Chapter 69/The Forgotten Grudge

Chapter 69: 69/The Forgotten Grudge

Chapter 69

Stephanie’s Point of View

I climbed the stairs, my body convulsing with terrifying tremors. I was no longer able to gather the scattered pieces of my soul, which had been trampled under Cedric’s feet. Every cell in me was screaming in pain; the thought of Cedric the man to whom I had given my heart in a moment of weakness treating Isabella with such excessive tenderness was like a knife carving through my dignity.

My mind lashed me with his image as a vile traitor: he had hurt me, deceived me, and thrown me into the hell of a hollow marriage to his brother. Yet, my damned heart was burning with grief as I saw him drowning in someone else’s eyes, planning a future that included children with her, and retreating with her into a single room under the same roof that housed us all.

Alexander entered the room behind me, not granting me even a second to catch my breath. He shot me a gaze as sharp as a blade and spoke in a voice heavy with suspicion: "What is wrong with you, Stephanie? Why are you shaking like this? Have the fires of jealousy ignited in your chest just at the sight of Cedric with his fiancée?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to banish the ghost of their image from my imagination. "Alexander... please, stop this," I said with lethal weakness. "I am in no condition to engage in any discussion right now. I just want to breathe."

But he didn’t retreat. He stepped closer, narrowing his eyes sternly. "Tell me truthfully, did it tear your heart out to see Cedric drowning in Isabella’s kisses? Does it hurt you to realize that you are no longer in his calculations?"

I felt a suffocation tightening around my throat. The psychological and physical pressure was immense, and I could no longer keep it bottled up. I exploded at him in desperate agitation: "Enough! I’m leaving this room; the air here is stifling!"

"Stephanie! Where are you going at this hour?" he shouted in bewilderment. But I didn’t wait to hear the rest of his sentence. I had already turned the doorknob and stepped into the hallway. If I had stayed a single second longer with his interrogations, I felt my soul would have left my body or I would have collapsed again.

I descended the stairs with stumbling steps, searching for any quiet corner. Suddenly, a faint moan and a strange thud reached my ears from inside the office. I pushed the door open quickly, my panic preceding me, and the blood froze in my veins. Grandfather Victor was lying on the luxurious carpet beside his desk, motionless! I knelt beside him, horror gnawing at my chest. "Mr. Victor! Grandfather! Can you hear me? Please, answer me!"

There was no reaction. I stood up like a madwoman and ran back up the stairs, forgetting my fatigue and weakness. I threw my bedroom door open violently. Alexander had removed his blazer and was heading to the bathroom. I screamed at him in a terrifying tone: "Alexander! Hurry! Your grandfather collapsed on the floor in the office !"

He froze, shock paralyzing his limbs.

"What? What happened to him?"

"I don’t know!" I answered, tears beginning to carve their path down my cheeks. "I found him lying there, and he’s not responding to me!"

Alexander ran downstairs like a hurricane, shouting at me authoritatively: "Call Cedric immediately! We need his help!"

I headed toward Cedric’s suite and pushed the door open without a thought for the consequences or even a simple knock.

And there... the lightning strike fell, incinerating what remained of my dignity. Cedric was standing in the middle of the room, bare-chested, with Isabella in her underwear clinging to him, drowning with her in a brutal, frantic kiss.

The blood froze in my veins, and my body turned into a block of ice. Cedric looked at me in total shock, his breath coming in gasps, while the fires of jealousy and oppression consumed my insides mercilessly. I couldn’t utter a word of love or reproach; the situation was beyond any language. I spoke in a mechanical, choked voice dripping with bitterness: "Your grandfather collapsed unconscious in the office... Alexander is waiting for you."

I turned quickly and fled the room, tears burning my eyes. The sight was beyond my human capacity to endure; the image of his body pressed against hers was branded into my memory like an unquenchable fire.

I entered the office. Alexander was holding the phone with a trembling hand, speaking to the doctor: "Yes, Maurice... please hurry, Grandfather is completely unconscious... fine, I’ll do what you said now."

He hung up and began to loosen his grandfather’s tie with trembling hands. "What’s wrong with him, Alexander? Is his heart okay?" I asked in genuine terror.

"I don’t know, Stephanie," he answered, rubbing his forehead with agonizing tension. "This is the first time in my life I’ve seen him in this state."

At that moment, Cedric entered the room, his shirt open he hadn’t found the time to button it. His eyes darted around the room in immense anxiety. "What happened to Grandfather? How did he fall?"

"Stephanie found him by chance on the floor and came to tell me," Alexander replied with clear coldness, trying to help his grandfather.

"Alexander, no time to talk," Cedric said in a strained voice, leaning down to lift him. "Let’s carry him immediately and put him on the sofa to rest."

"No!" I shouted with a sudden sharpness that made them stop in their tracks as if I had fired a gun. "Don’t you dare do that! Leave him where he is; you cannot carry him now!"

Alexander looked at me in great surprise and asked with frustration: "What are you saying? Are we going to leave him lying on the floor like this?"

"Yes, staying flat on the floor right now is the safest thing for him," I answered with a strange, firm calm, kneeling back down beside the Grandfather.

My hands began to move with quick spontaneity. I undid the top buttons of his shirt to free his neck and ensure he wouldn’t suffocate. "Alexander, quickly... bring me the pillows from the sofa," I said, without raising my eyes toward Cedric.

Alexander rose immediately to do as I asked, while my trembling fingers reached out to undo the Grandfather’s belt to relieve any pressure on his abdomen and body. Cedric asked in a sharp, disapproving tone: "What the hell are you doing? Why are you undoing his clothes?"