REBORN My Second Life I Became The Villianess (Nyxara) novel Chapter 37

The next day, the Vexari family arrived at the estate to officially cement the arrangement. We were gathered in the sitting room, the air thick with polite corporate talk and clinking crystal. In my past life, this was the exact moment Nysa had taken the initiative, flashing a shy, perfect smile and asking if I wanted to take a walk in the gardens to get acquainted. Like a fool, I had gone with her, walking straight into the spider's web.

History tried to repeat itself. Nysa shifted in her seat, leaning over with that practiced, delicate flutter of her lashes. "Dario," she murmured, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness, "would you like to take a walk in the gardens? It's so stuffy in here, and I'd love to talk alone."

I didn't move an inch. My arms remained crossed over my chest as I leaned back against the sofa. I didn't smile and I didn't offer a polite nod. I certainly didn't stand up, I just looked at her. I looked at her very, very carefully.

I studied the slight tilt of her head, the way her fingers curled against her lap, and the subtle, triumphant gleam she thought she was hiding. And as I stared straight into her face, a cold wave of disbelief washed over me.

How?

How on earth had I missed all this scheming and venom in my past life? It was right there on the surface, the calculated cruelty, the predatory hunger behind those fake, wide eyes. It was so glaringly obvious now that the blindfold of ignorance had been ripped away.

The silence stretched out, heavy and uncomfortable, drawing the attention of the rest of the room. Nysa's smile flickered for a fraction of a second, a flash of genuine confusion cutting through her mask as she realized I wasn't playing my part.

The engagement was finalized across the table, the formal signatures sealing our fates while my family smiled, completely blind to the snake in their midst. The second the ink dried, I stood up, adjusting my cuffs without a single glance in Nysa's direction.

"If you'll excuse me," I said, my voice cold enough to drop the room's temperature. "I have work to do."

I didn't wait for a response or care about the awkward silence I left behind, abandoning Nysa and her parents sitting in the sitting room. I walked straight out to the car, told the driver to take me to the office, and spent the next few weeks strategizing.

I tore into corporate documents and mapped out every vulnerability the Vexari family had, planning precisely how to dismantle Nysa piece by piece.But vigilance is a heavy armor, and even I had a breaking point.

A few weeks later, the exhaustion and the relentless, suffocating rage caught up with me. I went out, hit a high-end lounge, and let myself drink until the edges of reality blurred. By the time I staggered back to the estate, heavily intoxicated and barely keeping my footing, Nysa and her parents were there visiting.

She saw her opening. The second I stumbled toward the stairs, she was there, playing the devoted, concerned fiancée. She led me back to my room, and under the dense fog of too much alcohol and shattered inhibitions, she took advantage of my weakened state and slept with me that night.

The next morning, sunlight sliced through the bedroom curtains, and I woke up with a pounding headache and a fury so violent it nearly choked me.

I was disgusted. I was furious at myself for slipping up, for letting my guard down even for a single night around that venomous bitch, and above all, for giving her an inch.

The thought of her carrying my child, of tethering my bloodline to her venomous soul for the rest of time, made my stomach turn violently. I would rather die and go back to that burning car crash than let her get pregnant.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand while she was still asleep in the other room, tapping out a rapid, encrypted message to Julian.

Dario: Get morning-after contraceptives. Bring it to the back gate in twenty minutes. No questions.

When Julian delivered the discreet package, I slipped back inside, crushed the pill into a fine powder, and stirred it directly into the morning tea, I had especially ired fro her.

I carried the tray upstairs with a sickeningly charming smile on my face. Nysa was sitting up in bed, wrapped in the sheets, looking at me with a triumphant, stupid smug o her face. She was convinced that she had finally hooked me and that she had me right where she wanted me.

I stepped into the grand foyer, but my eyes didn't waste a single second on Nysa or her parents, who were standing nearby. They bypassed everything. My gaze locked straight onto her.

Nyxara Vexari.

She was sitting in ne of the arm chairs in the corner of the sitting room, dressed in simple, muted clothes that tried to hide her presence, but nothing could hide the striking, hypnotic reality of her. I caught her gaze, staring deep into those impossible, mesmerizing violet eyes, the exact shade I had memorized from a photograph two years ago.

She was eighteen now. She was a legal adult and she was fair game.

Up close, the subtle details hit me. She projected a quiet, fragile meekness, keeping her shoulders slightly hunched, but I could see the sharp, coiled strength beneath the surface. She wasn't broken; she was surviving.

The second our eyes met, something hard and violent snapped inside my chest. It locked into place: a heavy, consuming mix of obsession and possession. Nysa was nothing. The Vexari family was nothing. I was going to rip up the arrangement, break the engagement, and marry Nyxara instead.

As if feeling the suffocating weight of my stare, Nyxara’s chin tilted up slightly before she murmured a quiet excuse to take her leave. The sound of her soft voice sent a hot jolt straight through my veins, making me fall even deeper into the trap of my own fixation.

I stood completely still, tracking every single step she took as she turned and walked up the grand staircase, watching her until she vanished completely from sight.

After leaving the Vexari estate, I headed straight home, my mind burning with a singular, consuming focus. There was a high-society charity gala tonight, and I was praying to whatever dark forces brought me back that she would be there. If she wasn't, I was going to tear the city apart until I found her myself.