Chapter 257: Anything for you, My Love

"What did you just say?" Chloe asked, rising to a sitting position in front of him. She needed to make sure that she hadn’t heard him incorrectly.

"I want both you and Seraphina as my girlfriends," Vlad said again, his voice even more tense but determined.

He had already closed his eyes and lowered his defences, expecting a punch or kick, but several seconds passed and nothing happened.

A suffocating silence stretched through the room.

He slowly lifted his head, finding Chloe sitting before him, pressing her temples. It was the first time he had seen her this stressed.

"Chloe..." he called, worried.

"Shut up!" she hissed.

"Okay."

Another two minutes passed. The silence was killing Vlad. He would rather have her beat him than leave him hanging on a cliff, wondering whether she would pull him up or throw him off.

"Scumbag Vlad," she finally spoke, making the poor man flinch.

"I know," Vlad accepted, his head lowered and his hands placed on his knees.

"Does Seraphina know about it?" she asked, crossing her arms before her.

Vlad nodded. Chloe’s brows twitched, a flicker of irritation appearing on her face.

"And she didn’t object to it?" Chloe asked further, her voice cold.

"I received a punch in the eye when I told her," Vlad revealed, his head still lowered.

"The audacity of that bitch," Chloe growled, tightening her fists.

Vlad was left stunned, slowly looking up at her with widened eyes. He never knew Chloe had that dawg in her to curse like that.

Hadn’t she just slammed him into the table barely an hour ago? He decided not to point that out.

"You shouldn’t curse like that," he said, his family instincts kicking in.

"..."

No response came from her. He decided to stay quiet for now. He was already walking a very thin line.

’So that was what she meant by those words,’ Chloe murmured inwardly, recalling the words that Seraphina had whispered in her ear back in her room.

’I’m willing to share.’

Her knuckles turned white as she realised, ’So she already knew Vlad liked me. Yet... she made me do all those embarrassing things.’

She could already imagine Seraphina swaying her hair with a smug smile and calling her a naive little girl.

’I’m going to kill her,’ Chloe growled inwardly, veins bulging across her forehead in fury.

Vlad took in a sharp gasp. He had never seen her this pissed.

"You," Chloe glared at Vlad.

"Yes," Vlad answered immediately.

She leaned forward, grabbed his collar, and muttered, "I don’t want to be your girlfriend."

Vlad’s face turned pale, his crimson eyes widening. "You can’t do that!" He immediately rejected her rejection. "We have already—"

"I want to be your wife!" she declared, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Vlad blinked. "Eh?"

Chloe absolutely didn’t want the same title as Seraphina in their relationship with Vlad. She needed to be higher in the hierarchy. And what could be higher than a wife?

Vlad hadn’t even processed her words when Chloe continued, "Let’s get married tomorrow."

"Hey, you are moving too fast." Vlad’s words fell on deaf ears. She did not seem to be in any state to listen at all.

A faint smile formed on Chloe’s lips as she realised an even better idea to make Seraphina eat dirt for humiliating her like this.

Chloe leaned closer, her pale lavender eyes looking at Vlad greedily. "L-let’s... make a baby—"

A sharp flick landed on Chloe’s forehead, snapping her head back.

"Anggg!!" she cried, holding her stinging forehead with both hands.

"Goddamn, what’s gotten into you?" Vlad exclaimed, his breathing uneven, obviously flustered by the nonsense Chloe had just blurted out.

The flick helped her return to a static state again. As the realisation of what she had just said in the heat of the moment dawned on her, the whiplash of embarrassment was even greater.

She turned onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow.

"Please forget what I just said," her muffled voice came from the pillow.

Vlad found her embarrassed figure so adorable. It was rare for Chloe to become this flustered, after all.

He gently poked her back and asked, "So, will you accept my relationship with her?"

Chloe gave him a side-eye from the pillow. "What will you do if I don’t?"

"I will convince you until you do."

"You are asking for too much."

"I know."

"Whom do you love more? Her or me?"

"..."

Chloe just growled. She knew he wouldn’t answer that question.

She rose to a sitting position again and ordered, "Close your eyes."

"Eh?" Vlad raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Just do it," Chloe insisted. "I want to ask some questions. But I can’t ask them when you are looking at me."

"Alright," Vlad obliged, closing his eyes.

"Promise that you won’t play favourites?" Chloe’s low but firm voice entered Vlad’s ears.

"I promise," Vlad immediately answered.

"Promise that you will not make me feel left out?" Her voice came from closer than before.

"I promise I never will."

"Promise that you will always treat me like your precious Chloe baby?" Her voice came just before his face. He could already feel her soft breath brushing against his skin, her lavender aroma filling his senses.

"I promise you will always be loved—"

Vlad hadn’t even finished his sentence when Chloe’s plump, soft lips sealed his mouth in a gentle kiss.

Only when her softness vanished from his lips as she moved back did Vlad slowly open his eyes.

Chloe sat before him with her eyes lowered and her face tinted with a rosy hue of shyness.

"Then that’s enough for me," Chloe murmured, her fingers fiddling with her sweater.

Vlad moved forward, pulling her into a hug. "Thank you so much, Chloe."

Chloe responded by wrapping her arms around his waist, the faint smile on her face becoming slightly, but noticeably, clearer than before.

She had never been happier, after all.

"Do you want to shower before sleeping?" Vlad asked, parting from her.

Chloe hadn’t planned to, as she always kept herself clean using Mana whenever she felt the need.

But now that Vlad had asked the unusual question, she thought that she might be stinking and that Vlad had phrased it this way because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

"Unh," she nodded.

She rose from the bed and reached the bathroom with its translucent glass walls.

Vlad kept looking at her with a smile of anticipation as she went inside.

In less than five seconds, she came out, holding a striking black gown in her hands. The dress was tight around the waist before flowing into a layered, bell-shaped, long white skirt.

"I-is this for me?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

"I’m not into cross-dressing," Vlad shrugged from the bed.

Chloe’s hand trembled as she tightly held the dress. "Wh-when did you buy it?"

"When you were in the changing room," Vlad revealed, his voice gentle. "Do you think I wouldn’t notice you looking at the dre—"

His words stopped mid-sentence as he saw the tears forming in her eyes.

"Chloe?"

She rushed towards him, only stopping once she reached his embrace on the bed. "Thank you..." she whimpered, her warm tears soaking into Vlad’s shirt against his chest.

The ten gold taels he had spent on the gown now felt like a dirt-cheap price to pay for the happiness it had brought Chloe.

"Anything for you, My love," Vlad replied, patting her head.