Chapter 166/Are you playing games with me

Chapter 166: 166/Are you playing games with me

Chapter 165

Stephanie’s POV

The moment Grandfather Victor barked those absolute, uncompromising words, the air was violently sucked right out of my lungs, and the floor beneath my feet felt like it was shifting status. Both of them were actually going with me to the exact same clinic, for the exact same appointment.

One was waving the flag of the protective, fiercely possessive husband backed by legal authority, while the other was screaming to the world that he was the only true, rightful father of my twins. The terrifying reality of locking both of them in a single, enclosed space with their explosive tempers was pure, unadulterated suicide.

My blood would be the price.

Dragging my heavy, failing legs, I took a step back, forcing a hollow, fragile stability into my voice just to escape their suffocating stares. "I’m going to go grab my purse from upstairs first."

I flew up the grand staircase in a frantic, breathless rush, bursting into my bedroom to snag my bag with stiff, claw-like fingers that wouldn’t stop shaking. I bolted right back out, terrified that one of them might follow me into the isolation of the upper halls.

But as I reached the shadow of the landing, a thick, brutal hand violently clamped down on my forearm. The sheer, savage force of the grip spun me around as a cold dread chewed at my heart. My frantic eyes collided with the cold, venomous glare of the head maid, her hard features dripping with pure malice.

She leaned in, her voice a low, terrifying hiss that sounded exactly like a striking viper. "Did you find that goddamn key yet, *Lady of the House*?"

I frantically tried to wrench my arm free, my eyes darting around the hallway in a panic, utterly terrified that someone might catch us. "No! Not yet, for God’s sake!" I pleaded in a desperate whisper. "Alexander is incredibly cautious. He keeps everything locked down."

Her eyes narrowed into wicked, calculating slits, and she dug her thick fingers deeper into my skin until it bruised, causing a sharp jolt of pain to shoot up my arm. "Are you playing games with me, Stephanie? Don’t you dare try to drag your fucking feet."

I shook my head violently, a suffocating terror paralyzing my throat. "No, never! I swear! But it is insanely difficult to get to it without triggering his lethal suspicions."

She brought her hideous, vile face so close to my ear that I could feel the heat of her poisoned breath against my skin. When she spoke, it was a definitive, chilling threat designed to shatter whatever sanity I had left. "Listen to me, and understand me perfectly. If that key is not in the palm of my hand within exactly three days from now, I will expose every single piece of your filthy, whoring garbage. I will tell the entire family exactly how you’ve been fucking his brother right under his nose. And when I do... he will rip your body to pieces in stone-cold blood."

I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat dry as ash, the chilling reality of a hangman’s noose tightening around my neck. "Fine... fine, I’ll do it," I choked out, watching my life line disintegrate. "I’ll do whatever it takes to get it."

She shoved my arm away with utter disgust. I didn’t waste a heartbeat I flew down the stairs to escape her shadow, only to find Alexander and Cedric waiting out in the concrete courtyard. Each of them was leaning against the door of his own luxury vehicle with a rigid, lethal defiance.

They looked like two apex predators of the Volkov mafia, their predatory eyes locked onto me, ready to tear me limb from limb.

Alexander pointed an authoritative, bone-dry finger toward his front passenger seat, his hawkish eyes tracking my every twitch. "Stephanie. Get in here next to me. Right now."

In that exact same breath, Cedric’s voice erupted, thick with a violent, consuming jealousy and absolute refusal to back down. "Stephanie! You’re riding with me!"

I froze right where I stood, completely pinned between their burning, hostile stares. My mind was screaming, totally paralyzed and terrified of the choice before me. If I climbed into either of their cars, I would personally ignite a brutal, bloody war between these brothers that wouldn’t end until someone was dead.

Acting on pure, frantic instinct, I unzipped my purse, wrapped my trembling fingers around my own car keys, and bolted toward my vehicle without looking back at either of them. I threw myself behind the wheel, slammed the doors shut, and hit the electronic locks with a loud click. Twisting the ignition, I jammed my foot onto the gas, the engine roaring as I peeled out of the courtyard like lightning.

I had to break this suffocating siege immediately, or the real disaster would strike right here.

Glancing at my rearview mirror, my stomach dropped. Their two massive luxury cars were tailing me with an aggressive, unhinged persistence, clinging to my bumper like twin black shadows refusing to let my soul go free. The second I pulled into the clinic’s parking lot, I practically threw my door open.

I sprinted inside in a breathless panic, not even waiting to see them park, and collapsed onto the cold plastic waiting room chairs. My chest heaved as I desperately tried to gather the scattered pieces of my sanity.

Not even sixty seconds passed before the heavy glass doors were violently shoved open.

Alexander and Cedric marched in side-by-side, their towering, lethal auras instantly consuming the room. The sheer, suffocating tension radiating from them flew like sparks, drawing shocked, uncomfortable stares from every single patient in the lobby.

Alexander moved with a calculated, icy precision, planting his large frame in the chair immediately to my right, his eyes scanning the room like a hawk. Cedric countered instantly, dropping heavily into the seat directly on my left with a roaring, blatant defiance. I was completely cornered.

Cedric leaned in close to me, his voice dropping into a low, gravelly rasp. He intentionally coated his words in a warm, heavy possessiveness, loud enough to cut straight into his brother’s ears. "I am so incredibly excited to finally see my babies today, Stephanie. To see how much they’ve grown."

Alexander didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. His response was dry, rigid, and completely tyrannical, his deep voice vibrating through the very metal of the chairs we were sitting on. "They are *my* children. By name and by law. Keep that tucked very tightly into your goddamn head."

I snapped my head left and right, my frayed, shattered nerves completely on the verge of snapping. "Stop this childish, humiliating bullshit right fucking now!" I whispered fiercely, my eyes swimming with a desperate plea. "We are in a public medical clinic and every single person is watching us. Do not start a goddamn scene in here, please!"