Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Selena’s POV
D
One hour before I stormed into the study room…
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The air inside my room was thick with the scent of aged wine, roasted rosemary, and the cloying notes of the head chef’s cologne. I sat perched on the edge of the velvet chair, legs crossed, silk robe barely tied at the waist.
My fingers toyed with the rim of the glass, eyes fixed on the swirling liquid, but my mind was elsewhere–with them.
Lucy and Kaiden.
Even just thinking their names made my stomach twist in disgust.
“Are you really going to keep pouting the whole day?” Chef Marco’s voice slithered through the heavy silence, amusement curling at the edge of his tone as he approached from behind, his hands gently settling on my shoulders with an all–too- familiar ease.
I shrugged him off sharply, my skin crawling beneath his touch.
“I’m not in the mood, Marco,” I muttered coldly, my gaze locked on the untouched wine.
(+45)
“Oh?” He circled around me like a lion toying with its prey, the silk of his shirt open halfway, revealing the smug confidence of a man who believed he was always in control. “The great Selena Sterwalt… not in the mood? That’s new.”
I snapped my eyes up at him, my jaw tight. “Don’t push me.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender, stepping back with an exaggerated sigh. “Alright, alright.”
I exhaled sharply, frustration brimming under my skin like a storm threatening to spill.
With one swift motion, I tilted my glass back and emptied it in a single burning gulp, the wine tracing a warm, bitter path down my throat. The empty glass made a sharp clink as I set it down on the glass table with deliberate force.
“It’s them,” I finally said through clenched teeth, standing up abruptly, the hem of my robe brushing against my thighs. “Lucy and Kaiden. Those fucking idiots.”
His smirk widened as he leaned against the edge of the fireplace, the glow of the flames dancing in his eyes. “Still obsessing over your step–kid hooking up with your real one?”
I glared at him, the weight of his words hitting harder than I expected.
He chuckled, grabbing the decanter and pouring himself another glass, the liquid glugging like slow poison. “So what if they’re screwing behind your back? Let the kids have their fun. You know teenage love–they fuck and forget within five weeks.”
“She chose him,” I hissed, pacing restlessly across the room, my hands gripping my elbows. “After everything I’ve done for her. That ungrateful little brat. I gave her a new life. A home. A chance to shine–and this is how she repays me?”
He took a sip, letting the flavor linger on his tongue before speaking. “She’s a teenager, Selena. They rebel. Just punish them, teach them a lesson, and move on.”
“She humiliated me,” I spat, voice shaking with suppressed rage. “Last night. She fucked him knowing that I was right behind the door. She has no respect for me. This morning too, they were making noises like deranged people. God, I hate them both so much that I wanna destroy them.”
He raised a brow, amused, swirling the wine in his glass. “I am shocked that you have tolerated so much. If my kid had done
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14:16 Fri, 25 Apr
Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Selena’s POV
One hour before I stormed into the study room…
*83%
+45
The air inside my room was thick with the scent of aged wine, roasted rosemary, and the cloying notes of the head chef’s cologne. I sat perched on the edge of the velvet chair, legs crossed, silk robe barely tied at the waist.
My fingers toyed with the rim of the glass, eyes fixed on the swirling liquid, but my mind was elsewhere—with them.
Lucy and Kaiden.
Even just thinking their names made my stomach twist in disgust.
“Are you really going to keep pouting the whole day?” Chef Marco’s voice slithered through the heavy silence, amusement curling at the edge of his tone as he approached from behind, his hands gently settling on my shoulders with an all–too- familiar ease.
I shrugged him off sharply, my skin crawling beneath his touch.
“I’m not in the mood, Marco,” I muttered coldly, my gaze locked on the untouched wine.
“Oh?” He circled around me like a lion toying with its prey, the silk of his shirt open halfway, revealing the smug confidence of a man who believed he was always in control. “The great Selena Sterwalt… not in the mood? That’s new.”
I snapped my eyes up at him, my jaw tight. “Don’t push me.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender, stepping back with an exaggerated sigh. “Alright, alright.”
I exhaled sharply, frustration brimming under my skin like a storm threatening to spill.
With one swift motion, I tilted my glass back and emptied it in a single burning gulp, the wine tracing a warm, bitter path down my throat. The empty glass made a sharp clink as I set it down on the glass table with deliberate force.
“It’s them,” I finally said through clenched teeth, standing up abruptly, the hem of my robe brushing against my thighs. “Lucy and Kaiden. Those fucking idiots.”
His smirk widened as he leaned against the edge of the fireplace, the glow of the flames dancing in his eyes. “Still obsessing over your step–kid hooking up with your real one?”
I glared at him, the weight of his words hitting harder than I expected.
He chuckled, grabbing the decanter and pouring himself another glass, the liquid glugging like slow poison. “So what if they’re screwing behind your back? Let the kids have their fun. You know teenage love–they fuck and forget within five weeks.”
“She chose him,” I hissed, pacing restlessly across the room, my hands gripping my elbows. “After everything I’ve done for her. That ungrateful little brat. I gave her a new life. A home. A chance to shine–and this is how she repays me?”
He took a sip, letting the flavor linger on his tongue before speaking. “She’s a teenager, Selena. They rebel. Just punish them, teach them a lesson, and move on.”
“She humiliated me,” I spat, voice shaking with suppressed rage. “Last night. She fucked him knowing that I was right behind the door. She has no respect for me. This morning too, they were making noises like deranged people. God, I hate them both so much that I wanna destroy them.”
He raised a brow, amused, swirling the wine in his glass. “I am shocked that you have tolerated so much. If my kid had done
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Chapter 101
anything like this, they wouldn’t be able to walk for months. I would have broken their legs with my own hands.”
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“I am staying low only because of Dan,” I snapped, my voice dropping to a whisper of panic. “I just anyhow want to separate them before he arrives. If he knows about them, anything could happen, but our divorce is something that’s… fixed.”
I panicked at the thought of divorce, the thought of losing my human ATM machine.
With a frustrated sigh, I spun on my heel and dropped back onto the velvet chair, the plush cushion sighing beneath my weight. The silk of my robe slipped slightly as I sat, exposing the edge of my thigh–but I didn’t care. There was nothing Marco hadn’t already seen.
The fabric clung to the backs of my thighs as I leaned forward, fingers trembling as they curled around the half–empty decanter on the glass table.
As I poured, the neck of the decanter clicked against the rim of the glass, the sound betraying the slight shake in my hand. Deep red liquid swirled like blood into the crystal, catching the flicker of firelight.
“I anyhow have to kill their story before Dan arrives.” I muttered before gulping the wine in one shot, the bitterness scraping down my throat. “Argh!” I shouted in frustration. “I wish I had sent that message yesterday.”
Marco took a slow sip, eyes twinkling with a devilish gleam as he stepped closer. “I knew it. I knew you’d regret it, so I had already taken care of it in advance.”
My brows furrowed, a cold flutter stirring in my chest. “Taken care of what?”
“Lucy,” he said simply, a sly grin curling on his lips.
The anger I was feeling toward Lucy suddenly shifted. My heart skipped a beat–once, then twice–in worry. I put the wine glass on the table and asked, “What do you mean?”
“You remember last night? After we had sex to calm your frustration?” he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly with mischief. “You sat up the whole night debating with yourself whether you should send that message or not.”
The text that I had typed yesterday flashed in my mind like a burning brand. “I know you’re looking for Ana Franklin. She is now in West Sterlingo, residing as Lucy Hailstone.”
I was so angry at Lucy that I typed that message and was almost about to send it to Ross, but I didn’t–because my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. The fucking mother’s instinct.
“Yeah, I remember that message. So what?” I asked, my voice tight, bracing for the worst.
He placed his glass down, walked over to me, and leaned in close–too close, his breath warm against my cheek. “That night… while you were in the bathroom…” he tapped a finger to his temple with a proud glint in his eye, “…I borrowed your phone.”
I blinked, confusion knotting in my stomach. “What?”
He grinned proudly, as if unveiling a masterpiece. “That message you left on draft? I sent it.”
A silence followed–stiff, eerie, like the moment before lightning strikes.
“You what?” I shouted, bolting upright from my seat, my chest tightening.
“I sent that message,” he said smoothly, straightening his back with the lazy grace of a cat stretching after a nap, his tone calm—as if announcing the weather. “I figured that you didn’t have the guts to send it because of your hidden motherly love, so I decided I’d take care of it for you–help you punish that ungrateful brat of yours. I mean… How dare she hurt my queen?” He then held my hand and kissed the back of it, lips brushing like a mockery of affection. “Don’t worry, babe. Lucy will get what she deserves. Kids like her deserve to be punished and she will be punished. By whoever you addressed that message to.”
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Chapter 101
My stomach churned, nausea creeping up my throat. “Marco…. NO… you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did,” he said, stepping back as he picked his glass and sipped his wine like it was a victory toast. “I did it for you. Now, Lucy won’t be a problem anymore. She’ll be too busy recovering from whatever she’s about to go through.”
His words crashed into me like a slap across the face.
I sank onto the couch, numb, the fire suddenly feeling too hot against my skin, as if it knew the kind of monster I was becoming.
My heart pounded–no, thundered–with something I hadn’t expected to feel.
Not satisfaction.
Not relief.
Fear.
Worry.
Oh, god. Lucy, my kid.
What had he done?
What had I allowed?
To be continued…
