Julian’s POV
I abruptly opened my hand and shoved her away.
Lucy slumped against the wall, her body sliding down until she hit the floor in a heap of silk and trembling limbs. "Ouch!" The wheezing gasp left her mouth, her lungs greedily pulling in the air I had just denied her. She clutched her throat with both hands, her chest heaving violently as she coughed.
I moved over her, my shadow swallowing her whole, watching as she tried to regain enough composure to even look at , then lowered over her.
"I could have killed you today," my voice dropped to a lethal register. I saw how she flinched. "...and my father would not have saved you. His influence ends where my patience does."
Lucy looked up at , her eyes bloodshot and streaming with tears of pure terror. She tried to speak, but all that ca out was a broken, raspy croak. She was shaking so hard that I could hear her teeth chattering. This was how it should have always been.
"I’m not that Julian you used to know," I continued, leaning down so she could see the lack of rcy in my expression. "The man you thought you could manipulate or marry into submission is gone. Right now, I hate you so much. And for , Lucy, hating a person ans wanting that person completely out of my sight. I don’t want to see your face."
She tried to pull herself further into the corner, but there was nowhere left for her to go.
"If you choose to remain in this house," I warned, "I might be forced to take steps that will make you disappear. Not only from this house, but from earth itself. Do you understand ? I am no longer going to stand by and watch you dictate my life. I am telling you exactly how this ends if you don’t leave."
I stood up as if to leave, but the rage in hadn’t quite settled. I stopped, turned back, and bent down to her again, reaching out and roughly grabbing her chin. I forced her head up so she had to et my gaze and my fingers dug into her jaw.
"One more thing," I hissed. "Stay away from the people I care about. Especially Catherine. If you so much as breathe in her direction. If you decide to dare , there will be no reason to stop next ti."
I released her chin with a flick, sending her head snapping to the side. She collapsed back against the wall, sobbing silently now, her spirit completely crushed. I felt a sense of grim satisfaction.
I turned toward the door, my adrenaline still humming like a live wire. I needed to get out of this room before the urge to finish what I started ca back. But just as my hand reached for the lock, the handle turned from the outside.
I froze with the door swung open, and Richard stood there. For a split second, it seed like Richard looked startled—no, he looked frightened. There was sothing like guilt in his eyes, as if he had been caught doing sothing he shouldn’t.
Without being asked, he imdiately started to explain himself, his voice a bit too loud, a bit too fast.
"Julian! I... I didn’t realize you were in here," he said, adjusting the waist of his trousers. "I just ca to ask Lucy for the docunts she received on my behalf today. I needed them for a eting tomorrow morning."
I watched him closely, wondering why he felt the need to suddenly explain himself to . Well... whatever that was, I didn’t feel like thinking too much about it.
I nodded slowly, keeping my face a blank mask of compliance. "I see."
I was about to walk past him and exit the room, but Richard stepped into the doorway, blocking my path. He looked at , his eyes narrowing as he regained his usual authoritative composure.
"And what exactly were you doing in Lucy’s room, Julian?" he asked. "I thought you were supposed to be working on the security reports."
The rage was still vibrating through my limbs, but I forced it down into a dark corner of my mind. I faked a smile, one of those sharp, empty grins that I had learned from watching him for years. I leaned back slightly, trying to act like a man who had been interrupted in the middle of a romantic mont.
"What was I doing?" I asked, my voice light but edged with a biting sarcasm. "Richard, are you really asking that? Can’t a man co to see his soon-to-be-wife for a private conversation? I thought you were the one who wanted us to build a ’strong foundation’ for the image of the family. I’m just doing my part."
Richard’s gaze shifted past to the floor. Lucy was still there, huddled against the wall. She was clutching her throat, her chest still hitching with residual sobs. The red marks on her neck were glaringly obvious against her pale skin.
A heavy silence descended on the room. Richard looked at her, then back at . I could see the wheels turning in his head.
"Why is she on the floor, Julian?" His voice dropped into a cold tone. "What happened here?"
I didn’t blink, I just scoffed. "Don’t overthink it. She had a bit of a fainting spell, Richard. The stress of the day, the heat... I think it all got to her. She tripped when she was walking toward the vanity and hit the wall quite hard. I was just helping her catch her breath when you walked in."
The lie was blatant and insulting but I knew Richard wouldn’t push it. He couldn’t afford a scandal involving his son assaulting his fiancée.
Richard didn’t look like he entirely believed it. His eyes stayed on the marks on Lucy’s neck for a second too long, and for a mont, I saw a flash of genuine anger in him; not for Lucy’s sake, but because I was being "reckless" with his assets. However, he didn’t ask anything else. He didn’t demand an explanation. He just gave a curt, stiff nod.
"See that she gets so water then," Richard said, his voice flat. "And Lucy, get those docunts to my study within the hour. I don’t have ti for fainting spells."
He stepped aside, allowing to pass. I didn’t look back at Lucy. I didn’t care if she was still crying or if she was planning her revenge. I walked out of the room, the air in the hallway feeling blissfully cold compared to the suffocating atmosphere of her bedroom.
I walked down the corridor. My knuckles were aching, and my mind was still racing with the adrenaline of the confrontation. I felt triumph and exhaustion. I had finally drawn a line in the sand, but I knew the war was far from over.
As I turned the corner toward my own wing of the house, I ran straight into Catherine.
She was standing there, looking like she had been waiting for . She was still wearing the clothes from earlier, her hair a bit ssy, her eyes wide with worry. The second she saw , she stepped forward, her hands reaching out as if to steady . She saw the look in my eyes and probably saw the remnants of the rage I had just vented. She moved closer to .
"Julian," she whispered, her voice filled with a desperate kind of concern. "Are you okay? I’ve been looking for you. I heard... I thought I heard sothing from Lucy’s wing."
I didn’t answer her with words. I couldn’t. If I started talking, I might tell her everything, how I had almost killed a woman, how I had threatened to make her disappear, how I had lied to my father’s face. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to feel sothing other than the cold, jagged hatred that had been consuming for the last hour.
I reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her toward my room. I didn’t give her a chance to protest or ask another question. I pushed her inside and shut the door with a firm, final click, locking it behind us.
"What are you doing, Julian?"
My room was dark, the only light coming from the moon filtering through the heavy curtains. Catherine turned to , her mouth open to speak again, but I moved fast, silencing her instantly.
I stepped into her space, my hands finding her waist, and crashed my lips onto hers. It was a hungry, demanding kiss, born out of a desperate hunger from wanting her so bad. I tasted her surprise, then her softening, as she lted into , her hands moving to the back of my neck to hold there.
She couldn’t resist no matter how much she tried. It was enough to keep happy. At least, I hadn’t fully lost her.
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