Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 1008

Chapter 1008: Race: Mother-In-Law’s Madness

It was quick—a traitorous flush that raced up her neck and kissed her cheeks before she executed it with ruthless willpower.

But it happened. And we both knew it.

"Fine," she said, clipped and professional, utterly betrayed by the fading pink still staining her skin. "One game."

"That’s all I need."

"So," Maria said, pulling on her gloves with the cold precision of a surgeon about to carve open destiny itself, "how does this work?"

"You drive. You try to beat me."

"Try?"

"I’m being generous with the wording."

She looked at me. Then at the kart. Then back at me.

And there it was—the competitive fire she’d probably buried since medical school suddenly igniting behind her eyes, bright, vicious, and gloriously alive.

"I should warn you," she said, sliding into the kart with a grace that had no business existing inside something built for speed and violence. "I don’t lose."

"Neither do I."

"One of us is lying."

"It’s you."

Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. Her mouth twitched with the effort of not smiling. She yanked the harness across her chest and locked it with a decisive click, the sound of a woman strapping in for war.

"Start the race," she ordered. "Before I remember I’m supposed to hate you and walk away."

ARIA’s silky voice floated through the track speakers, smooth as poisoned honey: "Race parameters set. Three laps. Collision physics enabled. Boost pads active. Good luck, Dr. Maria. You’ll need it."

Maria’s head snapped toward the nearest speaker like it had personally insulted her bloodline. "Did your track just trash-talk me?"

"She does that to everyone. Don’t take it personally."

"I absolutely meant it personally," ARIA purred.

Maria stared at the speaker, then at me, then—for the first time since she’d stormed onto my estate like a well-dressed apocalypse—she laughed.

Short, startled, ripped out of her before her iron control could murder it. The sound hit me like a drug because whatever I was doing was working and ARIA just helped me loosen up Maria even more with her gleeful darkness.

She killed it instantly, slamming her face back into its default setting of stern maternal disapproval. But the damage was done.

The crack had widened.

"Start the race," she said again, quieter this time, visibly fighting the smile trying to stage a coup on her lips.

The lights above the grid pulsed. Red. Red. Red.

Green.

Maria was a goddamn menace.

I don’t know what I expected—cautious, clinical driving, the risk-averse precision of a doctor who spends her days reminding people how easily the human body breaks.

What I got was a woman driving like second place had personally murdered her childhood pet and wouldn’t let herself be in it.

She really would make good friends with Anastasia and Sophia... I just have to add her to my harem!

She’s already exploded off the grid by the time I finished y monologue, with a snarl of electric fury that actually made me blink.

Rear thrusters lit up, kart surging forward like it owed her money.

"Oh, hell no," I muttered, and slammed the throttle wide open. It was a race... why let the other party go away disappointed when we’re supposed to have fun.

Maria was winning.

"WHAT IS THIS THING?!" she howled, voice shredded by the wind and flung back at me in delicious fragments as I drafted desperately behind her through the neon tunnel. Dr. Maria—respected physician, armored mother, woman who had arrived here to professionally dismantle my life—was cackling like a beautiful, unhinged villain.

She flashed a full, feral, competitive grin and complete madness... and deliberately swerved into me.

"DID YOU JUST—" I shouted.

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