Chapter 208/A Selfish, Toxic Woman

Chapter 208: 208/A Selfish, Toxic Woman

Chapter 208

Stephanie’s point of view

Both brothers completely ignored the frantic shouting from the outside world, as if the entire universe had been violently reduced to the four walls of this bedroom. Alexander stepped back to the center of the room, folding his arms across his chest. He shot me a flat, piercing stare that dripped with absolute authority, uttering a decisive command:

"Speak, Stephanie... go on." He tilted his head slightly toward Cedric. "Tell him the exact same thing you just proudly confessed to me. Don’t be shy!"

I squeezed my eyes shut, my chest heaving in rapid, suffocating gasps as the floorboards seemed to tilt beneath my feet. I grabbed the edge of the mattress, forcing myself back up onto my shaking legs. Opening my eyes, I stared directly into both of their waiting, intense gazes, speaking in a trembling, yet crystal-clear voice:

"I... I could not choose one of you under any circumstance! My wretched heart beats for both of you with the exact same power, and it wants both of you without a single distinction!"

Cedric slammed both of his palms against his head in a frantic, hysterical motion. He recoiled backward, his boots tripping slightly over the edge of the rug as he retreated with ragged, maddened steps, his expression completely distorted by the sheer weight of his shock as he let out a choked shriek:

"Have you completely lost your godforsaken mind?! Have you lost your sanity and all restraint to speak such absolute madness?!"

"Cedric! You know perfectly well that I love you and that my feelings for you are entirely real!" I wept in agonizing pain, taking a desperate step toward him. Then, I sharply turned my face toward Alexander, a burning lump rising in my throat as blinding tears smeared my vision: "And I love you too, Alexander... I love both of you in this horribly twisted, broken way!"

Cedric gripped his head tightly, his eyes completely anchoring into the empty space on the floor before him. He slowly slid his back down the wall until he was crouching, murmuring in a breathless, hollow tone overflowing with pure despair:

"Maybe I am genuinely trapped in a horrific nightmare... Maybe I am just dreaming, and I’ll wake up in a moment to find that all of this has vanished."

I let out a bitter, mocking weep through my cascading tears, my voice shaking as I watched him collapse.

"To our absolute misfortune... this is the grotesque reality we are actually living in." I reached out, holding onto the bedpost to keep myself steady. "And I can no longer tolerate hiding this secret or playing the role of the devoted wife for another single day."

Alexander fixed his unyielding pupils onto my face. The raw lines of blinding fury completely drained from his features, replaced by a chilling, razor-sharp indifference. He calmly pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket, casually wiping the blood from his torn knuckles without once breaking eye contact. He spoke in his stable, gravelly, and deeply quiet voice:

"So... you were lying and playing games with both of us from the very beginning. That much is clear."

I wiped the tears from my cheeks with a sharp, aggressive movement of my hand. I marched over to the armchair, my fingers trembling violently as I snatched up my leather purse. I cast one final look at the two of them a gaze overflowing with brokenness and absolute defeat.

I walked past Alexander and stood directly before the locked door, my tone dropping to a definitive, ice-cold finality that brought this entire hell to a grinding halt:

"I am truly sorry. And now, I am leaving this place, and I will not remain for a single second longer." I reached out, unlocked the door with a sharp flick of my wrist, and pulled it wide open. "I will get a divorce from you as soon as humanly possible, Alexander, and I am taking my children to live with them alone entirely away from your family and your suffocating power. I won’t cause any more problems for you after today."

I lunged desperately toward the closed wooden door, my mind completely consumed by a frantic desire to escape this suffocating cage, but their towering frames paralyzed my attempt within a split second. Alexander’s massive hand shot out, wrapping around my wrist in a crushing, authoritative grip. His striking blue eyes locked onto me, completely freezing my movement, as he spoke in a rough, gravelly baritone that brooked no argument.

"You aren’t going anywhere, Stephanie. Absolutely not in this state."

Tears streamed hotly down my cheeks. I yanked feebly against his iron grip, my voice cracking into a jagged, broken plea. "Alex... please, just let me go in peace. I am begging you!"

Before the words could even clear my lips, Cedric moved with lethal swiftness. His warm palm slammed down around my other wrist, pinning my arms on both sides and completely paralyzing my entire body under their collective dominance. Cedric’s fingers tightened with an agonizing, raw desperation, his stormy grey eyes frantically scanning my tear-stained face with a buried horror.

"You are staying right here," Cedric commanded, his voice trembling under the strain. "You are not stepping a single foot out of this suite."

I looked between their taut, unyielding faces in absolute despair, the crushing weight of reality slamming into my chest until I could barely draw air. I let out a choked, broken sob. "I can’t stay between the two of you! Don’t you damn well understand?! I’m a traitor... a selfish, toxic woman who wanted both of you for herself, never stoping to think for a single second about the sheer depravity of what she was doing. This entire situation is twisted and completely wrong!"

Alexander’s grip relaxed just a fraction, the harsh pressure shifting into a possessive, pleading caress. He leaned his imposing frame directly into my space until his hot, ragged breaths fanned across my skin. "I can’t breathe or live without you, Steph. Put that down as an absolute rule inside your head."

A profound, visible heartbreak flashed through Cedric’s grey eyes, his jaw ticcing violently as he let out a breathless, ragged rasp. "And me... I will completely lose my mind and shatter into pieces without you, Stephanie."