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Chapter 32/Escaping the Mafia Nest

Chapter 32: 32/Escaping the Mafia Nest

Chapter 32

Stephanie’s Point of View

Alex tightened his grip on my shoulder, and I felt the heat of his body behind me as if he were trying to shield me from their lethal gazes. He responded with a provocative coldness, "Yes, Isabella. Stephanie belongs to me... so take your hands off her and don’t even think about touching a hair on her head again."

Everything that was happening felt wrong; I felt as if I would collapse at any moment from the intense dizziness spinning in my head. I whispered weakly, "I don’t feel well..."

Alex didn’t wait; his features hardened into cruelty as he looked at his brother and Isabella. He said firmly, "Get out of the room. Now!"

He released me and, with a powerful motion, shoved Cedric and that girl out, slamming the door violently behind them. I would have fallen if Alex hadn’t caught me by my waist, leading me gently toward the bed to sit.

He leaned down before me and asked in a voice full of concern, "Steph... are you okay?"

I looked at him with eyes full of heartbreak and said in a trembling voice, "I just don’t know how I was deceived like this..."

Alex exhaled in frustration and sat beside me on the edge of the bed. "I asked you not to pin your hopes on this relationship, Stephanie, but you didn’t listen to me."

I wiped a searing tear that rolled down my cheek and snapped, "Why didn’t you tell me he was engaged?!"

He lowered his head slightly and said with regret, "I tried to, Steph, but I couldn’t."

I suddenly remembered that day when Alex and Cedric fought in my room, and a chill ran through my exhausted body. I said in a wavering voice, "Were you going to tell me that day... when you said he was hiding the truth from me?"

He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Yes, exactly. But I couldn’t."

In that moment, I felt like a fool, a mere puppet being manipulated between them; Alex, who knew the truth and chose silence to watch me fall, and Cedric, who violated my body, took me on a date, and asked me to be his girlfriend while he was bound to another woman.

A sense of deep revulsion swept through my being. I looked at Alex and spoke in a definitive tone: "Alex..."

He looked at me and asked, "What?"

"Take me home," I said, my voice choked with tears.

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Alexander’s Point of View

When she said, "Take me home," I felt a chill invade my limbs. I didn’t know how to handle this request. I tried to calm her, reaching my hand toward her but pulling it back at the last second. "Stephanie, listen..." I said in a low voice.

She interrupted me sharply, trembling with bitterness: "Alex, take me home... I will not stay in this house!"

I felt the danger surrounding her, especially in her current state. I took a step closer, lowering my voice to sound calm: "Alright, calm down... don’t forget that you’re pregnant and you’ll hurt yourself."

Her eyes widened in painful shock, and she placed her hand on her stomach as if discovering her tragedy for the first time. Then she let out a sob that tore through my chest: "Pregnant from an engaged man! My God, what hell have I thrown myself into?!"

She rose from the bed with a staggering body, as if she had lost her balance with life itself. She continued in a voice full of oppression: "Just yesterday he said he wanted me by his side... he wanted me to be his girlfriend!"

I felt my heart tearing apart as I watched her talk about my brother, knowing this pain was caused by him. She continued, laughing with a tearful irony: "Did he want to have a mistress while I, like an idiot, believed him?!"

I clenched my fists until my knuckles turned white; I couldn’t bear to hear any more details of their relationship. "Stop, Stephanie..." I said with suppressed anger. "Hearing you talk about this makes me angry!"

She turned to me suddenly, her gaze like blades as she directed her accusation at me: "And you knew everything and hid it from me! Wasn’t it enough that you went and left me back then? Didn’t you feel guilty seeing me before you like someone being deceived?!"

I took a step back as if her slap had struck my soul. "I warned you, Steph..." I said, defending myself bitterly. "I told you not to expect anything from my brother!"

"I thought you were only saying that because you were jealous of him!" she screamed in collapse.

I could no longer hide what was boiling inside me. I stepped closer until I felt her labored breath. "Yes, I am jealous!" I said, my voice trembling with emotion. "I am jealous of him over you, and I cannot accept him touching you, Steph!"

She recoiled, covering her face with her hands, and said with extreme exhaustion, "Alex, please don’t start again..." She pointed toward the door with a shaking hand and added: "Get out... I’ll get dressed, and you will take me home!"

I walked out of the room and stood by the door, leaning my back against it as I heard her moving inside. Yesterday, in a moment of blind jealousy, I had sent a message to Isabella telling her to come and surprise my brother at the house; I couldn’t stand the thought of them together behind that door, sharing their breath and their bodies. I want her for myself... Stephanie is mine alone.

I remembered the day I found her tied up. Her chest was bare, her breath heavy, and she was nearly dying of shame and embarrassment. I won’t lie in that moment, I felt a strange energy drawing me to her with an irresistible force. Her long red hair, her blue eyes... she was my type, perfectly. But she had something else deeper than beauty; she had the innocence that our polluted lives lack.

At the time, I convinced myself it was inappropriate; I was a teacher then, and I couldn’t feel this way toward my student. The following day, when I entered the classroom, I saw her sitting at her desk, having hidden her face from me completely as if she didn’t want to see me.

I understood immediately that she was embarrassed by what happened. I gave the lesson, trying to focus, but my eyes were entirely on her, watching every move and every breath, while she didn’t look at me even once.

After the session ended, the female students gathered around me, inventing flimsy questions as an excuse to talk to me and stay by my side. She, however, didn’t look back; she rushed out of the classroom as if escaping a fire. I told the students with a brief courtesy, "Excuse me, I have to go."

I followed her and saw her heading toward the bleachers in the high school field, away from the students’ noise. She sat down and took out papers and pens, and began writing or I don’t know what she was doing. I stood from afar, watching her in awe, drowning in the details of her serious face as she wrote.

After a while, she gathered the papers and stood up to descend from the bleachers.

When she saw me standing there, she froze in her tracks, her blue eyes widening in shock. She turned quickly, trying to change her path to avoid facing me, but I wasn’t going to let her escape this time. I called out to her in a firm voice: "Come here!"

[This is a gift For your support . I will publish two more Chapters, so be ready. I love you. ]