Chapter 168/The Ultimate Disaster

Chapter 168: 168/The Ultimate Disaster

Chapter 168

Stephanie’s point of view

The moment the exam was over, I violently yanked my hands free from their suffocating, possessive grips. I practically scrambled off the table, moving in a near-sprint toward the exit, desperate to escape back to my car.

I threw myself behind the steering wheel, my shaking fingers clutching the glossy ultrasound printouts against my chest like they were the most valuable treasures on earth. I slammed the door shut with a deafening rattle. I was not going to sit here and endure another vile, degrading street fight in a public parking lot. I turned the key, slammed on the gas, and tore away from them for the second time today.

When I finally reached the palace, I slipped through the grand foyer with extreme caution, my eyes darting into the shadows. The coast was entirely clear none of the family members were in sight. I let out a long, ragged exhale of pure relief. But within seconds, the massive front doors were violently rattled on their hinges as they were thrown open.

Cedric stormed into the house like a category-five hurricane, actual red sparks of homicidal jealousy and deep betrayal burning in his eyes.

"Stephanie," he hissed, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper so the maids wouldn’t overhear. "Get the fuck upstairs right now. No arguments."

I turned to face him, my entire body trembling with sheer, physical exhaustion, my eyes breaking as I pleaded with him. "Cedric... please, for the love of God, just leave me the hell alone. I am so tired, and my body is literally collapsing from this pregnancy."

He advanced on me with the long, predatory strides of a panther, completely deaf to my begging, utterly blind to my weakness. "I said, get up there!" he snarled, his possessiveness turning violent.

His hand clamped around my wrist like a set of steel handcuffs, and he brutally dragged me behind him, his long legs eating up the stairs with an unyielding, stubborn rage. He kicked his bedroom door open with his boot, shoved me into the room, and slammed it shut behind us with a deafening bang that shook the frame. Planting his broad shoulders flat against the wood, he effectively blocked the exit, trapping me inside his space.

His voice vibrated with a lethal, toxic hatred born of pure fury and paranoia. "How the hell does Alexander dare to state with that much goddamn confidence that your marriage isn’t on paper?! Tell me the fucking truth, Stephanie!"

I shook my head, consumed by a bitter, helpless despair. "Cedric... please. Stop digging into this. Stop ripping my goddamn nerves to shreds."

He took one explosive step forward, closing the distance until his hot, ragged breath was scalding against my pale cheek. His manic, furious eyes burned directly into my pupils with a terrifying cruelty. "Give me the truth without the fucking games, Stephanie! Stop running from me like you always do! Are you... are you actually fucking him?! Are you sleeping in his goddamn bed, wrapped up in his arms?! Tell me!"

"Cedric!" I screamed in an absolute panic, a desperate, wild denial tearing out of me to protect him from his own homicidal insanity. "I have told you a thousand goddamn times that I am absolutely not doing that! My marriage to him is a rescue mission, nothing more!"

He ground his teeth together, a deep, agonizing bitterness slicing through his voice. "The two of you had a past! A hot, passionate relationship before I ever even knew you existed! Has this fake marriage turned into something real?! Do not fucking lie to me!"

"You don’t believe a single goddamn thing I say anyway!" I yelled back, bitter tears finally pooling over my eyelids and burning trails down my face. "The jealousy is literally eating your mind alive!"

"Because he was so fucking confident!" Cedric roared back, his voice thick with a strangled, helpless rage. "He was so terrifyingly calm and steady with his words down there, Stephanie! He wasn’t playing a game, and he wasn’t throwing words into the wind!"

I swallowed down the scalding lump in my throat, my brain working at hyper-speed to construct a final, desperate lie to save us all from total destruction. "He only did that because he is a narcissistic piece of trash!" I lied, my voice frantic as I spun the tale. "He completely refused to look weak in front of you and his grandfather! Do you honestly think he would just admit to your face that our marriage is a total sham?! It is purely a marriage of convenience on paper, and he is doing everything in his power to protect his pride and his macho mafia ego so you don’t mock him!"

His eyes narrowed in deep, guarded suspicion, his frantic mind visibly weighing the words, analyzing the trap. "So... he only wanted me to believe that to get under my skin? To trigger my jealousy so I’d back off?"

I nodded my head rapidly, my movements frantic, almost hysterical as I cemented the deception. "Exactly! That is all it is! It’s just a pathetic war of egos between the two of you, I swear to God. Believe me."

He let out a violent, shuddering exhale, a massive sound that made it seem like the weight of the entire world had just been lifted off his broad chest. In a single, fraction-of-a-second ambush, his powerful hands shot out and wrapped tightly around my waist. With a breathless, desperate pull, he violently hauled my body flush against his hard, burning chest.

His head dropped instantly, his lips slamming into mine in a scorching, deeply possessive kiss. It was violent, frantic, and dripping with a raw, consuming jealousy that completely stole the oxygen right out of my lungs.

Even though every single square inch of my exhausted mind was screaming and weeping that this was completely fucked up, that it was a forbidden betrayal, and even though I knew damn well that that toxic bitch Valentina was lurking somewhere in this palace and could catch us at any second to end my life in a public scandal... I couldn’t find a single ounce of strength left in my broken body to stop him. I couldn’t push him away. I just collapsed into the heavy warmth of his kiss.

He dragged his lips away from mine with agonizing slowness, his hot, ragged breaths fanning across my skin in an act of pure adoration. His eyes were dark, dilated with a blind, terrifying possessiveness as he whispered, "I can’t fucking take it... I can’t handle the thought of any other goddamn creature in this universe touching your skin or coming near you but me, Stephanie."

I stared deep into his longing, fractured eyes, the pitch-black reality of my circumstances and my desperate need to keep him alive forcing the ultimate false promise from my lips. "I am yours alone... always and forever, Cedric. Don’t worry."

Suddenly, without a single whisper of warning, the internal bathroom door was violently kicked open, slamming against the wall with a deafening crash. Isabella stood in the doorway, her features completely paralyzed in a pale, deathly shock.

Her eyes were stretched wide with pure, unadulterated horror as a hysterical scream tore from her throat.

"What the living hell am I looking at?!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the walls. "You cheating, disgusting pieces of trash! What kind of low-class fucking whoring is this?!"