Chapter 105: There’s Probably No Curse
Bellero turned his head toward the shadow of the curtains, letting out a short, commanding whistle that brought his son stepping forward into the reception hall. Damian Boren looked clean and refined compared to his imposing father, his medical coat immaculate, though his golden eyes carried the unmistakable, intensity of the Boren bloodline.
"Damian," Bellero growled, his voice dropping into a serious register as he gestured toward the statuesque beauty queen in the crimson dress. "You are going to walk out of these gates and get into the vehicle with Joanne right now. The two of you need to get to know one another during the drive, since she is the one who will be playing the inside game and helping in your courting of Jannah Nenth. Work together and ensure our layout succeeds."
Damian gave a slow, calculated nod, his eyes flicking to the case holding the blue antidote syringe tightly clutched in Joanne’s fingers. Without a single word of protest, he followed her out through the massive doors of the stronghold. The gravel crunched beneath their shoes as they walked toward her luxury sedan. Within moments, Damian got into the passenger seat, the door clicking shut with a pressurized seal as Joanne turned the ignition and roared down the dark, twisting roads of the western sectors.
For the first few minutes of the drive, the atmosphere inside the vehicle was tense, filled with nothing but the low hum of the engine and the flickering shadows of the streetlamps passing across their faces. Joanne kept her eyes fixed on the road, her manicured fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly before she finally broke the silence, her voice dropping into a curious line.
"Let me ask you an honest question, Damian," Joanne began, her voice smooth but carrying an intense edge as she glanced at his profile. "Do you actually like Jannah at all as a woman? Or is it just because of this grand Enigma thing that you are willingly agreeing to hunt her down and marry her exactly as your father wants? Are you just acting as a puppet for your family’s empire?"
Damian let out a soft, thoughtful breath, leaning his head back against the leather headrest as his eyes stared out into the dark night. "I do have an intense, long-standing crush on Jannah, Joanne," he confessed quietly, his voice full of a genuine emotion that surprised the beauty queen. "It is not only about her giving me an Enigma child to inherit the Boren syndicate. My feelings for her are real. The truth is... I even started that charity clinic on 3rd Street in the slums, right near her grandfather’s house, for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on her and protecting her from the surrounding street gangs. I built that whole medical center just to be close to her."
Joanne’s brow furrowed into a deep line of confusion, her foot pressing a fraction harder on the accelerator as she analyzed his words. "If you have been harboring such a massive crush on her, then why on earth is there absolutely no progress in your relationship at all? Why have you never gotten physically close to her or claimed her body before Dorrent Grefo dragged her into his mansion? Tell me, how long have you been operating that charity clinic down in the slums?"
"Four years," Damian replied flatly, a flash of regret crossing his handsome features.
"Four years?!" Joanne burst out, her voice rising in surprise. "And you never made a single move on her in all that time? Why the hell did you just stand by and watch? What kept you from taking her?"
"The reason I never made a definitive move on her was because she was so young and fragile back then," Damian explained rapidly, his jaw clenching as he remembered her small, pale frame walking through the swamp districts. "She was just a young girl when I first arrived. But she is now nineteen years old, and I think this is the best time to court her properly and can even make her my legal wife under the laws. Her system is fully developed now."
Joanne let out a dismissive sigh, shaking her head as she steered the sedan through a sharp turn. "That is a pathetic excuse, Damian. You could have at least gotten close to her during those four years. You could have at least made her your best friend, showing her kindness every single day. If you had built that foundation, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to fall for her friend when the time came for marriage. You wasted an incredible amount of leverage."
Damian’s face instantly flushed, a visible wave of embarrassment and hesitation taking over his posture as he looked away from her eyes. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his hands clenching tightly over his medical coat. "I was... I was honestly terrified of people talking, Joanne. The layout down there is incredibly heavy. The entire population of the lower sectors knows that Jannah Nenth is cursed."
Joanne paused, her eyes widening slightly as she caught his embarrassed expression. "Cursed? What the hell are you talking about?"
"The rumors in the slums are terrifying," Damian whispered, his voice sinking into a tense, ghostly vibration. "The whole place knows that any Alpha who attempts to claim her body, or even tries to publicly declare her as their woman, immediately meets with sudden, catastrophic misfortunes. They suffer fatal accidents, unexplained medical failures, or violent street hits within days of touching her. Her bloodline is seen as a death sentence for Alphas."
Joanne let out a sudden, loud laugh, though the sound carried a bitter edge as she thought of Dorrent’s unyielding obsession with the girl. "Oh, that is crazy, Damian! A biological curse? Do you honestly expect me to believe in swamp ghost stories?"
Her smile quickly vanished, her eyes narrowing into lethal slits as she glanced back at him. "But then answer me this—why have you suddenly chosen to court her now if she is cursed? Did your father find a way to uplift the hex, or was the curse suddenly uplifted by some secret medical serum?"
Damian slowly turned his head back to face her, his eyes swamped with a chilling finality. He gripped the edge of the dashboard, his voice dropping into a whisper that made Joanne’s heart skip a beat.
"It is not uplifted, Joanne... I just think there is no natural curse on her blood at all, and that every single one of those Alpha accidents was someone else’s doing..."
