Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 685

Chapter 685: Escalation

Lila said nothing. Her silence was defiance carved in ice.

"WHO?" he roared.

The sound cracked through the foyer like a whip. Every body below flinched

Lila’s voice came low, steady, lethal. "I did."

"Bullshit." He lunged, seizing her wrist in a grip that turned her skin white around his fingers. She flinched—an involuntary, practiced recoil that sliced me deeper than any scream could have. "You don’t have a key."

"I picked the lock," she said. "With a bobby pin. Funny... you never had to teach me that."

His face twisted, ugly with rage and disbelief. "You ungrateful little—"

"Careful," she interrupted, voice soft but razor-sharp. "Finish that sentence. Say it loud. Let everyone hear exactly what I am to you."

The crowd had become a single breathing organism—tense, horrified, phones trembling in outstretched hands. Someone near the stairs started forward; a friend grabbed his sleeve and hissed, "Don’t, you’ll make it worse."

I was already moving. Slow at first, deliberate, cutting a path toward the staircase. Ava stayed glued to my side, her drunken haze burned away by adrenaline.

Dex leaned in close, breath sour and hot. "You’re property."

Lila laughed—sharp, brittle, heartbreaking. "Property doesn’t bleed when you hit it, Dex. Property doesn’t beg you to stop."

Gasps exploded below. A girl started sobbing openly. A guy shouted, "What the fuck, man!"

Dex released her wrist as if it suddenly scalded him. "You wanna air our laundry? Fine." His hand rose, open, ready.

Lila didn’t back away this time. "Do it," she said, almost gently. "Show the world the real Dexter."

His arm froze mid-swing. Red light bathed them both; every phone in the house was a spotlight now.

She stepped closer, voice pitched low but the balcony carried it perfectly. "You keep me on the third floor so no one sees the marks. You throw these parties so the music drowns out anything that might escape the walls. You’re not a host, Dex. You’re a warden."

"Lila," I called, voice slicing clean through the chaos. "Come down here. Now."

Her head snapped toward me. For the first time, her mask slipped—relief flooding those ice-blue eyes, chased immediately by fear.

Dex’s gaze followed hers. Recognition hit him like a slap. "You." Rage purpled his face. "This is because of you." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Let her go," I said.

"She was mine long before you crawled onto my beach!" he screamed. "Locked away. Safe. Obedient!"

"She’s not a fucking doll," someone shouted from the crowd.

"Call the cops!"

"Keep filming—everything!"

Dex whirled back to Lila. "Get your ass upstairs. Now."

She smiled—slow, venomous, beautiful. "Make me."

"You think he’s gonna save you?" Dex sneered, swaying. "You think the Beach King wants damaged goods?"

I did. God, I did.

"I ASKED WHO LET YOU OUT OF THAT ROOM, BITCH!"

The roar cracked her composure. Lila shrank back against the balustrade, shoulders curling inward, voice suddenly small. "I... I opened it myself."

Dex barked a wet, triumphant laugh. "You don’t open anything. You stay where I put you."

He moved—faster than the alcohol should have allowed. One lurching stride. The balcony creaked.

"Dex, d—"

"Don’t?" he mocked, voice climbing into something unhinged. "You think ’don’t’ gets you out of the cage I built?"

Three steps. Below, I saw Colt and Jaxon bulldozing through the crowd, trying to reach the stairs. The foyer had become a storm of shouts, panic, flashing cameras.

Dex took another step. Broken glass glinted in his fist like jagged teeth.

"You’re upstairs when I say. Locked. Silent. Mine." He thrust the bottle neck toward her face. "You come down here, parade yourself like some desperate whore—think that’s allowed?"

Two steps.

"Air?" he bellowed. "You get whatever air I decide to pump through the goddamn vent!"

"STOP HIM!"

"SOMEONE HELP HER!"

"HE’S CHOKING HER—OH MY GOD!"

"Good." He shook her like a rag doll, her head snapping back and forth, blonde hair whipping across her face. "Maybe pain finally teaches you to stay the fuck put."

"LILA!"

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