Chapter 182\u00a0<\/p>\n
Violet\u00a0<\/p>\n
:\u00a0<\/p>\n
E55 vouchers\u00a0<\/p>\n
As soon as those words left Hades\u2019 mouth, the entire atmosphere shifted. Every single person who had been whispering, and watching like this was some entertainment, snapped their attention to Nora like she was suddenly the most disgusting thing in the room. And it didn\u2019t take long before the first voice rang out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou-what do you think you\u2019re doing?\u201d a woman hissed, stepping forward with her chin raised like she was royalty. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you on your knees?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another person nodded aggressively, eyes flashing with outrage as if Nora had personally offended them. \u201cRight! Why aren\u2019t you kneeling? If Mrs. Sinclair tells you to kneel, you kneel immediately!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nora\u2019s lips parted, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard. \u201cI\u2014I\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up!\u201d someone snapped, louder this time. A man in an expensive suit pointed at her like she was a stain on the marble floor. \u201cWho do you think you are? Don\u2019t you dare open your mouth and disrespect the Sinclair family!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
More voices piled on, overlapping and growing uglier by the second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you even understand where you are?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t your little school drama!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur lives and businesses matter! If you drag us into trouble, you\u2019ll regret it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGet down! Now!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKneel!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKneel, you stupid girl!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words slammed into her from every direction, and I watched Nora\u2019s face drain of color. Her eyes darted around the crowd like she was searching for a door that didn\u2019t exist, her body trembling so hard it looked like she could collapse from the weight of it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I blinked slowly, then turned my head toward Hades. And for the first time since the chaos began, I felt something dangerously close to amusement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This man\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
If I was crazy, then Hades was far worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knew exactly what he was doing. He hadn\u2019t just threatened Nora, he\u2019d threatened everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d made it so clear that I wasn\u2019t someone you argued with, that the crowd didn\u2019t even hesitate to turn into weapons for him. The same people Nora had been trying to impress, charm, and climb over others for, were now the ones shoving her down with their words, forcing her lower and lower until she had nowhere left to\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:00 Tue, Feb 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 182\u00a0<\/p>\n
stand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hades Sinclair didn\u2019t need to raise his voice, or even touch her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He simply spoke, and the world obeyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
42\u00a0<\/p>\n
55 vouchers\u00a0<\/p>\n
My eyes lifted to his face, and as if he could feel my stare, Hades glanced down at me. His expression was calm, like he wasn\u2019t the reason someone\u2019s life was currently being torn apart in public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He raised an eyebrow slightly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it, princess?\u201d he asked, voice lazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t help it. A smile tugged at my lips before I could stop it, and I shook my head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing,\u201d I murmured. \u201cJust remind me not to get on your bad side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something flickered in his eyes. Amusement? Satisfaction? Who knew, but it made my stomach twist in a way I didn\u2019t want to acknowledge in front of this many people. Hades leaned closer, his body angling toward mine like the rest of the room didn\u2019t exist. His breath brushed my ear, hot enough to make my skin tighten.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow amusing,\u201d he murmured, voice dropping low enough for me. \u201cTo think I would humiliate you if you offend me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My pulse jumped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, princess. I would never humiliate you, why would I? There are far more exquisite ways to punish you. Ways I\u2019d actually enjoy. For instance, tying you to my bed and leaving you there, trembling, aching, dripping and begging for my cock\u2026 now that would be satisfying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHades-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before I could respond, he gently moved my hair away from my neck, his fingers brushing my skin slowly, and placed a soft kiss right below my ear. A shiver ran through me so fast it almost made my knees weak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I swallowed hard, my body suddenly too warm, my thoughts scrambling, and I forced myself to breathe like\u00a0<\/p>\n
a sane person.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not now. Not here. Not in front of these people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I coughed lightly to ground myself and turned my face away from him before my expression betrayed me completely. If Hades had one weakness, it was that he didn\u2019t believe in the concept of public decency when it came to me, and I wasn\u2019t about to give him the satisfaction of watching me melt while Nora was being destroyed five feet away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking of Nora\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shifted my attention back to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nora stood frozen in the center of the storm, her eyes wide and shining, her lips trembling as she looked around. The crowd hadn\u2019t stopped. If anything, they were getting worse, like they could smell an opportunity\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:00 Tue, Feb 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 182\u00a0<\/p>\n
and suddenly wanted to prove to Hades they were useful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
42\u00a0<\/p>\n
E55 vouchers\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her hands clenched at her sides, fingers curling so tightly I could see the strain in her knuckles. She tried to breathe, and control herself, but she couldn\u2019t. Her gaze flickered desperately toward Matthew, like he was her last hope. But Matthew wasn\u2019t moving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was still standing there like someone had ripped the ground out from under him and left him floating in a nightmare. His eyes were locked on me and Hades, his face pale, his lips slightly parted as if his mind couldn\u2019t decide whether to scream or deny reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t even look like he remembered Nora existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What a strange man.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was it really that shocking to him, that his ex-fianc\u00e9e was getting married to his father?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe, from the outside, it looked absurd, and dramatic enough to become gossip for years. But honestly, I didn\u2019t care. I didn\u2019t care whether Hades was his adoptive father or not, didn\u2019t care how people twisted the story to satisfy their curiosity. The world could choke on its rumors for all I cared. And Matthew himself no longer mattered to me in the slightest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had become so irrelevant to my life that I didn\u2019t think of him unless he was shoved directly into my line of sight. He was like an annoying stain that refused to fade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nora, however, finally seemed to understand something she had been desperately trying to avoid all night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nobody was going to help her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I watched as her body visibly gave in, her shoulders collapsing under the weight of reality. The confidence she always wore so carefully shattered completely. Her face turned pale, her lips trembling as she stared at the floor like it was about to swallow her whole. Then, slowly, she went down on her knees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She placed both hands on the ground, bowing forward in a posture so humiliating it almost looked unreal, and when she spoke, her voice came out broken and shaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI-I\u2019m sorry, Violet\u2026\u201d she cried. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry. I should have thought before speaking. I shouldn\u2019t have made things so hard. Please\u2026 please forgive me\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her sobs echoed through the hall. People turned to look at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could feel their gazes pressing into me. They were waiting for something from me, but I gave them nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I simply looked at Nora with complete indifference. And that, more than anything else, unsettled them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some people frowned, clearly uncomfortable with the way I didn\u2019t react to her apology, but not a single one of them dared to spea<\/p>\n
Nights Burn With Regret \u2014 by Nathan Perez 182 Chapter 182\u00a0 Violet\u00a0 :\u00a0 E55 vouchers\u00a0 As soon as those words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craving-the-guardian-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}