Chapter 43/I Hate You

Chapter 43: 43/I Hate You

Chapter 43

Stephanie’s Point of View

My heart was pounding violently against my chest as I saw the muzzle of the gun pointed at my father; the blood froze in my veins for fear that Cedric would commit a folly that would end everything. I screamed at the top of my lungs, tears blinding my eyes:

"Cedric!"

I began to shake the door handle frantically, pushing the glass with my shoulder trying to open it, but the lock was secure. I saw my father retreating slowly under the threat of the weapon, then Cedric lowered his hand and got into the car with lightning speed. He took off like an arrow. I turned to him, pounding the dashboard with my fist, and shouted in collapse:

"Let me out, you bastard! Let me out!"

Cedric gripped the steering wheel so hard that his veins bulged. He spoke without looking at me:

"I won’t do it until we talk."

I laughed with bitter irony amidst my sobs and said sharply:

"I will not talk to you! Go to your fiancée!"

Cedric slammed the steering wheel with his hand and cried out in a trembling voice:

"Stephanie, you don’t understand anything!"

I screamed in his face, leaning my body toward him, rage trembling in my voice:

"What don’t I understand? What?"

Suddenly, Cedric slammed on the brakes so hard that my body surged forward, saved only by the seatbelt, and he stopped the car in an isolated place. A heavy silence prevailed, broken only by the sound of my rapid breathing. I turned to him, my eyes burning with pain, and said:

"If you were engaged, why did you make me believe you wanted me? Why did you give me hope?"

He looked at me with mysterious eyes filled with regret, reaching out slightly as if to touch my face, and whispered brokenly:

"I want you, Stephanie."

I brushed his hand away violently and recoiled toward the car door. A lump choked me as I asked the question that was tearing through my insides:

"Do you want me to be your mistress?"

Cedric turned to me quickly, his features reflecting shock mixed with pain at my question. He drew closer until I felt his hot breath, and said in a choked voice:

"What are you saying, Stephanie? You don’t know the truth of the matter."

I laughed bitterly, feeling the tears burn my eyes again. I shouted at him, shaking my head in refusal:

"What truth?"

I gathered my composure and continued with a broken heart, my eyes fixed on his mysterious ones:

"You couldn’t break your engagement, and now Alex is going to marry me."

Cedric slammed the steering wheel with his fist so hard it made me flinch. He cried out in a voice full of despair and oppression:

"I go mad when I think about this! You marrying my brother... this is killing me from the inside!"

I looked at him coldly, a certain harshness growing within me. I said, the words coming out like daggers:

"You preferred your fiancée over me."

"No, I didn’t," he replied quickly, shaking his head in denial and pleading.

I fixed my sharp gaze on him and told him the truth I had been hiding deep down:

"You know what? If you weren’t the father of my children, I wouldn’t have wanted to marry you, Cedric. So don’t hope that I want you."

His body stiffened as if he had received a powerful slap. He remained silent for moments before saying in a low, broken voice:

"Stephanie, listen, and I will explain everything to you."

"No more explanations," I interrupted him sternly, averting my gaze toward the window.

I turned back and looked at him with a sharpness capable of burning everything. I said the word that came from between clenched teeth and a heart full of oppression:

"I hate you."

He looked at me with lethal astonishment, as if I had stripped him of all his weapons. "I know you’re angry..." he stammered.

"Open the door now! I’m getting out!" I interrupted him again in collapse, shaking the handle frantically.

"I’ll take you home myself," he said in a final attempt to convince me.

I screamed in his face, my whole body shaking with categorical refusal:

"Cedric, open the door!"

After my insistence and shouting, I heard the sound of the locks opening. I didn’t wait a single second; I opened the door and got out of the car quickly, walking with staggering, fast steps like a madwoman in that isolated place. I didn’t know where to go, but I just wanted to get away from him, to never see his face again.

How could he not be ashamed of himself, coming to talk to me and trying to explain? What will he explain? That his love for his status and his fiancée is more important than his love for me and his children?

I walked while sobbing, my body trembling with oppression and exhaustion, until I found a passing taxi. I signaled it quickly and got into the back seat, asking the driver in a wavering voice to take me home.

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Cedric’s Point of View

She left and didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself; her last word, "I hate you," was ringing in my ears like the sound of an explosion that tore my heart to pieces. I stood there by the car, watching the taxi as it drove away, taking with it every shred of hope that gave me strength.

Everything was turning into a terrifying nightmare; Stephanie hates me, my brother is going to marry the girl who carries two pieces of me in her womb, and I will be forced to marry a girl I don’t want. The thing that was suffocating me and making me want to let out a scream that would shake mountains was that my children would call my brother Alex "Father"... how will I endure this? How will I stand by and watch them grow up in the arms of another man?

With trembling hands and veins bulging in my forehead from the pressure, I pulled out my phone and called Alexander. As soon as he answered, my voice came out hoarse and broken:

"Alex, where are you?"

"I’m at home, why?" he replied with his irritatingly calm voice.

"I’m coming to you," I said sternly, clenching my teeth.

I drove my car at a breakneck speed, tearing through the streets as if I were running from my fate. All my thoughts were focused on that confrontation; I wanted to ask him to refuse, to shout in my grandfather’s face and say "no," but my selfishness was colliding with a truth as bitter as gall... if Alexander refuses, my children will die, and perhaps Stephanie too.

I arrived at his house and stepped out like a hurricane. I began to pound the door with my fist like a madman, as if emptying all my oppression into that wood. Alexander opened the door and looked at me in disbelief as he saw my miserable state my messy clothes and pale face.

"Cedric, what’s wrong with you?"

I pushed past him with my shoulder and entered the lounge, pacing back and forth. Then I turned to him and said in a sharp tone:

"Did Grandfather tell you?"

"Tell me what?" he asked, knitting his brows in surprise.

"You are getting married," I said, feeling a lump in my throat.

Alexander gave a short, cold laugh and shook his head:

"Enough joking, Cedric."

I stopped completely, looking directly into his eyes, my body rigid. I said the words that felt like shards of glass tearing my throat:

"You are going to marry Stephanie."