Chapter 209/To Share You

Chapter 209: 209/To Share You

Chapter 209

Stephanie’s point of view

I shook my head violently, throwing my hair back out of my face. A burning, toxic bitterness flooded my throat as my eyes darted frantically between their taut, intensely strained features. "If I stay under this roof... I will never be able to be faithful to just one of you and ignore the other! My wretched heart will inevitably weaken under the pressure, and I will want both of you together without any distinction!"

Alexander’s eyes narrowed into sharp, lethal slits. He locked his brilliant blue pupils deep into mine, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly dominant register that resonated through the entire room. "Then choose one of us right now, and let this living hell finally end."

"I can’t... I can’t do that!" I shrieked in utter despair.

Cedric took a predatory step closer, his intense grey stare pressing heavily against my very soul as he demanded fiercely, "Do it, Stephanie! Choose based on your raw feelings... who is the one person you truly want and need by your side?!"

My fractured gaze darted helplessly between them, a fatal, paralyzing impotence clawing at my chest. I looked at Alexander first those piercing blue eyes that reminded me of my very first love, the dominant man who had taught me through a brutal mix of cruelty and tenderness the true meaning of absolute submission to him alone.

Then, I wrenched my head to look at Cedric those captivating grey eyes, the man who possessed the terrifying power to make my heart hammer violently against my ribs with a single glance, and the biological father of the twins currently moving inside my womb.

My chest constricted with a physical, agonizing pain, and I hurled the toxic truth that shattered whatever remaining sanity we had left: "I can’t make a choice! I want both of you!"

Using their momentary shock to my advantage, I violently wrenched my wrists from their loosened grips. I turned and sprinted toward the door in a state of sheer hysteria.

My fingers trembled so violently the keys clattered loudly against the lock as I twisted them, throwing the door open and bursting out into the main corridor.

I nearly collided into Grandfather Victor, who was standing right there, his rigid features twisted in severe, startled disapproval. Beside him stood Valentina, her eyes wide with absolute horror from the echoes of our screaming match.

Grandfather stood his ground, his knuckles white as he leaned heavily on his cane, his voice booming with a sharp, terrifying authority. "What the hell is going on here, Stephanie?!"

I completely blocked them out, treating them like invisible ghosts as I sprinted toward the grand staircase, the hot tears blurring my vision until I was flying blind. I flew down the steps with weak, defeated strides, bursting through the main entrance of the estate as the freezing morning air slapped against my pale face.

I had barely taken a few frantic steps across the concrete courtyard when the heavy, rapid thud of racing footsteps echoed directly behind me. Within a split second, Cedric’s hand clamped down violently around my bicep from behind, forcing me to a violent halt. He spun me around, his face a mask of pure agony and desperate pleading. "I can’t let you walk away and erase yourself from my life like this, Stephanie... I love you to the point of absolute madness!"

I looked at him with shattered, weeping features, my voice dropping to a faint, breathless whisper as my spirit fractured. "Please, Cedric... don’t make this any more difficult than it already is!"

Before he could respond, Alexander appeared at the threshold of the mansion. His strides were slow, confident, and utterly imposing as he marched toward us, his blue eyes flashing with a rare, highly guarded anxiety I had never witnessed in him before. He spoke in a steady, rough baritone: "Please, Steph... don’t run away from this house in such a hysterical manner."

"Me leaving and staying far away from the both of you is the only real solution we have left!" I screamed through my tears.

Cedric’s jaw clenched so hard the muscles popped dangerously. He stepped directly into my personal space, looming over me with a calculated, fiercely possessive glare that dripped with unyielding dominance. "My children are inside your stomach, Stephanie. You are absolutely not going anywhere while carrying two pieces of my flesh and blood!"

I stumbled a step backward in stark bewilderment, staring at the raw, unyielding stubborness burning in his eyes. "Are you trying to hold me captive and force me to stay using your power, Cedric?!"

His shoulders dropped a fraction, his features remaining tightly strained as he replied coldly, "I’m not doing that... but you need to put the survival of your twins above everything else."

Alexander lifted his chin with an icy resolve, taking a deliberate step forward to complete my entrapment under his sharp blue stare. He spoke in a calm, dangerously stable tone that carried a lethal, hidden threat: "Have you completely forgotten that your father explicitly threatened to abort your babies and destroy them the second you leave our protection, Stephanie?"

A bitter, hollow laugh ripped from my throat as I aggressively wiped my tears with the back of my hand. "Yes... he threatened me with that in the past because I wasn’t bound by an official marriage contract! But now? My children will have a legitimate name and a lineage that will completely shield them from society even if I divorce you and live entirely on my own!"

Cedric let out a deep, heavy breath that seemed to burn his lungs. The lines of explosive fury suddenly vanished from his face, replaced by a sharp, terrifyingly intelligent scrutiny. He watched me as if he were slowly peeling back the defensive layers of my psychology, before asking with an eerie, calm quietness:

"What is it that you truly want right now, Stephanie?"

"I want to leave... I just want to be far away!" the words tumbled from my lips in a desperate, panicked lie.

He took a final, sudden step that closed every remaining inch of space between us, locking his smoky grey pupils into mine with an intense, hypnotic focus that stripped away any room to hide. He spoke in a low, breathless whisper that stole the air straight from my lungs:

"That is a complete lie. You don’t want to leave, and in the deepest corners of your soul, you don’t want to abandon us."

I blinked in sheer, panicked confusion, my voice dropping into a fragile whisper. "What... what do I want then, according to you?"

He tilted his head down slightly until his warm, ragged breath fanned against my pale cheeks, uttering the catastrophic words that shattered my entire existence to its core:

"You want both of us together... not just one."

A suffocating, dead silence stretched over the courtyard like an entire eternity, while Alexander’s steady, silent gaze remained fixed on every micro-expression flitting across my face. My tongue was completely tied, my fingers digging hard into the fabric of my dress in a tight, desperate knot, before my trembling whisper exposed all my cards.

"Yes... that’s true."

Cedric’s features locked into a complex, dark mask. His grey eyes held mine with a terrifyingly bold, predatory dominance that obliterated any remaining boundaries of restraint. He spoke in a rough, gravelly whisper:

"Am I to understand from this little confession... that you want the two of us to share you, Stephanie?"