AVA’S POV
Lucas’s grief was a terrifying thing to witness. It wasn't soft because it didn't involve tears. It was a violent, jagged thing that looked like rage, a desperate attempt to command a dying heart back into rhythm through sheer force of will. When he realized Nicholas wasn't going to respond to the corporate updates, he went rigid, his hands dropping from his grandfather's arm as if he’d been burned. He walked over to the dark window, his back to the room, his shoulders rising and falling with sharp, shallow breaths.
I turned back to Nicholas.
Seeing him like this broke something deep inside me. This wasn't the formidable patriarch who had terrified boardrooms. This was the man who had pulled me out of the absolute dark.
My mind flashed back to that freezing day twelve years a
