Chapter 61/The Volcano Erupts
Chapter 61: 61/The Volcano Erupts
Chapter 61
Alex’s point of view
"You can’t... you have no right!" he replied in a hoarse, desperate voice.
I laughed with biting mockery. "Really? Is Stephanie’s life and mine supposed to stop just because you don’t want it? Are you imposing celibacy on us while you go out, play, and fuck whatever women you want every night?"
"You can fuck a thousand women other than her if you want!" he replied with an insolence that stunned me. "I won’t stop you or blame you... just stay away from Stephanie!"
The fire ignited in my eyes, and I stepped toward him threateningly. "And will you stop Stephanie too? Or will you accept a stranger touching her instead of me?"
"No! I won’t allow any creature on earth to go near her!" he growled, the glint of murder in his eyes.
That was when my suppressed rage exploded. How could he grant himself the right to live his life to the fullest while wanting to turn Stephanie into a piece of furniture a private property locked in the cellar of his selfishness? "Cedric, you’re getting married tomorrow!" I shouted at him. "Isabella will be in your bed and you’ll fuck her as your wife. Do you want Stephanie to remain a nun living on the ruins of your memory?"
"Alex, that’s not our topic now," he said, turning his face away. "Don’t mix things up."
I drew closer until our foreheads touched. "You are a selfish person who sees only himself!" I said in a low voice. "You are the one who wronged her from the start. You got Stephanie pregnant knowing full well there was a high possibility of that, yet you deliberately ignored it to satisfy your desire.
You made her pregnant at a time when you knew perfectly well that your engagement to the Mafia’s daughter could never be canceled!"
"Shut up, Alex! Stop it!" he screamed, covering his ears.
But I didn’t stop. "I won’t be silent! I’m going to tell you the bitter truth you’re trying to escape. You are selfish to a disgusting degree. You turned that girl’s life upside down, destroyed her future, and made her face an unknown fate just because you wanted to have a good time!"
"Alex... I swear to you, I didn’t mean for things to get this complicated," he replied, his eyes on the ground, choked with shame.
I laughed with a bitter mockery that shook my core. "You didn’t mean to? You always use condoms, don’t you? I’ve seen your room drawer full of them. I even found them scattered in your car, and that one time they fell out of your pocket in front of everyone. Tell me then, why did you choose not to use one when you fucked her specifically? Did you want to bind her to you at any cost?"
A dead silence fell. His face contorted with obvious shame and regret. I finished in a final, lethal tone: "You are the only one to blame for this tragedy, Cedric. So please, stop playing the victim, and stay away from Stephanie for good. She has suffered enough pain because of you."
I turned toward my car with heavy steps, feeling a weariness gnawing at my soul. But his voice caught up with me again, like a final bullet piercing the silence: "Alex... did you fuck her?"
I couldn’t take this cursed siege anymore. I stopped in my tracks, took a deep breath, then turned to him and looked directly into his eyes. I spoke a single word, heavy as lead, that shook the very foundation of the place:
"Yes... I did."
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Stephanie’s Point of View
I sat on the edge of the massive bed, clutching my phone with hands that still trembled from the successive confrontations I had faced since morning. I felt a desperate need to escape this suffocating atmosphere, even if only through a phone call with the only person who truly understood me. I tapped on Kira’s name and waited, my pulse drumming in my ears.
As soon as she picked up, I spoke quickly, as if fearing someone might interrupt: "Hello... Kira? Are you there?"
Her voice came through the receiver, breathless and full of genuine concern: "Steph! You finally called! How are you, dear? My heart has been with you the whole time."
I sighed deeply, trying to push the tension out of my voice to reassure her. "I’m fine, don’t worry... things have settled down a bit."
"Are you really sure?" she asked skeptically; she knew my tone of voice by heart. "You sound so tired and exhausted."
I tried to force a smile she couldn’t see. "Kira, believe me, I’m okay. The situation is under control for now. No need for excessive worry."
Our conversation didn’t last long, however, as it was interrupted by soft, rhythmic knocks on the door. I froze for a moment, then whispered into the phone: "Kira, wait a second... someone’s at the door." I raised my voice slightly: "Come in, the door is open."
The door opened, and one of the maids entered, carrying a large glass bowl filled with a variety of colorful fruits, meticulously sliced. She approached me with a polite smile. "This is for you, madam. I hope you like it."
I looked at the bowl with obvious surprise. "Thank you, but I didn’t order any food right now."
The maid set the bowl on the small table in front of me and replied with a slight bow of her head: "Mr. Victor gave us strict orders to take special care of your nutrition. He brought a detailed list from a nutritionist and insisted that fruits and natural foods are vital for your health and the baby’s at this stage."
I felt a slight flicker of gratitude touch my heart; amidst all this conflict, someone was still thinking of my physical well-being. "I see... thank you very much for your care," I said with a calm smile.
As soon as the maid closed the door, I put the phone on speaker on the bed and reached out to pick up a crisp slice of apple. I began to chew slowly, then said playfully: "Did you hear all that, Kira? It seems I’m under strict nutritional surveillance here."
"Yes! Yes, I heard everything!" Kira said, her voice full of awe and excitement. "Oh Steph, it seems the Grandfather really cares about you! You’re so lucky to have found someone to look after you in that mysterious palace."
I laughed bitterly as I swallowed the apple slice, replying with dark sarcasm: "Yes... so lucky! You only say that because you haven’t seen the drama and conflicts behind these walls that have nearly driven me insane since I woke up."
Suddenly, Kira’s tone shifted to an irrepressible curiosity: "Let’s forget the problems for a moment... tell me, how was your first night as a wife? How was the... situation?"
I stopped eating entirely, feeling my cheeks flush with heat. "What kind of ridiculous question is that, Kira? You know very well the circumstances under which we married."
"Steph, don’t dodge!" she said with a mock pout and a giggle. "Come on, tell me any detail! Since when do you hide secrets of the closed bedroom from your best friend?"
"I’m not hiding anything," I replied, trying to keep my cool and not reveal the bitter truth. "Simply put, nothing noteworthy happened. Everyone was exhausted."
But Kira wasn’t convinced, persisting with a childish insistence: "Come on, Stephanie, confess! Two handsome people like you couldn’t have just spent the night in silence!"
I let out a faint laugh, born of desperation at her persistence. "Good God, what exactly do you want me to confess? Do you want a story from your imagination?"
"Did anything actually happen between you and Alex last night?" she asked with a boldness that made me laugh. "Did he get close to you?"
"I told you, nothing happened," I said, trying to stifle my laughter. "What’s wrong with you today? Have you been reading too many romance novels?"
Kira continued playfully, imagining the scene: "Steph, Alex looked so handsome and charming in his wedding suit yesterday... come on, don’t tell me he didn’t do anything romantic! What did you two do after the door was closed?"
I burst into laughter because Kira was so insistent on knowing intimate details that didn’t even exist. Due to the psychological pressure I was under, I decided to play along with biting irony to relieve my stress. "Fine, Kira, I’ll confess to you... it was a night beyond imagination! As soon as we entered, Alex swept me up in his arms like a princess and laid me gently on the bed."
Kira immediately understood I had entered a mode of sarcastic roleplay. She laughed and said enthusiastically: "Oh! Amazing! Yes, darling, continue this thrilling movie!"
I continued with a perfect performance, waving my hand in the air as if telling a fairytale: "He looked into my eyes and whispered: ’Steph, you are my wife now, and no one will pull us apart.’ Then I looked at him shyly and said: ’Yes, and you are my husband and my lover.’"
Kira laughed hard and asked mischievously: "Don’t tell me he took off that complicated wedding dress himself!"
At that moment, I suddenly remembered the sight of the torn, humiliated dress on the floor the one Alex had ripped last night because I was suffocating and he didn’t know how to unzip it. I decided to take this bitter truth and turn it into a sarcastic joke.
I said in a mock-dramatic voice:
"He tore it, Kira! Can you imagine? He ripped it to shreds and told me in a growling voice: ’Steph, I can’t take this anymore!’"
We both exploded into a fit of hysterical laughter at the nonsense I was inventing. But while my laughter filled the room, the door suddenly burst open with such force that it slammed against the wall. The laughter froze on my lips and turned into a gasp of terror.
Cedric stood there, at the threshold, his entire body trembling violently like a volcano about to erupt. His face was flushed with blood, and his eyes burned with a savage rage and madness I had never seen in him before. He looked at me with a gaze that was both shattered and lethal, as if the sarcastic words he had just overheard were daggers that had stabbed his heart and extinguished every last spark of hope he had left.
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[Well, I’ll say something: when I write about Cedric and Alex, I sympathize with both of them, but I didn’t expect to be torn between them because they both have very different personalities. But in this Chapter, I felt that Alexander’s words made such sense that for the first time I discovered Cedric’s selfishness. Dear readers, do you share my opinion? Please share your thoughts with me. ]
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