All Chapters of Beyond Their Expectations: From Street Rat To Supreme Ruler : Chapter 151
- Chapter 160
198 chapters
151: A New Date
Having spent almost half a year living in deliberate celibacy, Dante had finally decided to loosen the tight grip he had on himself. It hadn’t been easy getting to that point. The discipline had already become a part of him. But somewhere along the line, that discipline began to feel less like strength and more like isolation, so he had chosen to associate with the opposite gender again. Dante had made a decision. Not necessarily to fall in love but to at least allow himself to feel something again. He had decided to feel affection, companionship even if it was fleeting. He wasn't that naive to fall in love again.Three days ago, he met a woman on a dating site. It wasn’t something he would normally do, but curiosity got the better of him. Their conversation had been surprisingly smooth. No awkward pauses, no forced responses. Just easy. By the end of that first exchange, they had agreed to meet, and today was the day. Everything had been planned down to the smallest detail, from
152: Dante, Who's This Woman?
Giulia opened her mouth to speak, but the words never came. Her lips parted, then pressed back together as if something invisible had sealed them shut.She hadn’t expected that kind of response from him. It was sharp and guarded, almost like he had been waiting to draw a line the moment she stepped close.Although Giulia hadn't expected Dante to be open towards her, she hadn't expected him to react this way so soon.For a brief second, she just stood there, staring at him, trying to reconcile the man in front of her with the one she used to know.The Dante she remembered would have softened. He would have read her silence and filled it with something gentler, but this one felt distant, like a stranger wearing a familiar face.“Are we quarreling?” she finally managed to say, her voice quieter than she intended. It betrayed her, carrying a tremor she couldn’t suppress.Dante exhaled, not impatiently, but not kindly either. “We’re not quarreling,” he said, his tone flat, almost indiffere
153: She's Jealous
Dante couldn't help but chuckle at the question."Really?" he blurted out, staring directly at Giulia. "Did you just ask me who she is?"Another laugh slipped from him, low and almost disbelieving, like her question alone amused him more than it should have.Giulia felt her fingers curl slightly at her sides.She knows Dante so well that she knows when his laugh is genuine and when it is not.This particular one is the laugh Dante uses whenever he wants to provoke someone intentionally."Well," he exhaled softly before continuing, his eyes never leaving hers. "She's the person I came for, and you know exactly what that means."A slow, mischievous smile appeared on his lips afterward.Before Giulia could respond, Dante stretched out his hand toward the lady standing beside him.The woman looked slightly surprised for a second before gracefully placing her hand in his.The instant their palms met, Dante locked their fingers together naturally, almost intimately, like it was something th
154: We're Divorced Now
The bitterness in Dante's voice caught Giulia off guard. It hit her like an unexpected slap across the face, sharp and humiliating.For a second, she simply stared at him, unable to process the coldness in his tone.This wasn't the Dante she used to know. Perhaps it was the version she had created with her own hands.She swallowed hard, forcing down the lump forming in her throat. Even that simple action felt difficult. The hiccup trapped in her chest betrayed how unsettled she was."Can I speak with you privately?" she asked quietly.The atmosphere around them shifted almost immediately.A few of the staff nearby exchanged glances before pretending to mind their business. The clinking of glasses and soft restaurant music suddenly felt distant to Giulia, drowned out by the pounding of her own heartbeat.Dante held her gaze without blinking. His eyes remained cold for several long seconds before he finally spoke."About what?"The question sounded flat and detached, as if speaking to he
155: Josephine's Return
Giulia drove away from the restaurant without even looking back at the building fading behind her.Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel as the encounter with Dante replayed in her mind like a cursed film she couldn't stop watching.His coldness and indifferent treatment gnawed at her pride more than she cared to admit.The road ahead stretched endlessly under the dim evening sky, but Giulia barely noticed it. Her thoughts were far too loud.She had made up her mind to return home, not to her personal residence but to the Santoro estate, her family house.The decision alone irritated her because deep down, she knew exactly why she was going there.It was definitely not because she had suddenly realized how horribly she had treated her grandfather by disrespecting his idea not to divorce Dante.What prompted Giulia to make this visit was the encounter she had with Dante.For the first time in a long while, she felt powerless.The man she once discarded without a second though
156: Which Do You Prefer?
Giulia didn’t respond immediately.At first, she had intended to ignore Josephine completely. She knew the woman too well. One wrong response and the situation would spiral into chaos. However, Josephine clearly had no intention of stopping.“You think you had succeeded in erasing my family from the Santoro family, right?” Josephine said with a subtle chuckle. “You must have been rejoicing, haven’t you?”Giulia finally parted her lips, ready to say something, but the words died before they could leave her mouth.Her eyes had landed on Theodore, and the shock froze her on the spot.For a brief second, she thought her mind was playing tricks on her. Theodore stood confidently at the entrance like he belonged there, his posture relaxed, his face carrying the kind of smugness that instantly unsettled her.Then Gerald stepped forward behind him.The same male staff she had caught sneaking out of her office days ago.Giulia’s eyes widened in disbelief.“Gerald?” she gasped, her voice almost
157: Why The Sudden Pursuit For Reconciliation?
Dante didn’t reply immediately.The silence that followed stretched uncomfortably between them, thick and suffocating, making Giulia’s grip on the phone tighten.She glanced at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t disconnected, but it hadn’t. Dante was still on the line.Her heartbeat grew uneven. She hated the silence. It unsettled her.Afraid he might end the call without answering, Giulia cleared her throat and repeated herself.“Which do you prefer?”Another pause.Then finally, Dante sighed quietly into the phone.“Well…” he exhaled slowly. “I actually heard what you asked. But I was just curious what prompted this sudden pursuit of reconciliation."The question caught Giulia off guard.For a brief moment, her mind went blank. She hadn’t expected him to ask that directly. Her lips parted, but no words came out immediately.She searched for something convincing, something that wouldn’t expose the desperation creeping beneath her calm tone.“Are you enjoying the space between us
158: Private Jet
“Mr. Dante, I hope you remembered what we discussed last time." Luke, Dante’s lawyer, asked over the phone.Dante’s brows instantly furrowed.For a second, he stared blankly at the ceiling above his bed, his sleepy mind trying to catch up with the question. Then it hit him like cold water dumped straight over his head.The court hearing concerning his case with Atlantic Holdings.His eyes widened sharply. “Oh my goodness.”He sprang upright from the bed so fast the blanket slid to the floor. He checked the time, and the moment the numbers registered in his head, his stomach tightened.He was already running late."Gosh," he muttered under his breath.Luke was still waiting on the line.Dante quickly cleared his throat, forcing calmness into his voice despite the chaos exploding inside him.“I’m already on my way to the court,” he lied smoothly, sounding far more composed than he actually was.The lie rolled out effortlessly. Years of surviving rough environments had taught him how to
159: I'm Pregnant
Dorothy stared at her daughter as though she had suddenly begun speaking a language she could not understand.“What did you say happened?” she asked slowly, her voice trembling with disbelief.Giulia lowered her eyes. The words had already left her mouth once, yet repeating them felt even harder now. Her throat tightened painfully before she finally forced herself to speak again.“I said I’m pregnant, Mom.”Her tone was dry and heavy, stripped of emotion, almost as though she had repeated the sentence too many times in her own head and had become numb to it.For a moment, Dorothy said nothing. The air in the room turned suffocating.Her throat went dry instantly, and she blinked several times as though trying to wake herself from a nightmare.“You’re preg… what?” she stammered, her forehead creasing deeply.Her eyes searched Giulia’s face desperately, praying to find some trace of mischief, some hidden smile that would reveal this was all a cruel joke.“Don’t tell me this is not some
160: The Final Verdict
“Good. Serves them right,” Dante muttered under his breath as he stepped out of the courthouse.The heavy glass doors closed behind him, shutting out the tense atmosphere that had filled the courtroom for hours.His jaw remained tight beneath the black sunglasses resting on his face.Despite the victory, there was not much excitement in Dante. No satisfaction either. It was just a cold sense of completion.Atlantic Holdings Media had lost.Not only had the judge ruled against them, but the court had slammed the company with a forty-million-dollar compensation fee in Dante’s favor.On top of that, they had been ordered to pull down every false publication they made against him and issue a public apology across all platforms involved.The verdict had shaken the courtroom.Even now, reporters and legal analysts were probably tearing the judgment apart online, discussing how disastrous the outcome would be for the media franchise.Forty million dollars is not a small amount, even for a co