Chapter 201/To the Bedroom Now

Chapter 201: 201/To the Bedroom Now

Chapter 201

Stephanie’s point of view

Her words sent a sudden surge of raw fury rushing through me, scorching away the last remnants of my forced patience. Tossing aside any shred of submission, I snapped my chin up, my voice cutting through the air like a targeted arrow.

"Watch your mouth, Claire. Not everyone needs plastic surgery to make up for what they’re lacking."

The smug sneer vanished from Claire’s face instantly. Her jaw slackened in stunned silence, her eyes widening in absolute shock; she clearly hadn’t expected a single backbone from the girl she remembered as broken and defenseless.

I spun on my heel, facing Vincent, and stated with icy finality:

"I’m leaving."

But before I could even take a single step toward the door, his powerful arm whipped around my waist. With a sudden, iron-like grip, he hauled me flush against his hard, solid chest, completely robbing me of any chance to break free. My eyes collided with his dark, unreadable ones as he tilted his head down.

When he spoke, his voice was a deep, shockingly warm timber that I had never heard from him before.

"Stephanie, sweetheart... why are you in such a rush to leave?"

The blood instantly turned to ice in my veins. A jolt of pure shock surged through my limbs, leaving me entirely paralyzed. *Sweetheart?* My god, what was this lunatic doing? He was playing the exact same twisted game he had pulled on me yesterday, using me as his chess piece.

Claire gasped dramatically, her voice cracking with a mixture of disbelief and soaring jealousy as she shrieked:

"Your sweetheart?!"

Vincent tilted his head back, his grip around my waist tightening even further as he looked down at her with insufferable, effortless arrogance.

"Yes. You heard me correctly, Claire," he replied coldly.

Margaret recoiled on the sofa, standing up so abruptly her breath hitched. The polished, aristocratic dignity completely drained from her face, replaced by a wild, disgusted rage at the mere thought of me being in her son’s life. She pointed a trembling, jewel-adorned finger at me, turning to Claire with blatant, public contempt.

"Claire, darling... she is absolutely not his girlfriend. She is nothing but a cheap whore chasing after his money and status!"

In that exact fraction of a second, a roaring, savage shout exploded from Vincent’s chest, vibrating through the very foundation of the estate. The sheer ferocity of his voice made me flinch violently in his grasp.

"One more disrespectful word about Stephanie... and I will ruin every single one of you without a second thought!"

The room plunged into a suffocating, terrified silence. His towering rage carried a very real, lethal promise, and even I having only ever seen him as a cold, calculating machine in absolute control of his emotions felt a genuine shiver of fear run down my spine at the sheer violence in his voice.

His mother took a trembling step back, desperately trying to piece her shattered authority back together, her voice shaking as she whispered:

"Is this how you insult us in your own home? Because of *her*?"

Vincent’s dark eyes burned with a lethal, warning fire. His voice dropped to a quiet, breathless threat.

"I am not insulting you. You are the ones insolently offending the woman I love."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Claire’s face turn as white as a corpse. Tears of bitter humiliation and suffocating jealousy welled in her eyes as she whimpered:

"Look at her, Dominic... she’s just a—"

"I warned you, Claire," Vincent cut her off, his voice dropping to a freezing, absolute zero as he raised his hand in a sharp, commanding gesture that choked the words right back down her throat. "Not another word about her."

Within a heartbeat, the terrifying storm of rage vanished from his face, and his signature, lethal calm washed back over his features.

He turned his elegant frame, resting his hand against the small of my back with a sickeningly sweet, possessive tenderness, guiding me toward the grand staircase.

He threw his final words over his shoulder with a chilling indifference that shook the room:

"Excuse us. My girlfriend and I are going up to the bedroom now."

My feet moved automatically, stripped of my own free will. His hand remained clamped tightly around my waist, keeping me flush against him with a crushing force that made any attempt to resist or pull away impossible. We retreated up the sweeping marble staircase in a slow, deliberately provocative stride, leaving behind a suffocating silence.

The only sound following us was the ragged, tearful hitch of Claire’s breath, and the weight of Margaret’s stare, which I felt boring into my back like poisoned daggers.

The moment we rounded the corner of the vast upper hallway, completely out of their sight, I wrenched myself out of his arms with everything I had. I stumbled back a few steps, my back hitting the cold hard wall as my entire body trembled from pure shock and adrenaline. My chest heaved with shallow, frantic gasps. I stared at him, my eyes wide with disbelief and accusation.

Vincent, however, remained a picture of absolute composure. He stood there, calmly using his long fingers to adjust the cuff of his sleeve with utter indifference.

"What the hell was that downstairs, Mr. Vincent?!" I breathed, my voice shaking with a mixture of rage and disgust at his little performance. "What kind of sick game are you dragging me into now? Your girlfriend? How dare you call me that! I thought this matter was put to rest yesterday!"

Not a single flicker of emotion crossed his face. He merely tilted his head, his sharp eyes locking onto mine with an infuriating calm. Without a word, he turned and walked with confident strides toward the heavy double doors of his master bedroom at the end of the hall. Restingly his palm on the brass handle, he pushed the door open slowly, then glanced back at me with a condescending, mocking look.

"Get inside, Miss Miller," he said, his voice low, carrying a gravelly, authoritative rasp. "I am not in the mood to have a loud argument in the hallway for everyone downstairs to hear."