Chapter 198/Begging for Death

Chapter 198: 198/Begging for Death

Chapter 198

Stephanie’s POV

Silence draped over the room like a heavy concrete wall. Breath was completely cut off between us as Grandfather Victor’s eyes flashed with a burning, hostile glare, locking his pupils onto Valentina’s trembling frame.

I felt my pulse hammering violently against my temples as I monitored the dramatic shift in her features. The defiant, arrogant confidence she had been weaponizing just seconds ago utterly evaporated. In its place settled a sudden, paralyzing terror that turned her face as pale as a corpse, her fingers clutching the bedsheets with a hysterical tightness, as if desperately searching for an impossible lifeline.

Valentina quickly turned toward the grandfather, her jaw trembling violently as her face painted a portrait of genuine, desperate fear of losing her leverage over him. Her breathless, rasped words tumbled out in a frantic rush: "V... Victor! I swear to you, this is a lie! Please don’t believe her... Stephanie is just making this up to ruin our relationship and make me look like a traitor in your eyes!"

I didn’t utter a single word. Instead, I stared at her in a stunned silence that completely robbed me of my ability to speak, utterly paralyzed by the sheer audacity of her deceit and her rapid manipulation of the truth. She continued in a voice thick with forced tears, taking a stumbling step toward the old man: "You know how devoted I am to you... Alexander is nothing to me but my sister’s husband, and I have never once thought of him in any other way! She is just jealous of my closeness to you, and she wants to protect her status at any cost!"

Grandfather Victor’s features twitched for a few seconds. His eyes darted suspiciously between her tear-stained cheeks and my rigid posture of absolute contempt. With a calculated, agonizing slowness, the harshness of his expression began to soften. The raging fury was gradually replaced by a cold, quiet composure, accompanied by a look of sheer smugness and reclaimed control. It was as if his desperate desire to believe her lies was his only way of preserving his pride as an aging man who needed to feel in absolute command.

The corners of Grandfather Victor’s lips curled into a cold, mocking smirk. He shot me a look dripping with disgust and warning, his gravelly voice dropping back into its steady, unwavering tone: "I knew it... Your cheap, petty tricks are highly transparent, Stephanie. You are desperately trying to spark a fit of jealousy to cover your own shock and tarnish your sister’s image in my eyes."

My eyes widened in absolute, staggering shock, my shattered whisper barely escaping my trembling lips: "You... you actually believe her? After everything she said?!"

Valentina turned her entire body toward me. The mask of fear completely vanished from her face, replaced by a malicious, victorious glare saturated with sheer defiance. She lifted her chin with disgusting boldness, throwing a poisonous, silent smirk in my direction as she stepped back to stand close to the grandfather, as if declaring herself safely under his absolute protection.

Grandfather Victor took a deep breath, pulling his robe tightly around his frame with rigid finality. He took a heavy, decisive step toward the door, opening it quietly. He pointed his index finger at me, his tone dropping to a freezing ice: "Get out of my room this instant, Stephanie... and do not let your sheer stupidity make you think you can play mind games with me ever again."

I couldn’t bear to stand in this swamp of lies and filth for a single second longer. A violent wave of nausea swept through my chest. I rushed out with breathless, stumbling steps. But just as my hand trembled against the door handle to escape this hell, Grandfather Victor turned his massive frame fully toward me. The cold, marble-like composure completely melted off his face, replaced by a dark, savage look as his pupils dilated with a raw malice I had never seen in him before. He took a single step toward me, his towering shadow completely swallowing my trembling frame. With a slow, terrifying movement, his thick index finger rose, stopping a mere inch from my face.

He delivered a low, raspy hiss that carried the weight of a deadly warning:

"Stephanie... listen to me carefully, and carve my words deep into your tiny brain. If a single word if even a passing whisper of what you saw here escapes this room... if Alexander, Cedric, or any living soul on this earth finds out about this relationship... I swear I will do things to you that your human mind cannot even begin to comprehend. I will make you beg for death every single second of your existence, and you will not find it."

I froze completely in place, my breath catching in my chest as his eyes pierced through my consciousness with a terrifying, merciless vow. My jaw trembled violently. I turned in absolute horror toward Valentina, who was watching his threats with a cold, mocking smirk, clearly taking immense pleasure in seeing me broken and terrified.

I couldn’t survive another second in this cesspool of threats and deceit. I took several frantic, stumbling steps backward, then bolted out of the room. My bare feet sprinted madly across the cold hardwood floor of the hallway, desperate to leave behind that den of impurity and the malicious smirk that remained vividly burned into my mind.

I rushed back into my bedroom, my breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps as if I had just escaped the talons of a wild beast. I carefully closed the door behind me, leaning my back against the cold wood as I pressed my shaking fingers against my chest, desperately trying to quiet the frantic pounding of my heart and dispel the thick fog of disgust that clouded my mind after what I had just witnessed downstairs.

Staring blankly around the room, desperately seeking an escape for my racing mind, I whispered to myself in a breathless, low murmur: "This is none of your business, Stephanie... absolutely none of your business. Just focus on your own life."