Chapter 985. I Can’t Wait To See The Look Of Her Reaction! (Gonna Be Peak)

Chapter 985: 985. I Can’t Wait To See The Look Of Her Reaction! (Gonna Be Peak)

The night had descended upon the estate like a heavy shroud, swallowing the jagged edges of the mountains in darkness. Rex moved through the corridors not like a guest, but like a shadow reclaiming its territory.

His boots were silent on the marble as he approached Aurelia’s private wing. He had expected the familiar: the scent of expensive lavender, the soft glow of candlelight against silk sheets, and the intimate confines of a bedchamber.

But as he pushed open the heavy oak doors to her inner sanctum, he found himself standing in something else entirely.

It wasn’t a bedroom. It was a vast, dimly lit drawing room that felt more like a fortress than a place of rest.

High vaulted ceilings disappeared into darkness, and the only light came from a dying fire in a massive hearth, casting long, dancing shadows across the walls.

There was no bed in sight, only leather armchairs, towering bookshelves, and a single, expansive velvet sofa that sat like a throne in the center of the room. The space felt exposed, stripped of the comforts of femininity, as if Aurelia had excised anything soft from her life.

"You’re late."

The voice came from the darkness ahead. Rex turned to see a door at the far end of the room creak open.

Aurelia stepped into the firelight. She had changed out of her training leathers into something darker, a robe of deep crimson silk that clung to her frame like spilled wine, but her face remained unchanged, stern, pale, and etched with a resolve that made her look older than her years.

"I made sure I wouldn’t be disturbed," she said, her eyes tracking his movement with the precision of a hawk. "You’re finally here."

Rex didn’t apologize. He simply crossed the room, his eyes scanning the strange, barren opulence of her private space.

"You live like a soldier in a siege, Aurelia... Where is the comfort?"

"Comfort is a luxury for those who believe they are safe," she replied coldly.

She gestured toward the velvet sofa. "Sit."

Rex obeyed, sinking into the plush cushions. The fire crackled between them, sending sparks upward like dying stars.

As he watched her settle into the opposite end of the sofa, a dark, poisonous satisfaction began to coil in his gut. His mind wasn’t filled with the tenderness one might expect from a man visiting a woman at her most vulnerable hour.

No, his thoughts were venomous.

’She thinks she wants connection,’ he thought, a cruel smirk threatening to break his composed mask. ’She thinks she wants someone to share the burden...’

’She has no idea that I am here to make sure she carries it until it crushes her spine...’

He knew Theo was right. He had seen the truth in the boy’s terrified eyes, the truth about the rot festering at the heart of their lineage, the truth about what Aurelia had sacrificed and what she had become to maintain control.

Tonight, he wasn’t here to comfort her. He was here to dismantle her.

He would peel back her layers of denial until she was standing naked before the horror of her own choices.

But he would play the part first. He would be the steady hand she craved before he became the blade that cut her open.

"You look like you’re still carrying the weight of the world on those shoulders," Rex said quietly, breaking the silence.

His voice was smooth, deliberately lowering the tension just enough to draw her in. "Even now, after tonight’s... demonstration."

Aurelia leaned back, her head resting against the velvet, though her body remained coiled. "The weight doesn’t leave just because you’ve had a good fight, Rex."

"It just becomes easier to breathe around it." She turned her head to look at him, her gaze searching. "Why did you really come? Was it just to fulfill a command?"

Rex leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, invading the space between them. The firelight caught the predatory glint in his eyes.

"I came because you asked me to speak plainly. And I am a man who finds immense pleasure in being honest."

"Honesty is rare in this house," she murmured, her voice softening despite herself. "Most people here speak in riddles and threats wrapped in courtesy."

"Then let’s set aside the courtesy," Rex said, his tone shifting, becoming something darker, more intimate. "Tell me, Aurelia, when you close your eyes at night in this empty fortress you’ve built, do you actually believe you’re protecting them?"

"Or do you know you’re just guarding a tomb?"

Aurelia flinched as if he had struck her. The question was too pointed, too close to the raw nerve of her guilt.

"That is a dangerous question to ask a woman in my position."

"Danger is the only thing that makes us feel alive, isn’t it?" Rex countered, watching her reaction with hungry interest. "You spent the evening trying to break a training post."

"But we both know you weren’t trying to break the wood... You were trying to break the lie."

Rex let out a low, rumbling laugh that vibrated through the expensive cushions of the sofa. It wasn’t a sound of amusement; it was a sound of genuine, mocking delight at the trap he had already sprung.

He watched her carefully, noting the way her jaw tightened at his implication.

"You want honesty, Aurelia?"

"Fine... Let’s talk about honesty." His smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a cold, analytical stare. "Let’s talk about your precious Theo."

"Let’s talk about the trail of wreckage he’s left behind while you were busy playing the stoic matriarch..."

"The failed negotiations, the broken alliances, the debts—actually, tangibly, debts that his incompetence has piled up like corpses in a ditch."

Aurelia stiffened, her fingers digging into the crimson silk of her robe.

"Theo made mistakes," she said, though her voice lacked its usual conviction. "He is young, and he is impulsive."

"He is a liability," Rex interrupted sharply. "And every liability has a price."

"Right now, the price of his survival, the price of keeping this household from being torn apart by the vultures circling outside these walls, rests squarely on your shoulders."

"Because you are the one who allowed him to become this."

Aurelia closed her eyes. The accusation cut deeper than any blade she had encountered in the training hall.

"I know," she whispered, the admission tasting like ash. "I know I failed him..."

"I failed to guide him, to contain him." She opened her eyes, looking at Rex with a desperate, almost sacrificial resolve. "What do you want from me, Rex?"

"Name it. If there is a way to repay the damage he has caused, if there is a price I can pay to secure his future and this family’s stability..."

"I will pay it. I will do whatever is necessary."

Rex leaned back, swirling the dark liquid in his coffee cup. The firelight played across his features, making him look like something ancient and predatory.

"Whatever is necessary?" he repeated, tasting the words. "That’s a dangerous promise to make to a man like me."

He took a slow sip of the bitter coffee, letting the silence stretch between them until it became unbearable. Aurelia watched him, her heart hammering against her ribs.

"So, let’s make the terms explicit, then," Rex said casually, as if he were discussing the weather. "For the next three days... the three days it will take me to finish reorganizing and training this pathetic excuse for a household next week."

"You... are going to be having sex with me."

The silence that followed was absolute. Even the fire seemed to freeze mid-crackle.

Aurelia froze, her mouth parting slightly. "Wh... what? H-huh? What?"

The words stumbled out of her in a rush of pure disorientation. "What are you talking about?"

Rex took another leisurely sip of his coffee, watching her over the rim of the cup with unblinking eyes.

"Wait, what do you mean!?" Aurelia suddenly demanded, her voice rising in pitch, cracking with shock and rising fury. "What on earth are you talking about, Rex?"

"That is preposterous! That is--"

Rex let out another bark of laughter, this one louder and more cruel. "Oh? You haven’t heard the rumors?"

He set the cup down on the low table with a decisive clink. "You’ve been so busy ruling this house that you’ve forgotten how the real world operates."

"You think everything runs on gold and signed treaties?"

He leaned closer, his shadow engulfing her. "Every debt that comes to me, Aurelia... every favor, every concession, every piece of broken territory that needs mending... I don’t accept coin."

"Gold is transactional; it’s impersonal... I prefer something more... intimate."

Aurelia shook her head, her mind racing to reject the insanity of it. "You... you can’t be serious."

"I am deadly serious," Rex purred, his eyes darkening. "Take Iris, for example."

"Do you remember her desperation? Her grief over that dead boyfriend of hers?"

"Well... let’s say I helped her. I gave her the closure she begged for."

"But I didn’t ask for money." His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "I fucked her senseless until she was carrying my child."

"That was the price for her peace... That was the payment for her debt."