Chapter 2
951 Words
The cab stopped in front of the gates of Cresthill Estates.
I tossed a few wrinkled bills onto the seat, pushed open the door, and walked straight toward the grandest mansion at the far end.
But the farther I walked, the stronger the unease in my chest became.
The carved gate that should have been dazzling and extravagant now hung half open. Red paint had been splashed across it, dark and thick like dried blood.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I had no time to think. I lifted my leg and kicked the gate open with all my strength.
"Lucian! I'm back!"
The face I had imagined, full of fear or disgust, didn't appear.
What appeared before me was a wreck.
The mansion was empty. Every expensive piece of furniture was gone. Only a thick layer of dust covered the floor.
Across the walls, someone had spray-painted harsh words in red.
"Pay back what you owe!"
"Blackwell scum, give us back our life savings!"
And in the middle of the mess, Lucian was crouched on the floor in an old shirt washed almost white.
His back looked bleak. His shoulders were so thin they looked as if they would collapse with the lightest push.
He was carefully picking up half of a broken picture frame.
Inside the frame was a photo of us at 17.
In the photo, the boy looked bright and proud. The girl beside him was smiling radiantly.
At the sound, he slowly raised his head.
I hadn't seen him in a year. He had lost so much weight he looked almost unrecognizable.
His once sharp, well-defined jaw now looked even more severe, like the edge of a blade.
Those charming eyes had once held a distant, superior coldness. Now they were dull and gray, clouded with defeat, like ashes after the last flames had died.
"Lucian!"
I strode toward him. But the moment I saw him like that, all the hatred I had carried in my chest, along with the revenge I had imagined a thousand times, seemed to collapse.
What was going on?
How had he become this?
Instinctively, I grabbed a sharp shard of glass from the floor, seized him by the collar, and pinned him hard against the mottled wall.
Bang.
His back hit the wall with a dull sound.
The jagged shard of glass pressed against his vulnerable throat. With the slightest push, I could cut into his carotid artery.
"If I could stab you once a year ago, I can stab you a second time today!"
I gritted my teeth, trying to recover the madness I had rehearsed so many times. I forced a sick, feverish light into my eyes.
"Tell me. Are you trying to hide from me again? Are you playing some new game with me? I'm telling you, Lucian. Alive or dead, you belong to me!"
I thought he would be like he had been a year ago.
I thought he would look at me with those disappointed, ice-cold eyes and push me away without saying a word.
But he didn't.
Not only did he refuse to move away, he lowered those beautiful, charming eyes and stared steadily at the shard in my hand.
The next second, he leaned forward an inch on his own.
Hiss.
The sharp glass cut through his cold, pale skin in an instant.
Bright red beads of blood rolled down the curve of his Adam's apple, and the sight stabbed at my eyes.
"Evie, we haven't seen each other in a year, and you are still this passionate."
It was as if he couldn't feel pain. He even ignored the grim line of blood on his neck.
He suddenly lowered his head, and his cold lips landed precisely on the corner of my mouth.
There was a faint metallic taste of blood.
My entire body froze. My mind went blank.
The shard of glass slipped from my hand, hit the floor, and shattered.
Lucian took the chance to bury his face in the hollow of my neck. Like a stray dog caught in the rain, he nuzzled against my skin almost desperately.
His muffled voice carried a trace of grievance and pleading that I could hardly believe.
"Lucian Blackwell, an ordinary working man, signs himself up to become Miss Mercer's exclusive pet."
I was completely stunned.
"What... what did you say?"
His warm breath brushed over my collarbone, tickling me until my heart trembled.
He tightened his arms around my waist, as if he wanted to pull me into his very bones.
"My family went bankrupt. My parents saw me as an embarrassment, so they took what money they had left and moved overseas years ago. They abandoned me. Now I have nothing. Not a cent. I am drowning in debt."
He raised his head. His misty, charming eyes looked straight into mine, the corners flushed red.
"Evie, you have to take me in from now on. Didn't you always want to lock me away? I'm homeless now. I have nowhere else to go. I can be your toy. I can be your punching bag. Just feed me and give me somewhere to sleep."
He paused, then leaned in close to my ear, his whisper low and dangerously seductive. "At night, I can warm your bed too."
He looked at me with that shamelessly innocent expression, like a master manipulator pretending he had done nothing wrong, and my brain completely short-circuited.
Was this really the same cold, proud Blackwell heir who had refused to bow his head even after I had driven him into a corner and stabbed him?
Was I the one losing my mind, or had the whole world gone insane?
- Writer
