Outcast Queen: Her Return from Hell novel Chapter 48

The word 'reckoning' was like a bucket of ice water dumped over their heads, instantly dropping the temperature in the room.

Four years ago... that timid, submissive girl who obeyed their every command... clashed violently in their minds with the image of the ruthless, majestic queen who had just dominated the hall tonight!

Could prison... really forge a piece of trash... into a divine weapon?

*Knock, knock, knock—*

A slow, deliberate knocking sounded at the door.

The group, already as jumpy as frightened birds, violently flinched.

“Who is it?” Vanessa's voice was tight.

A deep, customarily authoritative male voice came from outside:

“It's me, Dominic.”

Vanessa's eyes instantly lit up. Like a drowning woman grabbing a lifeline, she rushed over and pulled the door open.

“Dominic!!!”

Standing in the doorway was a middle-aged man dressed in a low-key but flawlessly tailored suit.

Dominic Vaughan's face was stern and resolute, his eyes sharp as a falcon's.

He stepped into the room, his icy gaze sweeping over every panicked face like a surgical blade, before finally landing on the 'fainting' Phoebe on the bed. His brow furrowed imperceptibly, betraying a trace of impatience and profound disappointment in Warren and Vanessa's sheer stupidity.

“If I hadn't come...” he began, his voice low but carrying a bone-chilling hardness. “I’m afraid you all wouldn't be far from being swept out of the Prescott estate like trash by Alistair.”

He walked over and sat down on the single sofa, his posture radiating the oppressive pressure of someone in complete control of the situation.

“Dominic, why did you suddenly come? Did something happen?” Warren's heart sank. His brother-in-law, who truly held the reins of power, rarely liked attending these kinds of banquets.

“The Lucas family.” Dominic's tone was flat, yet it dropped a massive boulder into everyone's hearts. “They have completely collapsed.”

His gaze cut like a blade. “Just tonight! The Sterling Group unilaterally and entirely revoked the 'Legacy District' project, the very lifeblood of the Lucas Group!”

“All the listed companies under the Lucas Group saw their stock prices crash and trigger circuit breakers simultaneously! The banks immediately pulled their loans! Suppliers are swarming their doors, demanding payments!”

“Word is, the Lucas family offended the daughter of the Prescott family, which caused the entire Lucas family to detonate.”

He leaned forward slightly, staring at Warren with suffocating pressure. “So, tell me, how exactly did the Lucas family offend Phoenix at this banquet?! What made her... or rather, the people backing her... strike with such lethal force?!”

The fake innocence was suffocating; she expertly deflected all the blame!

Dominic's razor-sharp gaze swept over her pathetic, pitiful face. He didn't respond to her act, instead saying coldly:

“Scolding you now is useless! Since I'm sitting here, I can't just watch you all continue sprinting down a dead-end road!”

“Listen to me closely. Until we thoroughly uncover her true background... bury all your resentment and bitterness! Tuck your tails between your legs and behave! Do not provoke Phoenix directly ever again!”

“Why should we?! We—” Julian indignantly tried to jump up.

“Because I can keep you alive! Because I can delay the moment she crushes you like bugs!” Dominic slammed his hand onto the coffee table, his eyes glaring like a tiger ready to devour its prey!

“You don't agree? Then go ahead and keep fighting her to the death! Let's see whose bones are harder—yours, or the blades of Pierce Sterling, Macy Monroe, Leo Vance, and Alistair Prescott combined?!”

Rage and sheer terror instantly deflated Julian.

Looking at the humiliated, angry, yet totally submissive younger generation, Dominic continued, “Since we can't do this in the light, we’ll play in the dark!”

His eyes turned viciously cold. “Didn't she want to join the Prescott Group? Then block every single path for her to achieve anything! Let everyone watch as she... turns into an absolute joke! Once she loses her halo... and plummets from her pedestal... that is your chance to strike back!”