One Night Mistake… Now I Carry the Mafia Heir

Chapter 75: 75/Cedric’s Dark Claim

Chapter 75

Stephanie’s Point of View

My heart raced frantically, and I felt my entire body tremble. Alexander had identified my weakness with surgical precision; he knew that this authoritative approach stripped me of all my defenses and made me fragile before him. But before I could utter a single word or even gather my scattered thoughts, we heard the door handle being turned with abrupt violence.

I froze for a moment as if struck by lightning, silently thanking God a thousand times that the door was locked. Alexander must have quietly turned the key when he followed me in. I snatched my robe with lightning speed and wrapped it around my cold body with trembling hands, trying to cover myself, while the loud, rapid pounding on the door signaled a raging fury.

Alexander turned toward the door, his gentle features shifting into a mask of stone. "Who dares to attempt to open the door in such a barbaric manner?" he asked in a sharp, angry tone.

He strode toward the door with broad, confident steps and opened it, only for us to find Cedric standing there. His eyes were flashing with sparks, and his features were as taut as a violin string. Cedric asked sharply and immediately, his gaze trying to pierce the space behind Alexander: "Why are you locking the door, Alexander?"

"That is none of your business," Alexander replied with a cold aloofness, standing firmly in his way to block his view. "And tell me, since when do you open doors without knocking and waiting for permission?"

"I’m in a hurry, and I don’t have time for formalities," Cedric answered, exhaling with clear frustration as if he were suffocating.

"What happened? Is something wrong?" Alexander asked, his tone suspiciously calm.

"I don’t think we should leave Grandfather alone in his room tonight," Cedric said, shifting his gaze inward, trying to spot me. "It doesn’t seem safe."

I was baffled by Cedric’s sudden words, and a knot tightened in my chest. Why was he exaggerating like this? Grandfather had seemed fine and stable hours ago. "Has he fallen ill again? Did you call the doctor?" Alexander asked with genuine concern.

"No," Cedric replied with a strange sternness. "But I’ve decided we must take turns sleeping with him. He shouldn’t be left alone."

Alexander raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What? Why now, specifically? The room is equipped with every comfort!"

"Look," Cedric replied, casting sharp glances between us as if he could smell our tension in the air. "You go to him now. Stay by his side, and in exactly three hours, I’ll come to relieve you."

Alexander shook his head in confusion, trying to process this sudden insistence. "Cedric, do you really want us to take turns sleeping with him like guards? Does my grandfather’s health condition warrant this level of alert?"

Cedric took another step closer, speaking in a tone carrying an implicit threat that sent a shiver down my spine: "If anything happens to him tonight, it will be your fault alone. I’ve already set the alarm; in three hours, I’ll be in his room."

Alexander sighed in surrender, as if he didn’t want to engage in a losing battle right now. "Fine, Cedric. I’ll go now to calm your fears."

Meanwhile, Cedric’s fleeting glances pierced me like needles every time he spoke, as if he were trying to read the details of my flushed face or find a trace of what had been happening in the room moments before. "Go on, Alexander... go now," Cedric said in a commanding tone.

Alexander turned to me. "Sleep and rest, Stephanie. I’m going to check on Grandfather."

Alexander left the room and closed the door behind him. I remained standing in the middle of the room, distracted and bewildered. Did Grandfather’s condition really require this? Or was there another game being played? I collapsed onto the bed in my bathrobe, feeling a massive weight in my head.

My mind was a battlefield between the image of Cedric kissing Isabella and the authority of Alexander that I had almost fully submitted to.

After a short while, I heard the door handle turn again. I jumped up quickly and sat on the edge of the bed, my eyes widening in total shock when I saw Cedric entering the room instead of Alexander.

"Cedric! What are you doing here? Didn’t you go to your room?" I asked in a shaky voice.

He closed the door behind him with an eerie calmness and advanced toward me with slow, confident steps that made me instinctively recoil on the bed. "Stephanie," he said, his eyes burning with a fire I had never seen before.

"Didn’t I warn you a thousand times not to get close to my brother in that way?"

"What is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind?" my voice trembled as I answered him. "Get out of my room right now before I call for help!"

He didn’t budge an inch; instead, he drew closer until his shadow loomed over me. "I won’t," he hissed. "I’m here because I want to feel my children in your womb the children Alexander is despicably trying to steal from me and from my rights as a father."

"Cedric, calm down," I replied, trying to soothe him despite my terror. "No one is stealing your children. They are your sons."

"Yes, he is!" he shouted with a bitterness that shattered the room’s silence. "He plays the role of the perfect father and the tender husband, while I... what? Am I to be deprived of you and them just like that? Do you think I’ll just stand by and watch?"

"Cedric, get out," I said with a pang of pain, remembering his previous stabs. "I haven’t forgotten yet how you hurt me and crushed my dignity with your harsh words."

Words rushed from his mouth like molten lead: "Because it was you who crushed me first, Stephanie! Tell me, how did you let him touch you? How could you sleep with him on your damned wedding day while I was burning with pain and jealousy?"

I gathered all my strength and said through my grief, tears choking me: "Really? Were you in pain while you were lost between Isabella’s lips in the hallway?"

"I didn’t do that," he answered with cold denial.

"You lied to me!" I screamed at him, no longer caring about anything. "You told me you never touched her, yet you came to kiss her right in front of me to coldly break what was left of my heart!"

He looked into my eyes with a terrifying depth and suddenly asked in a low voice: "Do you feel now what I was feeling, Stephanie? Have you tasted the fire that consumed me?"

I couldn’t handle this psychological manipulation anymore. "Go to your fiancée who is waiting for you!" I said sharply.

"I’ve already taken her home," he replied with a sudden, shocking coldness.

I froze, completely taken aback. Wasn’t she planning to stay the night? "What? You took her home?"

"Yes," he said, pinning me with his merciless gaze. "I couldn’t stand the thought of you and Alexander being in one room behind a locked door. I took her back on the pretext that I would stay with Grandfather tonight."

"But Alexander is the one who went to sleep with him!" I said, failing to understand.

"Yes, that’s what I wanted," he answered with cunning and precise planning. "After I dropped her off, I came back and convinced him that he should go to Grandfather’s room first... so I could be alone with you."

Did he pull all these stunts just to be alone with me? But the bitterness of what I had seen still scorched my soul. "Cedric, I’m saying this once... get out of here now!" I said sternly.

He drew even closer until I felt the heat of his body radiating against me. "And if I refuse to leave?" he challenged.

"I will scream at the top of my lungs and expose you in front of everyone!" I threatened desperately.

He replied with a provocative, confident smile: "You won’t do that, Stephanie. You know you can’t."

I opened my mouth to let out a deafening scream that would shake the palace, but in the blink of an eye and with miraculous speed, he lunged at me, clamping his strong hand over my mouth before any sound could escape. We fell onto the bed together from the force of his momentum, and he was right on top of me, pinning my body with his weight and stifling my screams with his hand.

"Really, Stephanie?" he whispered, staring into my terrified eyes from zero distance. "Were you actually going to scream?"

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"Dedicated to Rockst3ady, for the Magic Castle and the incredible support.

In the world of stories, where shadows play,

Your kindness has brightened my darkest day.

Not just with a Castle, though it stands so tall,

But with your belief, the greatest gift of all.

You saw the tension, the love, and the fire,

You lifted my words and my creative desire.

For every Chapter and every line I trace,

Your support is the light, your heart is the grace.

Thank you, Rockst3ady, for the magic you bring,

In the empire we’re building, you are the true Queen.

I will always love you "