CHAPTER FOUR
1540 Words
LUCAS’S POV
The house hadn’t changed.
The same tall windows, same polished wooden floors, and same quiet hallways that carried echoes of a past I had tried very hard to leave behind.
I stood alone on the balcony outside the dining room, one hand resting against the cool railing as I stared out at the gardens.
The Carter estate stretched endlessly beyond the trees, exactly as I remembered it.
Perfect, still and untouched by time.
Yet somehow… everything felt different.
Inside the dining room, I could still hear faint voices.
Margaret’s sharp tone.
Sonia’s quieter one.
And occasionally, my grandfather’s calm voice cutting through the tension.
Then there was Ava.
Quiet and almost invisible in the middle of that storm.
I exhaled slowly.
I’ll marry Ava.
The words replayed in my head again.
Even now, they sounded strange.
Not because I didn’t mean them.
But because I had never imagined I would say them.
A marriage proposal announced at breakfast to a woman I barely knew.
If someone had told me yesterday that this would happen, I would have laughed in their face.
But then again…
Yesterday I hadn’t been sitting across from my dying grandfather.
My jaw tightened slightly.
The memory of the phone call came back to me.
The call that brought me back here.
It had been three weeks ago.
I was in my office when my phone rang.
I almost didn’t answer.
The international number was unfamiliar.
But something made me pick it up anyway.
“Hello?”
There had been a pause.
Then a voice I hadn’t heard properly in years.
“Lucas.”
My hand tightened around the phone immediately.
“Grandfather?”
His voice had sounded weaker and older than I remembered.
But still steady.
“How are you, boy?”
I leaned back in my chair.
“I’m fine,” I said. “You?”
There was a small chuckle on the other end of the line.
“Well… that’s actually why I’m calling.”
Something in his tone made my stomach tighten.
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he said something else.
“You haven’t come home in a long time.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
“I’ve been busy.”
“That’s what you always say.”
I rubbed my temple.
“Grandfather…”
“I’m dying, Lucas.”
The words cut straight through the conversation.
For a moment, I thought I had misheard him.
“What?”
“I don’t have much time left.”
My entire body had gone still.
“Since when?”
“A few months now,” he said calmly.
“And you’re only telling me now?”
His voice softened slightly.
“I tried to tell you before.”
He wasn’t wrong.
He had called many times over the years.
Asked me to visit, asked me to come home.
And every time, I had refused, giving excuses about work.
But the truth was simple.
I didn’t want to come back.
Not to this house, not to this country and not to the memories waiting for me here.
But this time…
This time his voice sounded different.
“I would like to see you,” he said quietly. “Before I leave this world.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I’m not asking you to stay forever,” he continued. “Just come home for a while.”
I stared out the large window of my office.
My entire life was here now.
My businesses, my routines, and my distance from the past.
But this man…
This man had raised me after my father died.
He had been the one constant in my life.
And now he was asking for one thing.
Just one.
“Lucas,” he said gently.
“Yes?”
“I would like my grandson beside me before I die.”
I closed my eyes.
Then I said the only thing I could say.
“I’ll come.”
Three days later, I boarded a plane.
And now here I was.
Back in the house I had spent years avoiding.
I dragged a hand down my face.
The past had a strange way of catching up with you when you least expected it.
My childhood had not been easy.
My mother died when I was five.
Even now, I could barely remember her face clearly.
But I remembered how warm her hugs felt.
I remembered the smell of her perfume.
I remembered the day she stopped coming home.
She died of Cancer.
That was the word the adults used.
I didn’t understand it then.
I just knew my mother disappeared from my life forever.
My father tried his best after that.
He worked constantly, but whenever he was home, he made sure I felt loved.
Two years later, he remarried Margaret.
Most children hated their stepmothers but I didn’t.
Margaret had never tried to replace my mother.
She simply tried to care for me in her own way.
She helped with my schoolwork.
Came to my football matches.
Cooked dinner when my father worked late.
And despite everything, she treated me well.
She never had children of her own.
Not because she didn’t want them.
But because she couldn’t.
I knew it hurt her.
But she never once made me feel like I wasn’t enough.
Then my father died in a car accident when I was nineteen.
Just like that, I lost the second parent in my life.
After that, the only real family I had left was my grandfather and of course Margaret.
Then Sonia came into my life.
I laughed quietly to myself.
Funny how one person could change everything.
For a long time, I had believed she was the one person in the world who would never betray me.
We met in college.
She was Margaret’s best friend’s daughter, which meant our families had known each other for years.
But we only grew close when we were older.
She was beautiful, charming and easy to love.
And back then, I had loved her completely.
Everyone expected we would get married one day.
Even Margaret.
She adored Sonia.
To her, Sonia was practically already family.
For a while, I thought the same thing.
Until the night everything changed.
I still remembered it clearly.
I had returned to campus early from a business trip my grandfather sent me on.
I wanted to surprise Sonia.
Instead…
I was the one who got the surprise.
The image still burned in my mind.
Her laughter, another man’s hands on her thigh.
My chest tightened slightly at the memory.
I had walked away without saying a word.
Without confronting her.
Without giving her the satisfaction of explaining herself.
The next morning, I told my grandfather I wanted to leave the country.
I said I wanted to study abroad and expand the family business and see the world.
Everyone thought I was being ambitious.
No one knew the real reason.
I simply didn’t want to see Sonia again.
I didn’t want to hear her voice, I didn’t want to look at her face and remember what she had done.
So I left.
And once I was gone, I stayed gone.
Years passed.
Life overseas suited me.
I expanded my grandfather’s investments.
Built partnerships.
Launched new companies.
Work became my escape.
And slowly… the memories faded.
Or at least, I convinced myself they had.
Until today.
Until Margaret walked into the dining room with Sonia beside her.
Seeing her again after all these years…
The anger came back instantly.
Not sadness, not heartbreak, but just anger.
And then my grandfather dropped his bombshell.
Marry Ava.
At first, I thought he was joking.
Then I saw the seriousness in his eyes.
My grandfather was dying.
Which meant this marriage…
This ridiculous proposal…
Was his last wish.
I ran a hand through my hair.
Ava.
The girl sitting quietly at the table earlier.
She looked just as shocked as everyone else.
Clearly, she hadn’t planned this either.
Grandfather had taken her in years ago.
I remembered hearing about it during one of our rare phone calls.
An orphaned girl.
Now living under his protection.
Smart, hardworking and grateful.
That was all I knew about her.
And frankly…
I didn’t care enough to know more.
But Sonia being there…
Standing beside Margaret…
Looking at me like we still had unfinished business…
That had changed everything.
So I made a decision.
A calculated one.
If Margaret wanted Sonia to marry into this family…
Then I would make sure that never happened.
And if my grandfather wanted one final wish granted before he died…
Then I would grant it.
I straightened slowly and looked back toward the house.
Inside those walls, everyone was probably still trying to process what I had just said.
But my mind was already made up.
I would marry Ava.
Give my grandfather the peace he wanted before the end.
Let him believe his family future was secure.
And once the inevitable happened…
Once my grandfather was gone…
I would end it.
Cleanly and quickly.
A temporary marriage, that was all it would ever be.
Because the moment my grandfather closed his eyes for the last time…
I would file for divorce.
- Writer
