REBORN My Second Life I Became The Villianess (Nyxara) novel Chapter 38

The hours leading up to the evening dragged on in agonizing patience. Back at the mansion, changing into my tuxedo, I couldn't focus on anything. All I could think about was her, the haunting shade of those violet eyes, the soft, melodic weight of her voice, and the way she held herself like a storm wrapped in silk.

That night, when I walked into the grand ballroom, the suffocating opulence hit me all at once. Before I could even scan the crowd for her, Nysa spotted me. Her face lit up with that fake, possessive smile, and she immediately closed the distance, latching her arm tightly around mine like a parasite.

I checked my watch, my jaw tightening. Nyxara wasn't around. I gave it one hour. If she didn't show up in sixty minutes, I was walking out of this gala and going straight to her.

I was stuck listening to some bloated businessman drone on about market acquisitions, barely nodding along while Nysa clung to my side, when the chatter in the room suddenly died down. A heavy, collective hush rippled through the crowd. My head snapped toward the entrance.

She walked in. Breathtaking didn't even cover it. She was wearing a stunning, floor-length midnight-blue gown that caught the chandeliers' light like starlight against a dark sky. The dress hugged her curves with effortless grace, making her look more elegant, refined, and dangerously magnetic than Nysa could ever hope to be.

When she glided over toward our section of the room, she still wore that quiet, downcast, meek look, trying to shrink back into the shadows. I didn't even spare a glance at the woman beside me, nor did I care when Nysa dropped her champagne glass in sheer shock at the sight of her forgotten sister stepping out in public.

Instead, my eyes locked entirely on Nyxara as she engaged the group in conversation. When she started speaking about high-level corporate logistics and cutting-edge AI theory, my chest seized. She wasn't just smart, she was a tactical genius hiding behind a timid mask, playing a dangerous game of her own.

Hearing her speak with such sharp, effortless brilliance sealed my fate. I decided right then and there: I wasn't marrying Nysa. I was marrying her. I was going to look my parents dead in the eye and tear the contract to shreds.

A few moments later, under the guise of excusing herself for the washroom, Nyxara subtly slipped away toward the side doors.

I didn't hesitate. I looked down at Nysa's hand clutching my arm, and with cold, absolute indifference, I physically pried her fingers off me, ignoring her hissed protest.

I followed the trail into the cool, quiet shadows of the sprawling stone balcony overlooking the city gardens.

I caught her leaning against the balustrade alone, taking a quiet breath away from the sharks inside. I stepped out from the shadows, closing the distance between us until she had nowhere to run.

"Drop the meek act," I said, my voice low, steady, and stripped of all pretense. She didn't flinch. Instead, a slow, knowing smirk touched her lips as she turned her head to look up at me.

"Clever man," she whispered, her voice laced with a hidden, razor-sharp edge.

The sheer audacity of it, the way she dropped the innocent facade the second we were alone, made my blood surge hot and violent through my veins. My body reacted instantly, a heavy, suffocating wave of pure desire and possessiveness crashing over me.

I stepped in close, trapping her against the stone railing, my shadow swallowing hers as I looked down into those mesmerizing violet eyes.

"The marriage to the Vexari estate doesn't have to be Nysa," I whispered, my words a jagged, lethal promise right against her skin. "It could be you, too."

That night, when I walked through the grand double doors of the Valteri estate, the heavy weight of the evening still hummed in my veins. The house was quiet, but as I stepped toward the foyer, the warm glow of the living room lights drew me in.

My parents and grandparents were sitting together, deep in conversation about the upcoming merger and the Vexari alliance. They looked up as I walked in, expecting the usual cold, distant heir.

Instead, I stopped in my tracks. I looked at their faces, unlined, breathing, completely unaware of the grave I had just pulled them back from.

My mother let out a sharp, breathless laugh, though her eyes were wide with confusion. "Dario, stop this. You're scaring me. What are you talking about?" she said shakily.

"I'm talking about the future," I said, stepping closer to them, needing them to understand the sheer terror of what I had survived. "In my last life, I married Nysa Vexari. And it was the slow, agonizing destruction of everything we built. She wrapped her claws around this family, isolated us, and systematically tore us apart. But the worst part, the part that still haunts every waking second I breathe is how you died."

The room went deathly, terrifyingly still.

"You died in a freak accident," I whispered, the memory clawing its way up from the dark corners of my mind, vivid and agonizingly clear. "One year from now, on a rainy stretch of highway just outside the city limits. It was late November. The roads were slick with black ice, and visibility was zero. A massive semi-truck, hauling an illegal, overloaded flatbed of industrial steel, lost control coming around the steep mountain bend. The driver slammed on the brakes, but momentum is a cruel master. The steel cables snapped, and tons of unspooled rebar and heavy plating broke loose, raining down across the opposing lanes like iron spears."

I swallowed hard, feeling the phantom screech of metal ringing in my ears.

"Your car took the brunt of it, Dad. The first beam pierced the windshield right through the passenger side, crushing everything in its path before the truck jackknifed and smashed directly into your car , driving it clean off the guardrail and sending it plunging three hundred feet down into the freezing ravine below. There was no rescue. There was no miracle. You both died instantly, crushed in the wreckage of a rigged, 'accidental' disaster that Nysa orchestrated from the shadows to fast-track her inheritance."

My mother was shaking, her hand flying to her mouth as tears welled in her eyes. My father stared at me, his face pale, paralyzed by the horrific detail in my voice.

"I watched you get put into the ground," I finished, my voice cracking with a raw, buried agony. "I buried both of you, and I lived out the rest of my miserable life entirely alone, surrounded by snakes who smiled in my face while they poisoned my water."

I stepped forward, looking them dead in the eye.I didn't stop there. The dam had broken, and every single nightmare I had carried in silence spilled out across the room. I turned my gaze from my parents to my grandparents, who sat frozen, the color completely draining from their faces.