Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 335

Chapter 335: The Price She had to Pay

Sofia stared down at her hands for what felt like an eternity, fingers twisting together in her lap like writhing serpents. The silence stretched between us, heavy enough to drown in, pregnant with whatever burden she’d been carrying alone. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely a whisper—frayed at the edges.

"Peter... I don’t know how to say this."

"Just start somewhere," I said gently. My voice a low anchor in the storm. "We’ve got all night."

She nodded, taking a shaky breath that shuddered through her frame. "When I first started dating Jack... I thought..." Her throat worked. "I thought my parents were just happy I was dating someone nice. Someone from a good family." A bitter laugh escaped her—sharp, broken glass. "I was so naive."

Madison reached across the table, placing her hand over Sofia’s trembling ones. A lifeline thrown into dark water. "Take your time, sweetheart."

"Within two months," Sofia continued, her voice gaining strength but shredding with pain, "my father was talking about business opportunities. About how the Delgado and Morrison families could work together. Construction contracts. Real estate development. He saw Jack as this perfect bridge—a human tollbooth—between our companies."

Ice settled in my stomach. Cold, heavy, familiar. I’d seen this script before in wealthy families—children as chess pieces in adult games. The same thing with Amanda, although for the latter it felt like her family had thrown her to the man to get her away from them.

"At first it was just comments at dinner," Sofia said, tears starting to well—glistening jewels of pending pain. "Little suggestions about how important this relationship could be. How much it could cushion our family’s business. I thought he was just being a proud father, you know? Talking up his daughter’s boyfriend—fluffing feathers."

She paused, wiping futilely at her eyes with the back of her hand. Madison squeezed Sofia’s fingers harder—bony white knuckles.

"But then Jack started changing," Sofia said, her voice shrinking, folding in on itself. "Once he realized how invested my family was becoming... how much they wanted this relationship to work... he started treating me differently."

She took another shaky breath—gathering courage like stones in her palms. I could see the weight of what came next pressing down on her shoulders.

"There were things," Sofia said, her voice breaking completely—shattering into a million jagged pieces. "Embarrassing requests. He’d ask me to do things in front of his friends that made me feel stupid... small. He’d make jokes about me that weren’t really jokes, you know? Little cuts disguised as humor." She drew a shuddering breath—like drowning man surfacing. "But it got... worse. Much worse."

She was sobbing now, the words tearing out of her in ragged gasps. "And I couldn’t say no. Because every time I tried to push back, he’d remind me... what it would mean for my father’s business. How disappointed everyone would be... if I ruined everything... over ’petty relationship drama.’"

But Sofia seemed compelled—driven—to explain the depth of the violation. The things she’d never told anyone—the weight she’d carried because she had no one to confide in. "It wasn’t just one time," she choked out, wiping futilely at her tears—like trying to dam a flood with her bare hands. "It was... constant. Especially when his fraternity brothers... or his high school crew... were over. They’d egg him on... laugh... at whatever he made me do.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify