The Man Who Called Me His
1113 Words
“Take her home.”
The words didn’t make sense.
Not in my world.
Not in this room filled with blood, broken glass, and armed men pointing guns at a stranger who smiled like none of it mattered.
My throat went dry.
“I don’t know you,” I said.
My voice came out sharper than I felt.
The man’s smile didn’t change.
“That’s what you believe.”
Ethan stepped in front of me immediately.
“Don’t move closer,” he warned.
There was something different in Ethan’s voice now.
Not confidence.
Not control.
Tension.
Like he knew this man.
Or feared him.
Damien shifted slightly beside me.
His jaw was tight, eyes locked on the stranger like he was trying to place him.
My father, still in the hospital bed, spoke with deadly calm.
“Name.”
The man finally looked away from me.
Just for a second.
“Lucien Vale.”
The room changed.
I felt it.
Like the temperature dropped.
Even the guards hesitated.
Ethan exhaled sharply.
“Of course,” he muttered.
That alone made my stomach twist.
Of course?
So they did know him.
My grip tightened on the edge of the hospital bed behind me.
“What is this?” I demanded. “Someone explain—now.”
No one answered me.
Not immediately.
That silence again.
Lucien Vale took a slow step forward.
Nobody fired.
Not yet.
Because something about him made even trained guards hesitate.
Not fear exactly.
Control.
The kind that didn’t need weapons.
“I’ve been watching you for a long time, Isabella,” he said.
My skin prickled.
“I told you,” I said, forcing my voice steady, “you don’t know me.”
His eyes softened slightly.
“Your mother would disagree.”
Everything stopped.
Even my heartbeat.
My mother’s name in his mouth felt wrong.
Violating.
My father’s voice cracked like steel.
“Do not speak of her.”
Lucien didn’t even look at him.
That alone was disrespect.
“I knew her better than you think,” he said.
My chest tightened painfully.
Ethan turned slightly toward me.
“Don’t listen to him,” he repeated, quieter this time.
But I could barely hear him anymore.
My mother.
Dead.
Gone.
A closed chapter.
A silence I had been forced to live inside my entire life.
And now a stranger was opening it like it belonged to him.
“You’re lying,” I whispered.
Lucien tilted his head again.
“No,” he said gently. “I’m reminding you.”
Damien suddenly stepped forward.
“This is a trap,” he said sharply. “He’s manipulating her.”
Lucien finally looked at him.
And smiled again.
“Still trying to protect her,” he said.
Damien froze.
My head snapped toward him.
“Still?” I echoed.
Damien didn’t answer.
Didn’t move.
Didn’t breathe properly.
My chest tightened.
“Damien,” I said, slower now. “What does he mean?”
Silence.
That silence wasn’t just annoying anymore.
It was becoming unbearable.
Lucien answered instead.
“Because he knows what you are.”
My stomach dropped.
“What I am?”
Lucien’s gaze returned to me.
Soft.
Almost… pitying.
“You were never supposed to be raised in ignorance,” he said.
Ethan’s voice snapped through the room.
“That’s enough.”
But Lucien ignored him.
“Your mother made a choice,” he continued.
My hands were shaking now.
“What choice?”
My voice cracked.
I hated that it cracked.
Lucien took another step forward.
The guards tensed instantly.
My father’s voice was low.
Dangerous.
“Say it carefully.”
Lucien finally stopped.
And then he said it.
“She chose to protect you from what your bloodline would do to this world.”
A cold silence followed.
My bloodline.
The words echoed in my head.
“No,” I said instantly. “No, I’m not part of anything. I’m just”
A daughter.
A name.
A life I understood.
Lucien interrupted me gently.
“You’re the reason the Romanos and DeLucas destroyed each other before you were even born.”
My breath caught violently.
Ethan flinched.
Just slightly.
But I saw it.
Damien looked away again.
And my father…
My father didn’t deny it.
That was worse than anything.
Lucien continued.
“And the reason they’re about to finish what they started.”
The hospital alarms suddenly blared again.
Red lights flashed down the hallway.
Chaos outside surged louder.
But inside this room, everything had stopped.
Because I was the center of it.
Again.
Always.
“No,” I whispered.
It didn’t feel real.
It couldn’t be real.
Lucien looked at me like I was something fragile.
Something breakable.
“You were hidden for a reason,” he said softly. “But secrets don’t stay buried forever.”
Ethan stepped closer to me.
“Don’t listen,” he said again.
But his voice wasn’t as firm this time.
Because something was breaking in him too.
I could feel it.
Damien finally spoke again.
His voice was quieter now.
“I tried to stop this from reaching you.”
My head snapped toward him.
“So it’s true,” I said.
Damien didn’t deny it.
That was the moment something inside me shattered.
Lucien lifted his hand slightly.
And the lights in the room flickered again.
Once.
Twice.
Then stabilized.
And in that flicker…
I saw it.
A faint mark on his wrist.
A symbol.
One I had seen before.
In my father’s private study.
A file he thought I never opened.
A file labeled with my name.
My stomach dropped so hard I almost collapsed.
Lucien noticed my reaction.
And smiled like he had just won.
“Ah,” he said softly.
“You remember.”
My voice barely worked.
“What… is that?”
He looked down at his wrist.
Then back at me.
And said the words that made everything worse.
“That is proof you were never just a DeLuca daughter.”
A loud crash echoed from the hallway.
Something exploded outside the room.
The building shook slightly.
Guards shouted.
Ethan grabbed my arm instantly.
“We need to move. Now.”
But I couldn’t move.
Not anymore.
Because Lucien was still watching me.
Still smiling.
And his final words hit me like a bullet.
“Welcome back, Isabella Romano.”
The world tilted.
Ethan tightened his grip on my arm.
Damien went completely still.
And my father.
My father finally said my name like he had lost me.
“Isabella…”
But I wasn’t listening anymore.
Because for the first time in my life…
I wasn’t sure which name was mine.
- Writer
