Chapter 42/No More Explanations

Chapter 42: 42/No More Explanations

Chapter 42

Stephanie’s Point of View

I was waiting for my father’s answer, my breath caught in my chest. He looked at me coldly and said:

"You are going to marry his brother."

A sudden chill ran through my body, as if I were about to collapse from the sheer shock. I asked in a trembling voice, barely audible:

"Alexander?"

"Yes," he replied curtly.

My God! Was I really going to marry Alex? Was it Cedric who wanted me to marry his brother? I felt lost; I didn’t understand anything happening around me. I felt unable to stand, so I staggered and sat on the edge of the bed, my body feeling hollow.

"You will marry Alexander Volkov," my father said in a decisive tone. "And he is the one whose name your children will bear."

He left my room and closed the door behind him. I remained there, drowned in my thoughts; how could I marry Alexander? How? At moment, the door burst open and Valentina entered. She approached me, her eyes wide with rage and astonishment.

"Are you marrying Alexander?" she demanded.

Valentina was a year younger than me and had studied at the same high school. I wasn’t surprised she knew Alexander because he was a teacher, but how did she know he was that Alexander? We had studied under him with a different surname.

"What?" I asked, bewildered.

She shouted at me, closing the distance between us. "Speak! Are you marrying Alexander, the teacher who taught us in high school?"

"The teacher’s name was Alexander Thorne, not Volkov," I said, trying to process her words.

"Yes, I know!" she snapped, jumping over my words. "Now answer me!"

I was struck by shock. How did Valentina know that Alexander wasn’t "Thorne"? I asked in a questioning tone:

"How do you know this, Valentina?"

She drew even closer with fierce features. "Listen... you will not marry him! Do you hear me?"

I was amazed; what was this madness surrounding me? "Valentina, how do you know Alexander isn’t Thorne? Answer me!" I said, trying to understand her fury.

Her features stiffened, and she looked at me with deep-seated hatred. "Because he is my lover!"

The blood froze in my veins. Was I hearing correctly? Did she say he was her lover?

"What?" I gasped in disbelief.

Valentina approached me with hostile steps. She grabbed my chin violently, her fingers pressing with a force that pained me. She hissed, "You won’t marry him, Stephanie. Alexander is mine alone!"

I jerked her hand away with a quick movement, recoiling with a trembling body. I didn’t know what to do. Was everything he told me a lie? Is he my sister’s lover? What is happening? I felt like my head would explode; I didn’t understand a thing.

"Get out of my room!" I told her sharply, pointing toward the door.

She shot me a hateful look. "I’ll leave," she said as she headed out. "But remember these words very well."

She left the room, leaving me struggling in a whirlpool of thoughts, trying to analyze her words which seemed utterly illogical.

I had to understand what was going on. I left the room with an exhausted body and went downstairs. My father was sitting in the lounge with his wife, Celine, who greeted me in a tone dripping with venom and gloating:

"Stephanie, congratulations... you’re getting married!"

I ignored her completely with a heavy heart, heading toward the door to escape this siege. But my father stood in my way, stopping me sternly. "Where do you think you’re going?"

"I want to go out for a bit," I said in a choked voice.

"Impossible!" he said in a cutting tone.

At that moment, a loud, violent pounding began on the door. It was a terrifying sound, as if the door were about to be ripped from its place.

"What the... hell?" my father growled in anger.

He headed toward the door and opened it. Behind it was Cedric, his features thundering with rage. As soon as he saw me, he rushed toward me and grabbed my shoulders firmly, panting. "Stephanie!"

I felt a lump in my throat as I remembered his refusal to cancel his engagement, and how he had lied to me about being engaged. I pulled away from his hands with a firm movement and said coldly:

"Cedric, I don’t want to talk to you."

My father intervened at that moment, standing in front of him and shouting angrily: "Who do you think you are, entering my house this way?"

"I came to see the mother of my children!" Cedric replied in a voice that shook the corners of the lounge.

"The mother of your children who will not be marrying you!" my father said with cruel irony.

At this, Cedric lost his temper completely. He stepped toward my father with terrifying features and said in a lethal tone: "Shut up, or I’ll kill you!"

My father moved toward Cedric with steps charged with rage, getting close to his face as he screamed in a voice trembling with spite: "Are you going to kill me like you killed that old man?"

I felt my head was about to explode from their shouting. I screamed in collapse, covering my head with my hands: "Stop it!"

A sudden silence fell over the lounge. I turned to Cedric and said in a cutting tone, tears burning my eyes: "Cedric, I don’t want to talk to you, ever."

Cedric took a step toward me, his gaze pleading despite the anger within him. "Stephanie, please, I just want to explain to you," he said in a low voice.

"I don’t want to," I replied with total coldness.

Cedric didn’t give me a single moment. Suddenly, and with a swift movement I didn’t expect, he wrapped his strong arm around my waist and lifted me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing. Terror took hold of me, and I began punching his back with my fists, screaming at the top of my lungs: "Let me go! Cedric, put me down!"

He walked out of the house with long, firm strides. Over his shoulder, I saw my father running after us like a madman, shouting in a towering rage. Cedric reached the car, opened the door with his other hand, shoved me inside, and quickly slammed the door on me.

I tried to open the handle from the inside, but he was faster.

I saw him pull his weapon from behind his back and aim it directly at my father’s face, who froze in his tracks. Cedric spoke in a terrifying tone, his voice like a hiss:

"If you don’t want me to kill you... stay back!"

My breath stopped as I watched the situation from behind the car glass, my entire body shaking with terror at that muzzle pointed toward my father.