Chapter 244/A reality full of illusions

Chapter 244: 244/A reality full of illusions

Chapter 244

Stephanie’s POV

My senses froze completely. The muffled sounds of the government building faded into nothing, and a sudden, suffocating darkness swallowed me whole before my vision slowly cleared into a blinding white that nearly seared my eyes.

I found myself lying flat on a cold metallic surface that sent a sharp violent shiver down my spine. The sterile stench of medical disinfectants choked my lungs.

Silence hung heavy and absolute, until the door creaked open. Dominic stepped inside... but he wasn’t wearing his usual tailored suit. A crisp white lab coat covered his shirt, lending him the icy, detached authority of a physician.

"Good morning, Stephanie." His tone was soft and measured, dripping with false reassurance.

I pushed myself up with trembling limbs, scanning the room in blind panic. "Where are we?"

"You’re in your room, Stephanie."

I furrowed my brows, gasping for air as if the room lacked oxygen entirely. "I passed out... How did I end up here?"

He stared down at me with eyes completely void of emotion. "No, you didn’t pass out."

Paralysis locked my joints. I stared blankly at the white coat draped over his chest. "Then why... why are you wearing that?"

"What do you think? Why?" He took a slow, deliberate step toward the bed, moving like a predator measuring its prey.

"I don’t know! Tell me..." I scrambled back on the metal frame, my voice rising. "...Why did you bring me here?!"

He let out a heavy, engineered sigh. "Stephanie, you’re in your room. What’s wrong with you?"

"Stop it!" I shrieked, the sound echoing off the sterile white walls. "Stop talking utter nonsense!"

"Should I call Alexander for you?" he asked casually, as if offering a simple gesture.

I bolted upright, my pulse hammering against my temples like a sledgehammer. "Alexander is here?!"

"Yes."

I took a frantic step back, clutching my head with both hands. "How does he know?! Did you tell him? Did you drag me to a hospital and tell him I collapsed?!"

"Calm down..."

"I won’t calm down!" I snapped, tears scorching my eyelids. "What if he finds out?! What if he knows I slept with you?! That I’m... that I’m a cheater?!"

"Calm down, Stephanie, please." He closed the distance, but I pressed my back hard against the cold wall.

"You’re the reason! You!" I exploded right in his face. "And now I find out everything was a lie... Alexander never married me in the first place! He played me, Dominic!"

He stared at me with a look I couldn’t decipher, stating with flat coldness: "Okay."

"Okay?!" I burst into a hysterical laugh, my whole body shaking violently. "Why are you talking like that?! Aren’t you going to mock me?! Aren’t you going to tell me I’m just a naive, stupid fool?!"

"Of course I won’t."

His eerie composure made me sick to my stomach. My balance gave out, the white room spinning wildly around me. "You’re insane! You’re sick! Get the fuck out of here! Go!"

"I’m not leaving." He stepped forward with terrifying firmness. "I’m staying right here, because you are sick, Stephanie... and you need me."

"Get away from me!" I screamed, but in that exact second, my strength vanished completely. My legs buckled beneath me, and I collapsed onto the cold floor, the distorted white faces of the room tearing apart around me...

Suddenly... a freezing sting pierced my skin.

Drops of water splashed continuously across my face, snapping my body upright as if an electric shock had ripped through my nervous system. I forced my eyes open, greeted by the dim glow of streetlights and the dark tint of the car windshield.

Dominic hovered over me, holding an open water bottle, his features which moments ago belonged to a cold physician now twisted with genuine worry.

"Thank God, Stephanie..." he rasped, his hand gently wiping the water droplets from my forehead. "...You terrified me. You completely lost consciousness."

I gasped violently for air, a harsh cough tearing through my throat. My eyes darted around in frantic confusion... No white room, no lab coat just the leather seats of the car and the heavy scent of his cologne.

I clutched my chest, feeling my heart hammering erratically as I whispered in sheer terror:

"Dominic... Was... was that a dream?"

I recoiled backward in an involuntary jerk, my spine slamming hard against the locked car door. My heart battered my ribs like a caged bird, my breath coming in ragged, scorching gasps that threatened to choke me. I stared at Dominic with wide, terrified eyes, desperately trying to detach the horrific details of the nightmare from the man sitting inches away from me.

Dominic wiped the last drop of water from my forehead, slowly drawing his hand back without widening the space between us, the heat of his breath brushing my skin.

"No, Stephanie..." he said softly, his deep voice attempting to piece together my shattered thoughts. "...It was a nervous breakdown. Your mind couldn’t handle the weight of the truth, so it fabricated a nightmare to shield you from reality."

With trembling fingertips, I touched the cold windshield, my gaze drifting back toward the massive government building standing before us like a silent witness to my ruin.

"So... it’s real?" I whispered, a heavy lump forming in my throat. "...My marriage records... they really don’t exist?"

Dominic tilted his head slightly, an unreadable glint flickering in his dark eyes as he studied the impact of the shock on my face.

"Truths aren’t always written in official ledgers, Stephanie..." he murmured softly. "...And sometimes, those who hold power have the ability to make the past vanish into thin air, as if it never happened."

A sharp chill coursed down my spine. His words were no comfort; they were an implicit declaration that something or someone was manipulating the threads of my life with demonic mastery. I stared intently at his face, trying to pierce through his calm mask, but his features remained as unyielding as marble.

"You know who did this..." I rasped out in weak defiance, my fingers clutching the hem of my shirt so tightly my knuckles turned bone-white. "...You aren’t surprised. You don’t even look shocked. You knew what we were going to find in that registry, didn’t you?"

Dominic turned fully toward me, his expression tightening into an unfamiliar gravity, completely stripped of his usual mocking smirk. He placed his palm on the rim of the steering wheel, close to my hand without touching it, his gravelly voice devoid of any deceit:

"Stephanie, I swear to you on everything I own... I know nothing. I don’t know who tampered with the records, and I don’t know how your documents vanished."

My breath caught. I stared at him in utter bewilderment. "Then... why are you so calm?! Why weren’t you shocked when the clerk told me I don’t exist in their system?!"

He took a slow, heavy breath, tilting his head as he stared through the windshield as if seeing something invisible ahead.

"I didn’t know for sure..." he admitted quietly, "...but I expected it."

"Expected it?!" I gasped. "How?!"

He cut his dark eyes back to me, his intense gaze searching my pale face.

"When you told me in the car that Claire didn’t know about your marriage or your pregnancy... I felt a chill run through me."

I furrowed my brows in confusion, so he continued with a sharper edge:

"Claire doesn’t leave a single stone unturned in this city. If someone as obsessively thorough as Claire couldn’t find a single trace of your marriage... it means the information wasn’t just hidden."

A wave of dizziness hit my head. His words were terrifyingly logical, making me feel like a fragile autumn leaf caught in a storm I couldn’t see.

"Are you saying..." I stammered, my voice breaking, "...that Alexander... Alexander himself might be the victim? Or maybe... he’s the executioner?"

Dominic clamped his jaw tight, the veins bulging on his hand resting against the seat. He didn’t answer immediately, but his gaze shifted toward the window, carrying an unbearable weight.

"I don’t know," he whispered, his voice almost lost in the heavy quiet of the cabin. "But what I do know is that we are standing in a landmine field now. Every step we take will reveal either the truth... or our end."

I looked down at my trembling hands, then back at Dominic, realizing I was no longer facing a mere legal puzzle, but a battle for my very existence. Drawing a deep breath, I scraped together the remaining shreds of my strength:

"Then let’s go back to the estate. I will find the truth, even if I have to tear this entire world apart to reach it."

Dominic offered a slow nod. An expression settled over his face that I had never seen before not a trace of possessive lust, but a dark commitment to a shared fate.

"What if you were never married to begin with, Stephanie?"