All Chapters of One Night Stand with My Stepdad: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

Chloe forced me out of my room the next morning.The bright morning sunlight was already streaming through the sheer curtains of my bedroom, painting long, sharp golden rectangles across the hardwood floor, but I couldn't bring myself to take a single step past the foot of my bed. I stood frozen in my thick knit cardigan, my fingers clutching the hem until my knuckles turned ghost-white. The silence beyond my bedroom door felt heavy, terrifying, and thick with unresolved secrets waiting to swallow me whole."I can't," I whispered, my voice caught in the back of my throat as my chest tightened with a sudden, suffocating wave of anxiety."You can," Chloe replied firmly, her voice leaving zero room for argument as she stepped up right beside me."I don't want to see them," I begged softly, taking a half-step backward toward the safety of the dark mattress. "I don't want to look at my mother's face, Chloe. I don't want to see Marcus asking me questions with his eyes that I'm not ready to

Marcus continued eating.He moved with a slow, deliberate composure, cutting into his breakfast with precise, quiet movements of his silver knife and fork. But the rigid set of his broad shoulders and the dark, watchful glint in his eyes made it abundantly clear that every single one of his senses remained hyper-focused on me.Vanessa started discussing the business arrangement again.She acted as though Marcus hadn't just tried to shut the topic down minutes ago, her smooth, cultured voice filling the spacious dining room with cold, transactional facts. She spoke as if our family's entire existence revolved around ticker symbols and merger clauses, completely indifferent to the dark storm gathering over the table.Alexander's father's investment.The marriage.The deadline.She rattled off the details with mechanical perfection—the precise valuation of the joint venture, the pending stock transfers between the conglomerates, and the binding public announcement that was slated to be r

ELENA Pov “I’m pregnant.”The words had barely left my mouth when Vanessa jumped to her feet.“What?”Her voice was so loud that everyone at the table froze. The sudden, violent movement sent her heavy dining chair scraping back against the polished hardwood floor, a harsh, screeching noise that tore through the fragile quiet of the dining room. She stood over the long mahogany table, her hands planted flat on the dark wood, her manicured knuckles drained of all color as her chest heaved with ragged, disbelieving breaths.I stared at her.My heart was beating in my throat, each thud loud, hollow, and painful against my ribs as I watched her cool, calculated composure completely disintegrate right before my eyes.“What did I just hear you say?” she shouted.My heart hammered against my chest.Her outrage filled every corner of the grand, spacious room, sharp and blinding, but it couldn't shield her from the awful truth anymore. The icy, invincible matriarch who had spent twenty-six ye

ELENA Pov Vanessa eventually returned.The tall double doors leading out to the sunlit courtyard clicked open with a quiet, smooth movement, breaking the heavy stillness that had settled over the dining room after Marcus walked away. Her footsteps were slower now, stripped of the sharp, urgent pace she had used when she rushed outside to answer that frantic call. She crossed the threshold with a strange, deliberate posture, as though every step required a conscious effort to maintain her balance.Her face looked different.The polished, untouchable mask of perfection she had worn for as long as I could remember was visibly fractured, cracked along lines I had never seen before. Her skin was unusually pale, almost translucent under the warm morning light filtering through the tall glass windows, and the immaculate, manicured hands she usually kept folded gracefully in her lap were slightly trembling at her sides.She tried to smile, but I could see something was wrong.It was a small,

ELENA Pov The moment we arrived at the company, Marcus went straight to his office.The heavy glass doors of the Sterling Group headquarters swung open into a bustling, pristine lobby filled with marble floors, towering pillars, and employees rushing back and forth with morning coffees and thick briefing folders. Marcus moved through the crowd like an untouchable force, his tall, imposing figure commanding immediate silence and respectful nods from executives as he passed. He didn't pause to offer greetings, nor did he look back as he made a beeline for his private executive elevator. His sharp jaw was set in a tight line, his dark suit jacket tailored to perfection, and his steps measured with a cold, relentless urgency that signaled a man preparing for war.I stayed with Chloe.While Marcus vanished into the high-speed elevator toward the top floor, I instinctively pulled Chloe back into the quiet shadow of the ground-floor lounge area. My legs felt weak, my knee joints trembling b