Chapter 143: Living for the Foe
"Why should I live?!" Jannah shrieked, her voice breaking into a hysterical, breathless laugh as the knife trembled against her windpipe. "Tell me, Dorrent! Why should I stay in this disgusting world?! I am completely alone! My parents were brutally slaughtered nine years ago in these exact gutters... left to rot like dogs! I was left with only my grandpa, and now he is gone too! I have absolutely nothing left to live for! No one to protect, no one to love me! Why shouldn’t I just follow them right now?! Let me end it!"
"You have something to live for," Dorrent delivered politely, his voice dropping into a smooth and calm frequency designed to de-escalate her panic. He kept his eyes locked on hers, ensuring he didn’t make any sudden movements that would cause her hand to slip.
Jannah’s breath hitched, the cold steel still biting into her throat. "What? What do I have left, you arrogant bastard?!"
"Don’t you want me dead, Jannah?" Dorrent reminded her, a cold, cynical smirk intentionally touching his lips to anchor her slipping mind. "Think about it. You can live for that exact purpose. You spent days cultivating lethal toxins in your satchel just to burn my veins out. You literally labeled a poison vial with my name because you want revenge on me—for reasons I don’t even know. Tell me, little physician... if you slit your throat right now, how will you ever fulfill that hatred? How will you watch me rot if you kill yourself first?"
Jannah froze.
The words echoed inside her mind, striking the deep, festering wound of her past. Revenge. The image of her parents lying in their own blood nine years ago flashed before her eyes. And standing right in front of her was the executioner—the monster who had slaughtered them during his primal black cycle rut. He didn’t even remember his crimes, yet here he was, dominating her life, forcing her into a marriage, trying to claim her body.
Fury suddenly overrode her suicidal despair. If she died now, he won. He would continue to live his lavish, corporate life as an S-tier god while her entire lineage was erased from existence.
"You’re right..." Jannah whispered, her dark eyes flashing with a sudden, lethal venom that made Dorrent’s internal instincts flare. "I can just end this all right now!"
With a wild, desperate shriek, Jannah abandoned her own throat and jumped forward, skidding across the floorboards. She raised the knife high with her left hand, aiming it directly at the center of Dorrent’s chest, intending to drive the blade straight through his heart.
Dorrent’s reflexes were automatic. He shifted his torso a mere fraction of an inch to the left. The rusted blade missed his heart, instead tearing through the expensive fabric of his shirt and scratching the skin over his ribcage, leaving a long, bleeding line.
Before she could pull back for a second strike, Dorrent’s arms slammed around her frame, pulling her tightly against his solid chest in a brutal, unyielding hug. He pinned her left arm against his side, trapping the knife between their bodies so she couldn’t swing it again.
"Let me go! Let me go, you monster!" Jannah screamed, her voice breaking into hysterical sobs as she began to tremble against him. She couldn’t move her legs, so she began to wildly hit his back and shoulders with her left fist, over and over again, her blows doing absolutely nothing to his dense musculature.
"You’re a monster! A disgusting, arrogant manipulator!" she wept, her face buried against his chest as her strength rapidly began to fade. "Did you do this?! Did you manipulate my grandfather into killing himself just so I would have nowhere else to run?! Did you give him that poison?! I will never forgive you! I will hate you until the day my soul rots in hell! You destroy everything you touch!"
Dorrent remained completely silent, letting her rant. He held her firmly against his chest, his hand resting flat on her back, carefully avoiding her bandaged ribs while absorbing every single curse, abuse, and insult she hurled at his name. He felt her hot tears soaking through his shirt, mingling with the blood from her scratch.
After several long minutes, Jannah’s hits turned into weak, exhausted taps. Her breathing slowed into shallow, trembling gasps, her entire weight supported entirely by his strong embrace.
When she finally cooled down, her head slumping against his collarbone, Dorrent slowly loosened his grip, though he kept his hands firmly on her waist.
"Are you done?" Dorrent asked softly, his silver eyes looking down at her blotchy, tear-stained face. He reached down, picking up the crumpled piece of paper that had fallen from her fingers during the struggle. "Now that you’ve blamed me for everything under the sun... why don’t you actually read what your grandpa left you? Maybe it contains the reason or cause for his sudden death."
Jannah pulled herself out of his arms, her dark eyes flashing with irritation as she wiped her face with her sleeve. "Get your filthy hands off me," she snapped, her voice trembling. "Maybe it does contain the truth, Dorrent. Maybe his last words are your name written down as his killer. And I swear to God, I hope it does."
She aggressively snatched the piece of paper from his hand, unfolding the crumpled edges with her shaking left fingers. Her eyes scanned the frantic, messy handwriting of the old man.
The moment she finished reading the final line, the paper slipped from her hand, fluttering limply to the floorboards. Jannah’s knees buckled. She dropped onto her knees beside Duro’s corpse, her hands flying to her mouth as her chest heaved.
"No..." Jannah gasped, her voice a tiny, suffocating whisper. "No, no... this can’t be true. There is no way. No way..."
She slowly turned her head, her wide, horrified eyes looking up at Dorrent’s handsome, symmetrical face. The impossibility of the letter’s contents was shattering her brain.
"Did you make him do this?" Jannah breathed, her voice rising into a sharp, accusatory shriek as she pointed a trembling finger at him. "Did you?! Did you and your father threaten his life? Did you tell him you would destroy what little he had left if he didn’t write this?! Tell me the truth, Dorrent!"
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