Their Villain, The Mogul's Beloved

Chapter 37

On Natasha’s last two steps, both Lucas and Alexei held their breath. Lucas saw hope of reconciliation, while Alexei’s eyes darkened, plotting something unknown.

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Then, Natasha suddenly stopped and turned a corner. Under Lucas’s disbelieving gaze, she squatted down. She picked up a wooden gnome from beside the cabinet and dusted it off.

“Good thing it’s wood,” she snapped, glaring at a momentarily stunned Alexei. “If it were porcelain, you’d be in trouble.”

‘So she’s mad at me just because I knocked over her wooden gnome when I kicked Lucas,’ he thought. Alexei’s expression instantly brightened.

“I’ll buy you a hundred,” Alexei offered, grinning as if murderous rage hadn’t gripped him moments

ago.

However, Lucas’s face turned ashen. His lips moved soundlessly. He was unable to believe that in Natasha’s heart, he mattered less than a wooden gnome.

‘She saw Alexei’s violence, so how can she still talk to him so calmly, almost playfully? This isn’t right,’ he thought, his heart gnawed by anxiety.

“Natasha,” Lucas tried again, desperate to shatter their harmony. “I’m hurt.”

Natasha used to rush to him when he was injured. In college, after a dirty foul left him injured, she’d nearly fought the offenders herself.

‘She should be furious and concerned–not this detached calm,‘ he thought. ‘I can’t accept it.’

carefully placed the wooden gnome back. Her gaze, when it met Lucas, was flat. “Oh, go to the hospital then.”

strode over, dragging the devastated Lucas out with a deceptively pleasant

still needs her soup, No more hospitality.” His tone was

shut. Natasha hadn’t intervened. The light in Lucas’s eyes died.

how he stumbled downstairs and got in the car. Sitting in the

man have genuine

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4:35 pm PS

Chapter 37

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the rain still poured. Alexei never left the apartment. Lucas didn’t go to the hospital. He stared at Natasha’s window and dialed.

in three days. I’d like to announce

“Happy Birthday,” Alexei murmured, fastening a necklace around

beautifully crafted rose entwined with thorns–elegant, striking, and perfect for daily wear. Natasha loved

a painting before

rose resting against her neck, satisfied. He’d chosen it

just for the gift. But for coming to be with

have made it back from the cemetery. Whatever Lucas said about his

Like a guarded hedgehog, disarmed by small kindnesses, it bared its

her chair to face him, closing the

Lucas barged in. But she stole a glance at his smiling

his cheek, gone in an instant–almost an illusion. “This is enough. Sex would

back to the table. “That’s enough. Soup