Chapter 323: Wife Voice

"Je suis déçue que tu l’aies amenée ici, Jade," the woman said. "Je t’avais dit de rester loin et de vivre ta vie."

The woman’s voice was sharp and elegant, but beneath the icy exterior, there was a buried layer of sorrow.

Aria blinked, the tears stinging her eyes instantly drying up. She turned her head to look at Jade, who was currently trembling so hard her hoodie was shaking.

"Translate," Aria demanded.

Jade swallowed hard, clutching the handle of her suitcase like a shield.

"She said... she is disappointed that I brought you here," Jade stammered, shrinking under the woman’s piercing glare. "She says she told you to stay away and live your life."

Aria whipped her head back to the woman on the porch.

"Live my life?" Aria scoffed loudly, marching up the gravel driveway. "You don’t get to say that! You shoved me out of a moving van off a bridge!"

"Tu n’es pas morte," the woman replied coolly, crossing her arms.

Jade winced. "She says... you didn’t die."

"Oh, I’m sorry, did I inconvenience you by surviving?" Aria shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "You didn’t push me onto a pile of pillows, you threw me into the freezing East River!"

Damien stepped forward.

"Enough," Damien stated. "Where is Leo?"

The woman’s emerald eyes shifted to Damien. She looked him up and down, masking her wariness of the billionaire standing in her driveway wearing wrinkled sweatpants and a dark t-shirt.

"Rentrez en Amérique," she ordered firmly, though there was a desperate edge to her command. "Laissez les Vipers à la famille Orpheus. Vous n’avez pas votre place ici."

"She says we should go back to America," Jade translated quickly, her voice pitching up in panic. "She says we should leave the Vipers to the Orpheus family before they find out we are here. She says you don’t belong here."

"I don’t belong here?" Damien let out a low chuckle. "I have the leader of the Vipers chained to a chair in a basement. If anything, I belong at the head of your table."

The woman paused.

A humorless laugh escaped her red lips.

"L’idiot que vous avez capturé n’est pas le chef," she shook her head, her eyes flashing with a grim reality. "Le véritable chef des Vipers est une femme. Elle s’appelle Valérie. Et elle vous mangera tous les deux vivants."

Jade practically choked on the translation.

"She... she says the man you captured is an idiot. He isn’t the leader," Jade relayed, her eyes wide with terror. "The real leader of the Vipers is a woman named Valérie. And she will... eat you both alive."

Aria stared at the woman, her jaw tightening. ’Valérie.’

"Too bad we are already chest-deep in this mess," Aria snapped, refusing to back down. "And more importantly, they have Leo. You sent him to protect me, and he took the fall for Jade. We are getting him back."

The woman’s face hardened, her protective instincts clashing with her nieces’ stubbornness.

"La famille Orpheus s’en chargera," she stated flatly, ending the conversation.

"She says the Orpheus family will handle it," Jade whispered.

"Handle it?!" Damien roared.

"You call this handling it?!" Damien sneered. "You are hiding in a dilapidated house in the countryside, using orphaned children to do your dirty work! I don’t give a damn about your family, and I couldn’t care less about your stupid cartel war!"

He took a menacing step up onto the stone porch.

"You pushed my wife off a bridge," Damien gritted out. "That is the only thing I care about."

The woman didn’t back away as she stared up at him.

"Alors, que vas-tu faire ?" she asked softly. "Veux-tu me tuer sur mon propre porche ?"

Jade squeezed her eyes shut, terrified to translate. "She... she’s asking if you wish to kill her on her own porch."

Damien grabbed the woman by the throat.

He hoisted her an inch off the ground. The woman gasped, her hands flying up to claw uselessly at his wrist, her eyes bulging as her airway was crushed, but she didn’t fight back.

Jade screamed, dropping her suitcase.

Aria gasped, taking a shocked step forward. "Damien!"

Damien didn’t look at his wife. He leaned in, his face mere inches from the choking woman’s face.

"J’y réfléchis sérieusement," Damien whispered.

(I am seriously considering it.)

Aria froze, stunned.

Before Damien could tighten his grip, the doors of the chateau burst open.

A swarm of children flooded out onto the porch. They were crying, shouting, and pulling at Damien’s sweatpants and t-shirt.

"Lâchez-la ! Laissez-la tranquille !" a small boy wept, hitting Damien’s leg with his tiny fists. (Let her go! Leave her alone!)

"Damien, stop!" Aria cried out, grabbing his arm and trying to pry his fingers loose. "There are kids here!"

Damien didn’t even blink. He glared down at the choking woman, his jaw locked tight.

"So what?" Damien said coldly, unbothered by the weeping children swarming his legs. "Tell them to close their eyes."

"Damien."

Aria dropped her voice into her ultimate, firm ’wife voice.’ It was the exact tone she used when he was being stubborn about taking his migraine medication.

"Let her go."

Damien let out a frustrated sigh. The tension slowly drained from his shoulders.

He uncurled his fingers and dropped the woman.

She collapsed onto the stone porch, coughing violently and clutching her throat as the children instantly swarmed her, crying and hugging her fiercely.

Damien stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest.

Aria stepped past him, looking down at the coughing woman surrounded by children.

"We are all just going to calm down," Aria announced. "I am not leaving this country without the answers I need, and I am not leaving without Leo. So stop telling me to go back to America."

Aria crossed her arms, raising a challenging brow.

"So, are we going to stand out here all morning, or are we going inside to talk like adults?"

The woman rubbed her bruised throat, coughing weakly.

Slowly, the Aunt nodded.

She stood up, ushering the crying children back inside. She didn’t say a word as she held the door open, silently inviting Damien and his wife into the ghost of the Orpheus Syndicate.