tremor rippling through my limbs. He slowly withdrew his hand from my cheek and turned his entire powerful torso around to see exactly what had triggered my sudden desire to vanish and shrink out of sight. At that exact second, I felt the walls of the venue closing in on me violently, as if all my terrifying nightmares and fears had materialized before me as an inescapable, tangible reality.

Alexander’s eyes widened with profound surprise, a sudden gleam flashing in his pupils as he spoke in a masculine tone filled with ease and a welcoming warmth for the newcomer: "Dominic!"

The wretched Vincente reclaimed his cold, rigid mask in a fraction of a second as though he hadn’t been affected at all. He advanced toward us with calm, confident, and measured strides that painted his usual commanding aura, speaking in a raspy, sober voice: "Alexander... you’re here?"

Alexander lunged forward with spontaneous friendship and embraced him lightly, patting his shoulder with complete ease: "What a beautiful and utterly unexpected coincidence, man!"

Yes... a very beautiful coincidence! That exact word was the absolute worst and absolute filthiest description for the tempestuous curse that had just rained down upon my head, causing my breath to hitch in sheer panic.

Alexander took a step back, looking at me with appreciation, then turned back to Vincente, speaking with unconcealed pride: "You certainly know Stephanie and remember her; she works at your company, she’s one of your employees."

Mr. Vincente fixed his sharp blue eyes on me with a deadly focus, speaking with a suspicious, dry coldness: "Certainly... I know Miss Miller very well. But in reality, I don’t know exactly what your relationship with her is, Alexander."

Alexander smiled with immense warmth, announcing it with absolute pride right to his face: "Stephanie... is my wife."

The moment Alexander uttered that decisive sentence, shock gleamed in Mr. Vincente’s eyes so blatantly that he couldn’t suppress it this time. His stern jaw locked, and for a few fleeting seconds, his face looked as if he had just received news of the death of someone very close to him. Meanwhile, I stood there like someone condemned to execution, rubbing my fingers in genuine terror, a gnawing fear consuming my insides over the bomb and the secret this bastard might drop from his mouth at any moment to completely destroy my marriage and my entire life.

Vincente swallowed his saliva with visible difficulty, his Adam’s apple moving heavily in his throat. He responded in a raspy, strange tone, struggling to force detachment and composure onto it: "I didn’t know about it... I didn’t know you had married, Alex..."

Alexander answered simply and spontaneously: "It was a small wedding indeed, limited only to very close family."

Vincente moved his head slowly as if trying to process the words, saying in a faint voice: "Congratulations to you, Alexander."

Alexander replied with gratitude: "Thank you, man... Come on then, come join our table. Let’s sit together, have dinner, and talk more."

My heart seized with a stormy violence, and I spoke with excessive speed and a stammering tone that I tried desperately to make sound considerate and polite: "Alex... don’t trouble Mr. Vincente. Perhaps he already has an important appointment, or is waiting for someone at his table."

This was precisely the last thing I needed tonight to sit with this vulgar pervert at the same table and watch his features!

Vincente slowly turned his torso toward me, a provocative, malicious look forming on his lips as he deliberately and slowly lowered the white napkin from his lower lip: "No, not at all, Miss. Miller... I am alone tonight at the restaurant, and I am not waiting for anyone."

The hypocritical bastard! Hadn’t he called me himself this morning, inflicting unbearable torment and anxiety on me to choose his clothes under the pretext that he was going on an important romantic date with a girl?

Alexander welcomed him anew: "Let’s go have dinner together then."

Alexander placed his large, warm palm behind my bare back, and we walked with slow steps out of the narrow corridor toward the dining hall, which was loud with guests and music. I was breathing with extreme difficulty, trying with all the pride and strength I possessed to calm my terror and gather my already crumbling and shattered nerves. We reached the table, and Alexander pulled out the chair for me. I sat down with limbs as stiff as wood, while Vincente took his seat on the opposite side, sitting directly next to Alexander, facing me completely.

Alexander gestured with his hand to summon the waiter to order an extra plate for Vincente, since our dishes had already been placed on the table. Suddenly, Alexander narrowed his eyes, examining his friend’s face cautiously, and asked with intense bewilderment: "What’s wrong with your lip, Dominic? I see a clear trace of dried blood on it."

Vincente caught the immense turmoil twisting the features of my pale face with his hawk-like eye. He responded in a calm, cold, and indifferent tone: "Nothing important."

Then, he shifted his sharp, harsh gaze toward me with heavy focus, that malicious and provocative smile etching onto his lips, making my brain boil with rage. He spoke in a mocking tone: "I really wonder with surprise about the reason for hiding your true identity and your marriage from me and from the management at the company, Miss Miller... or rather, should I address you respectfully now as ’Mrs. Volkov’?"

I raised my head in a weak, fabricated defiance to mask my blatant trembling, saying with complete detachment: "I simply didn’t want to be accepted for the job because of my new surname or the influence of my husband’s family, Mr. Vincente. I prefer competence."

Alexander stepped into the conversation with a laugh, patting the table lightly: "I already told her that I would speak with you to facilitate her acceptance, but she refused with intense stubbornness. My dear wife always loves to rely on herself and her own efforts."

Vincente commented in a sleek tone, his eyes never leaving my face and the contours of my dress: "Yes... that is very clear and tangible from her behavior."

Alexander continued in a friendly, sincere tone: "I only hope you won’t be harsh or strict with my wife regarding work and assignments, Dominic."

Vincente tilted his head back with excessive confidence and a loathsome arrogance, responding in a deep voice that smoothly dripped venom: "Of course not, Alexander... After all, I am a very gentle man with women, and I treat all my male and female employees in the best, most sophisticated way possible to ensure their comfort."

I looked at him in absolute bewilderment, a shock that almost robbed me of the ability to utter words. Was I hearing correctly, for hell’s sake?! Did this filth just describe himself as gentle?! This vulgar monster sees himself as a gentle being!

Alexander nodded: "That’s good... I am highly confident in your noble character."

At that exact second, I made a definitive, final, and irreversible decision in secret. The moment we returned home tonight and closed the bedroom door, I would tell Alexander that I was resigning from the company immediately and without justifications. It was impossible as a woman to place myself and the seconds of my life at the mercy of this sick, unhinged lunatic for another day.

Vincente cut the tangled thread of my thoughts as he picked up his knife, cutting the steak with a nerve-wracking, provocative calmness. He asked Alexander with a suspicious curiosity: "You never told me during any of our previous meetings that you were in a relationship with a girl... Was your relationship this heavily kept behind closed doors and in secret?"

What business of his was it, for heaven’s sake?! What did this intrusive, wretched bastard have to do with our privacy and the secrets of our marriage?!

Alexander answered him with a casual, cold smile: "The right opportunity or the appropriate time simply didn’t arise to inform you of the matter, Dominic. Circumstances were moving rapidly."

Vincente shook his head with a dry, suspicious nod: "Yes... I understand the matter now."

Vincente’s hot plate arrived at the table via the waiter, and we all began eating amidst an atmosphere charged with heavy tension and a suffocating coldness that filled the void between us. I barely touched a few tiny bites of my plate due to the nausea and distress, while all I wished and begged for in the depths of my trembling heart was for this cursed, ill-fated meal to end as quickly as possible so I could return to my room at the mansion, lock the door securely, and never see his disgusting, sick face again in my life.