Chapter 207: She Is a Blessing
"Calm down, little physician," Dorrent murmured, his hand gently stroking the back of her head, holding her close while she cried. "Just breathe. There is a lot you don’t know yet. But I promise you, the moment we step foot back inside the estate, I will lay every single detail bare to you. I won’t hide a single thing again."
He let her weep against his chest, holding her tightly in the quiet sedan until her frantic sobs slowly turned into quiet, hiccuping gasps. The silence settled back into the vehicle, thick with her grief.
Slowly, Dorrent reached up with his thumb, wiping the tear tracks from her flushed cheeks.
Jannah instantly jerked her face back, her dark eyes flashing with a fire as she glared at him through her wet lashes. "Don’t touch my face!" she snapped, her voice trembling. "Your hands are filthy! You’re going to give me pimples!"
Dorrent looked down at her blotchy, exquisite face, and despite the chaos of the morning, a soft, subtle smile touched his handsome lips. "Okay," Dorrent purred softly, his voice dropping into a gentle rumble. "I won’t touch it. I wouldn’t like seeing your pretty face with a pimple anyway." He brushed a damp strand of hair behind her ear, his eyes locking into hers with a steady weight. "Don’t pressure yourself so much, Jannah. You don’t have to carry this alone anymore. I am right here for you."
Up front, Shadron watched the scene through the rearview mirror, his mind reeling as he tried to process the surreal dynamic between his ruthless CEO best friend and the fragile, weeping herbalist.
"Jesus Christ, Dorrent..." Shadron muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "How the hell did you manage to win such a massive lottery? First, you land yourself an extraordinarily pretty girl... and now it turns out she’s the legendary omega who can give you Enigma kids? That is beyond rare. That is a miracle."
Jannah’s head snapped toward the front seat, her eyes blazing with rage through her tears. "I am NOT a lottery, you arrogant jerk!" she cursed at Shadron, her voice sharp as a razor. "Keep your disgusting mouth shut!"
Dorrent’s eyes instantly narrowed into two freezing slits as he glared at the back of Shadron’s head. "Don’t ever refer to her as a lottery, Shadron," Dorrent warned coldly, his possessive alpha aura flaring. "A man who has an untamed, reckless dick like yours could never land himself a blessing like this. She is a blessing, not a game."
Shadron raised one hand off the wheel in a mock defensive gesture, letting out a dry chuckle. "Fine, fine! My bad! I guess I’m just unlucky then. Maybe if I could land a woman like her, my dick would finally be tamed by her too."
Shadron’s expression then shifted back into a serious frown. "Damn... now I completely understand why your father Guron was so insanely eager to push this marriage forward at all costs. It wasn’t just about you getting hard... it was about those Enigma kids all along."
The words cut straight into Jannah’s heart like a serrated blade.
A fresh wave of sickening horror crashed over her soul. The Grefo family didn’t see her as a human being. They didn’t see her as a woman with feelings, dreams, or grief. To Guron Grefo, to Himelda, and to the towering tycoon holding her right now... she was nothing but a trophy. A breeding machine meant to produce sovereign children to benefit them!
The disgust overwhelmed her sanity and rage exploded in her blood.
Before Dorrent could even react, Jannah reared her right hand back and slammed her open palm across his handsome face with a deafening, violent SLAP!
The impact echoed inside the sedan. Dorrent’s head jerked slightly to the side, his jaw clenching as he let out a wince, the red imprint of her hand instantly blooming across his sharp cheekbone.
"Curse you!" Jannah shrieked, her voice cracking with sobbing fury as she beat her fists against his chest. "If it’s Enigma children you hope to find from my body, then you can keep on dreaming, Dorrent! Keep dreaming your sick, pathetic dreams because I will NEVER, EVER give you any! I will starve my own womb before I carry a single drop of your bloodline!"
Tears poured down her face as she glared into his silver eyes, her chest heaving with gasps. "You are marrying me for the worst, most disgusting reasons in the world! Because of those stupid Enigma kids, and because I’m the only woman your useless, perverted body can fuck! That’s all I am to you! It is so unfair... if only... if only things were different, and you..."
She stopped dead mid-sentence.
Her breath trapped itself in her throat, her eyes widening in sudden, terror-stricken realization of what her mouth had almost confessed.
Dorrent’s eyes went still. The shock of the hard slap across his face vanished entirely, replaced by an intense, troubled focus as he stared into her flushed face.
"If things were different... what, Jannah?" Dorrent asked softly, his deep voice carrying a strange quietness. "Finish your sentence. Tell me."
Jannah quickly looked away, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as her face burned with intense embarrassment and confusion. "Forget about it!" she spat out defensively, trying to scramble off his lap. "Forget I said anything! Let go of me!"
Dorrent didn’t let her move. He held her waist, his eyes tracking her panicked profile.
He remembered her words from the bedroom last night—how she had questioned why he never spoke about giving her his heart, how she had asked if the girl from his past was beautiful, and how she had listed all those gentle, romantic qualities a teenager craved in a lover. She didn’t just hate him for her parents’ death; she was still desperately yearning for his heart. She wanted his love so badly that it was driving her insane, yet her nineteen-year-old mind was paralyzed by the conflict of desiring the very man who had orphaned her.
Dorrent felt an unfamiliar weight settle inside his chest. Dealing with a nineteen-year-old girl was so excruciatingly hard. Did he love her? Or did he just like her? He didn’t know the poetic answers to those questions. He didn’t know how to weave the soft, innocent fairy tales her young heart craved. But what he knew—was that he would rather burn this entire city to ash than ever lose her. He could never, ever live without her.
Dorrent slowly leaned his head down, bringing his face mere inches from hers, his eyes burning with intensity that made her breath hitch.
"You should just know one thing, little physician..." Dorrent whispered, his voice carrying a vow that vibrated into her soul. "...I am marrying you because I cannot live without you. My life doesn’t function well and means nothing without you."
Jannah froze under the crushing weight of his words.
For a second, something deep, soft, and terrifyingly warm melted in her chest. A strange flutter ignited in her heart, making her pulse race at an erratic rhythm. The desperate sincerity in his eyes looked so real that it threatened to completely dismantle her hatred.
Terrified by the sudden treason of her own feelings, Jannah forced her defensive walls to slam back down with violent force. She glared into his handsome face, her lips twisting into a mocking sneer to cover her shaking heart.
"Well... that’s great then, Alpha Grefo," Jannah whispered back, her voice dripping with venomous, tragic irony. "Then you will just have to live with me in hell."