Chapter 111:What a model family

Chapter 111: 111:What a model family

Corinthian swallowed hard, a nervous lump bobbing in his throat. He hastily picked up his silver spoon and focused entirely on his meal, desperately avoiding the searing, warning glare of his father.

Mrs. Darson happily piled expensive delicacies onto Nova’s plate, her face glowing with a warm, maternal smile. "Eat up, my dear," she urged gently.

Nova nodded meekly, silently picking at the food.

The clinking of silverware paused as Mr. Darson cleared his throat. His dark, heavy gaze fixed immovably on Nova. "Since Jenifer is finally home, how about we host a grand welcoming banquet for her?"

A suffocating tension instantly fell over the table.

"That’s a wonderful idea!" Mrs. Darson agreed brightly. "I should let everyone in our circle know that my precious daughter has returned." She turned to Nova, oblivious to the predatory stillness of the men. "What do you think, dear?"

Nova sat in perfect silence for a moment. "I am not your biological daughter," she sneered internally. "Being publicly claimed by this pathetic bloodline would be an absolute stain on my good reputation."

Outwardly, she shrank back slightly. "I... I don’t want to," she replied in a soft, wavering voice.

Mrs. Darson sighed affectionately. "It’s alright, my dear. If you aren’t comfortable with it yet, we will leave it at that. Nothing changes the fact that you are my daughter anyway."

"Keep flattering yourself". Nova thought, returning her attention to her plate.

Across the table, the tension was gnawing at David. "Jenifer is... too beautiful," he thought, aggressively biting the inside of his cheek as he stole another covert glance at her delicate profile. "Her lips... No. She is my little sister. How can I possibly harbor such depraved thoughts?" He forced himself to chew, desperately trying to smother the unnatural, boiling heat pooling in his gut.

At the head of the table, Mr. Darson watched Nova who was ignore their heavy stares. He swallowed thickly. "Is the life of a destitute orphan truly this refining? How can my own flesh and blood be so damn tempting?" He took a deep, shuddering breath, violently suppressing the sickening urge rising in his chest so he could finish his meal.

"This father and his sons are such disgusting creatures. I have half a mind to strangle them all where they sit," Anah’s voice suddenly echoed sharply in Nova’s mind.

"Tsk. You aren’t half as disgusted as I am, Nova replied telepathically, calmly lifting a spoonful of food to her lips. "But then again, I can hardly blame them. These animals think exclusively with their lower part."

"Indeed," Anah mused. "I wonder, if it were the original Jenifer sitting there, how would she have coped?"

"Cope? This beastly family wouldn’t have welcomed her at all," Nova sneered internally. "First, the real girl was horribly scarred, and second, she reeked of poverty. If it weren’t for this flawless face of mine that they are currently lusting after, do you honestly think they would have let me sit at this dining table?"

Nova paused, her internal voice dripping with icy venom. "They play the part of a loving family now, telling me to take off my mask only because my face pleases them. If I had Jenifer’s actual scars, they would have custom-ordered a mask to hide me away."

She cast a covert, sweeping glance around the table. "Aside from the mother and the adopted daughter, Susan—who at least has half a brain—the three men in this house are nothing but feral dogs. They had better keep their filthy desires buried, otherwise, I will slaughter them before the system even issues the mission."

Anah chuckled darkly. "You are a daughter to one and a sister to the other two, yet all three are harboring such sinful fantasies. What a model family."

"Are you certain David and Corinthian are Mrs. Darson’s biological sons?" Nova inquired.

"Yes. Only Susan is adopted. As for Mr. Darson, he keeps a mistress on the outside—though, given the way he’s staring at you now, I highly doubt he’ll be visiting her anytime soon," Anah replied.

"The man doesn’t deserve the title of a father," Nova thought. A chilling, psychopathic smirk threatened to curve her lips, but she flawlessly masked it behind her fragile, innocent persona. "Well... I pray one of them tries to mess with me. It has been far too long since I painted my hands with blood."

Nova gracefully set down her spoon and looked at Mrs. Darson. "I’m full now. I think I would like to go back to my bedroom."

Mrs. Darson’s face instantly scrunched in worry. "But you’ve barely eaten a thing, dear!"

"With this utterly tasteless trash, you expect me to eat more? I wonder what imbecile cooked this garbage," Nova thought. Outwardly, she offered a sweet, apologetic smile. "I... I am truly full. Thank you."

Mrs. Darson sighed softly. "Alright then. Go on and rest, sweet girl."

As soon as Nova slipped out of the dining room, the suffocating pressure vanished. Susan finally exhaled a massive sigh of relief, her trembling shoulders relaxing as she hurriedly finished her meal in peace.

Later that night, the mansion was shrouded in oppressive silence.

David tossed and turned violently in his bed. The image of Nova—her porcelain skin, her intoxicating eyes—played on a relentless, maddening loop in his mind. His heart thundered against his ribs, making sleep completely impossible.

Just the mere thought of her had him painfully rigid. Cursing under his breath, he sat up, glaring down at the heavy bulge in his sweatpants.

"This is a sin," he ground out through gritted teeth. He snatched his phone from the nightstand and dialed a woman’s number, praying for a distraction. The line rang endlessly in the dark room until it disconnected.

"It’s too late... she must be asleep," he muttered, tossing the phone aside. Defeated by his own twisted desire, his hand slipped beneath his waistband, wrapping tightly around his raging erection. He began to stroke himself with desperate, hurried friction, chanting, "Jenifer... Jenifer," into the dark until a heavy, shuddering climax finally tore through him.

"Damn it," he groaned, his chest heaving as reality crashed down. He stumbled out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to clean himself. Moments later, he collapsed back onto his sheets in a fresh change of clothes. "She’s my blood sister," he whispered into the empty room, a heavy sigh tearing from his throat before exhaustion finally dragged him into a restless sleep.

While David slept, Corinthian prowled.

The hallway was pitch black as he crept silently toward Nova’s bedroom. His heart pounded with a thrilling, forbidden adrenaline. Moving like a thief in his own home, he reached out, his fingers wrapping around the cold brass of her door handle. He was just about to turn it when—

Click.

A blinding beam of a flashlight shattered the darkness, hitting Corinthian square in the back of the head. He froze, completely rooted to the spot, his blood turning to ice. Slowly, agonizingly, he turned around.

"What are you doing prowling around so late at night, brother?" Susan asked, yawning as she kept the harsh light trained directly on his face.

Corinthian let out a shaky breath, the crushing tension leaving his body when he realized it was only Susan. He plastered on an awkward, charming smile. "I... I was just coming to check if our little sister was comfortable. That’s all."

Susan stared at Nova’s closed door, a flicker of absolute terror flashing in her eyes before she looked back at Corinthian. She sighed heavily. "Trust me, brother. She is definitely more than comfortable. You should really go back to your room and sleep. I just came out for a glass of water."

With a final glance at Corinthian, Susan turned and walked away.

Corinthian stood in the dark for a moment, his hands clenching into tight fists until his knuckles popped. "I need to calm down. I just need to calm down," he chanted silently to himself, reluctantly abandoning his prize and retreating to his room.

On the other side of the heavy oak door, the room was bathed in the pale, eerie glow of a laptop screen.

Nova sat cross-legged on her black silk sheets, watching the entire hallway encounter play out on her hacked security feed. A dark, terrifyingly beautiful smile stretched across her lips.

"Oh, well," Nova murmured to the empty room, her voice dripping with the quiet, lethal amusement of a true psychopath. "Susan just saved his head tonight."