Outcast Queen: Her Return from Hell novel Chapter 50

The moment their lips met—soft, warm, and carrying her unique, faint, icy fragrance—it was like a lethal dose of poppy. It instantly ignited the blurry yet scalding memory of that forceful kiss on the staircase in Pierce's mind!

Boom—!

Something seemed to detonate inside his head, his entire body turning as rigid as iron!

All of his rationality, calculation, and authority were instantly pulverized by this brutal, reckless, secondary invasion!

However, before he could draw from this massive shock or even launch a counterattack—

“Ms. Phoenix?” Lawrence's deep, respectful voice rang out just a few steps away.

Phoenix pulled away as fast as lightning!

Their lips parted! She was so fast she only left behind a gust of cool air and the impossibly brief, yet bone-deep sensation of her softness on his lips!

“Coming!” Her tone was completely normal, as if she were merely a mischievous butterfly that had playfully ambushed a predator.

She even swiftly snatched the nearly shattered glass of red wine from Pierce's hand, tipped her head back, and downed it in one gulp!

Under the moonlight, the elegant, pristine curve of her swan-like neck was on full display!

“See you later, Mr. Sterling!”

She neatly shoved the empty glass back into the still-petrified Reaper's hand. Her dress traced a light, uninhibited arc in the air as she disappeared into the depths of the garden path without a single backward glance!

Pierce stood frozen in place.

His fingertips registered the cold touch of the glass, the rim still carrying the faint warmth from where her fingers had just been.

Subconsciously, moving incredibly slowly, he raised his other hand and gently brushed his thumb across his lower lip.

There...

It felt like the lingering embers of her fiery burn were still there.

“Tsk... Wow... Incredible! Truly incredible!”

An exaggerated gasp, practically vibrating with gossipy excitement, burst out from the bushes nearby!

Caspian Thorne’s clownish face popped out. His eyes were wide as saucers, looking like he was just short of clapping and cheering!

“Pierce!! Hell has frozen over! The iron tree has blossomed! The millennial ice sculpture just melted into a puddle?! My eyes aren't deceiving me, right?!”

The freezing aura around Pierce, which had just been shattered by Phoenix, slammed back like the gates of hell swinging open, instantly solidifying into ten-thousand-year-old glacial ice!

He didn't even look at Caspian, but his soul-freezing, murderous intent locked right onto him!

“Caspian Thorne.”

His name hit like a flurry of invisible ice picks, instantly chilling the young master to his absolute core!

“Do you want... the Thorne family to become the next Lucas family?”

“Or...” Pierce slowly turned his head. Those frozen eyes contained not a single trace of human warmth, so cold they made a person's very soul tremble. “Do you want to experience... an erasure... far more thorough than mere bankruptcy?”

The two of them walked toward Alistair.

Arthur Sterling had found the noise too much and left early, and Leo Vance had gone to handle the handover procedures for the nightclub.

“Phoenix, let me introduce someone to you.” Alistair smiled warmly, pointing to the calm, composed middle-aged man standing beside him. “This is your mother's older brother, your uncle, Dominic Vaughan.”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow and greeted him neither haughtily nor humbly, “Uncle Dominic.”

Dominic Vaughan, the true mastermind of the Vaughan family, a man whose reach stretched to the heavens.

Warren was only able to secure his position as patriarch because he had the Vaughan family backing him; otherwise, he would have been squeezed out by his brothers a long time ago.

“Phoenix, I’ve been so tied up with business in the past that I didn't get the chance to be close to you. Please don't take offense,” Dominic said, a perfectly calculated smile on his face, though his eyes scrutinized her sharply.

Phoenix was like an impenetrable wall, her expression completely unfazed. “You're joking, Uncle Dominic. I got into an accident shortly after I returned, and was locked away for years. How could I possibly blame you?”

Her tone was flat. She didn't shy away from her past, even bringing it up with a hint of self-deprecating candor.

Dominic’s heart skipped a beat: *This girl is absolutely no ordinary fool!*

Warren and Vanessa were truly blind as bats, throwing away a priceless gem only to coddle a worthless rock!

Unfortunately... what's done was done.

There was no use dwelling on regrets now; he had no choice but to continue down this mistaken path.