Chapter 146: Limit of Her Compliance
Bellero stopped just inches away. "I know this because it happened to me. Years ago... with Jannah’s mother."
Damian’s breath caught in his throat. His chest went rigid as the historical puzzle pieces shifted again. "What did you say?"
"Years ago, I had her mother locked in the cellar of the old sector stronghold," Bellero murmured, a cold, nostalgic smirk curling his thin lips. "I knew the genetic value of that specific bloodline even back then. I tried to forcefully sink my teeth into her neck. I tried to mark her over and over again until the skin was raw. But the bond never took root. Her foolish, stubborn mind refused to comply with my authority. Her system rejected my pheromones until the day she escaped back to the gutters. The women from that lineage... they are so complicated, so stubborn, it is a pain in the ass to manage them."
Bellero turned his back to Damian, his thoughts drifting back to the current timeline as his jaw clenched. "If Dorrent has gone so far as to attempt a marking in the slums, then the situation is worse than we thought. The tycoon must have unearthed the secret. He must have found out about her unique capability to give birth to Enigma children. And now... now we have a direct, multi-billion credit competitor tracking our prize, all because of my foolish son always delaying the execution! If you had done what I had informed to do, she would be locked in our quarters right now!"
"It doesn’t matter what he found out, Father, because it’s already too late to play the game," Damian countered, his voice rising as he tried to break through the old man’s delusions. "The Grefos already executed their defensive maneuver tonight. They broke off the multi-billion credit engagement between Joanne Moscow and Dorrent. Do you know how they did it? Guron Grefo stood in the center of the lounge and lied directly to John Moscow’s face, claiming that Jannah is already pregnant with Dorrent’s child. The Moscows walked out in humiliation. The Grefos are currently probably planning to get Jannah married to Dorrent, or why would they make such a move."
CRASH!
Bellero’s arm whipped across the desk, catching a priceless crystal decanter and hurling it with immense force across the room. The glass shattered against the baseboard, exploding into a hundred glittering shards as the wine bled down the wall like a fresh wound.
"Nothing like that will ever happen in this city!" Bellero shrieked, his face turning a dangerous, mottled purple. "Nothing! John Moscow is a corporate soft-shell, but I am not! Now that Joanne is completely useless to me, now that her little inside game has failed to keep Dorrent separated from the girl, our deal with her is officially terminated. I will handle Dorrent Grefo myself!"
He turned on Damian, his presence expanding with a terrifying, crushing weight that pinned his son’s shoulders back. "I will make sure that S-tier bastard gives up on that girl permanently! And you... you will not stand there like a brainless fool using your fair means while she is dragged to an altar by another man! You will not give up on those Enigma children, Damian! If your clean medical hands won’t do the work, I will force you to use the ruthless means you detest most!"
Damian’s heart hammered against his ribs, a cold dread settling into his chest as he looked at the unhinged determination in his father’s eyes. "What do you mean by that, Father? What are you planning to do?"
Bellero’s features hardened into unreadable mask of cruelty. "Abducting Jannah Nenth is the only logical pathway remaining on this table. We pull her out of the Grefo estate, we clear her out of the Grefo radar, and we lock her in the laboratory where her system can be managed under proper chemical inducement."
"How many times do I have to remind you of the reality, Father?!" Damian shouted back, his voice breaking under the weight of his frustration as he slammed his fist against the back of a chair. "If she cannot love me... if her mind is fractured by terror... she will never produce the hormonal balance required to bear those kids! Using brute force on a delicate omega of that lineage will only worsen her internal metrics! It will make her hate my name and you will never, ever get those Enigma grandkids you crave so badly!"
Bellero let out a raspy chuckle that sounded devoid of human warmth. He stepped closer, tapping a finger against Damian’s chest.
"It will only be a matter of days before she falls for you, my naive son," Bellero whispered mockingly. "Let’s not forget reality—she was willing to let you mark her. That means she doesn’t dislike your face. She doesn’t despise your A-tier frequency. Once she is isolated here, away from the chaos, you can play the savior once again. You can heal her, comfort her, and her system will adapt."
"The moment you abduct her, the second your hitmen lay their filthy hands on her frame, whatever little trust she had in me will die permanently!" Damian hissed, his eyes flashing with a desperate defiance. "She is a physician, Bellero! She isn’t a stupid gutter rat; she will see through the entire setup within an hour and she will look at me and see nothing but a monster!"
"If we don’t try the extraction, we can never know the limit of her compliance," Bellero countered flatly, his voice dropping into a deadly threat that signaled the conversation was reaching its conclusion. He turned back toward his desk, picking up a fountain pen and sliding a sheet of ledger paper toward himself.
"Besides, Damian... you worry too much about her consent when the patriarchy has already cleared the path. Her grandfather, that old bastard Duro, has already agreed to hand her over to our family for marriage."
Damian froze, his face going pale as the blood drained from his lips. The memory of Jannah’s fierce devotion to the old man flashed through his mind—the way she would gladly sacrifice her own life just to keep Duro safe from any harm.
"What did you do?" Damian whispered, his voice shaking with dread as he took a step toward the desk. "Father... tell me the truth right now. What the hell did you do to Duro? I swear to God, if you touched him—"
"Not yet," Bellero interrupted coldly, his eyes flashing with a chilling triumph as he began to write on the paper without looking up. "I haven’t broken his bones just yet, Damian. But if that old man doesn’t cooperate with the final delivery of the girl to us... I might just have to do something.".
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