Panic
1129 Words
(Aria)
The last time my heart sank this low was the night my brother died. That night, I lost everything.
I stared between a smug looking Luca and the blonde haired bimbo who was clutching Luca’s arm like a lifeline.
I couldn’t show them how I really felt, I wouldn’t show any sign of weakness…not to them.
“Wow, Congratulations on your engagement,” I said While forcing a smile onto my face.
Lucas Seemed surprised by my action, but he quickly masked it up with a nod.
“Alice, meet Aria…..my childhood friend,” he said as he introduced me to his fiancée.
Childhood friend.
Right. That’s what we were calling blood, scars, and betrayal now.
Alice frowned as she sized me up probably wondering where on earth I had emerged from.
“You should really get your nails done babes,” she said to me.
I simply ignored her and sat down at the breakfast table. I was too hungry for any sort of conversation especially with the two individuals who had cost me my sleep last night.
Luca didn’t sit down immediately. He watched me first, like he always did…..it was like he was trying to pry open my skull and read the thoughts I kept locked away. The ones he had no right to anymore.
Alice tugged at his arm, probably trying to snap him out of whatever thoughts were going on in his head.
“Baby, sit, I’m starving,” she said in a whiny voice.
Man,she was annoying.
He pulled out her chair for her before finally settling across from me. I kept my eyes on the food. If I looked at him too long, the memories would rush in, uninvited and unfiltered and I didn’t want that.
The past was in the past.
Alice began talking about wedding venues and guest lists. I tuned her out. Every word made my stomach twist, not from jealousy, but from the bitter reminder that Luca had once promised me a future too…….one that never came.
Instead he did the one thing he was never supposed to do, hurting me.
“Aria,” Luca said suddenly.
I looked up with my fork halfway into my mouth.
“You’re staying here for now,” he said, tone firm and commanding.
Alice’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me? She’s staying here? Why?”
Luca didn’t even look at her. “Because I said so.”
The air shifted into something suffocating as my chest tightened. He wasn’t trying to help me, he was controlling me.
“Luca,” I said quietly, “I never agreed to that.”
His eyes darkened. “You don’t have to. It’s for your safety.”
Alice scoffed. “Safety? From what? Who would waste their precious time on her?”
I stayed silent. I wasn’t about to explain myself to her. She wouldn’t understand the kind of danger that follows people like us. She wouldn’t understand the kind of enemies that bury themselves inside your life and wait.
But Luca understood.
He always did.
“Aria isn’t going anywhere. End of discussion,” he said, voice low and final.
Alice crossed her arms like a defiant toddler. “I’m your fiancée. If anyone should be staying here—”
“Enough.”
Just one word from him, and the room froze.
Alice swallowed hard and looked away.
I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
But Luca wasn’t finished.
“You’ll have a guard assigned to you,” he said, his gaze locking with mine. “You don’t leave the mansion without me. You don’t talk to anyone without permission. And you never—”
“I’m not your prisoner,” I cut in, my voice steady despite the storm brewing in my chest.
His jaw tightened. “You’re under my protection. That’s the same thing.”
“I didn’t ask to be under your protection. You are the one who barged into my life after many years. I was doing just fine with your “protection”,”
I made sure to add air quotes around my last word to show how much I didn’t care.
The tension between us crackled like electricity. Even Alice sensed it; her eyes moved between us with dawning suspicion.
“What exactly is going on between you two?” she asked.
Luca didn’t look at her.
He didn’t have to.
His silence was the loudest answer.
I stood up, pushing the chair back quietly. “If I’m staying here, I want a room far from yours.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to hear you and your fiancée every night.”
Alice gasped. Luca’s expression hardened.
“That won’t be a problem,” he said calmly, but there was a dangerous edge in his tone.
I turned to leave, but paused at the doorway.
“And Luca,” I added, without looking back, “If you expect obedience, you picked the wrong girl.”
I walked out before he could reply with my hands trembling..,not out of fear but from the sheer pressure of being near him again, too many memories. Too many open wounds.
The hallway was silent, the type of silence that made your thoughts echo too loudly. I exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself.
Then I felt it.
A presence.
Someone else was in the corridor.
I stopped.
A man stepped out from behind one of the marble pillars near the staircase….he was tall, calm, composed. The same man I had bumped into this morning . The one whose eyes had lingered a second too long, as though he recognized something in me that even I didn’t want to acknowledge.
He wasn’t dressed like the other guards.
No uniform.
No earpiece.
Black shirt. Hands in pockets.
Observant. Quiet. Dangerous in a way Luca wasn’t—patiently dangerous.
Our eyes met, and a slow, knowing smile curved on his lips.
“You again,” he said softly.
My pulse skipped.
He stepped closer, not enough to invade my space, but enough to prove that he didn’t fear crossing boundaries.
“You have a habit of running into people,” he added, eyes scanning my face. “Or maybe I’m the one running into you.”
I frowned. “Are you following me?”
“If I were, you wouldn’t notice.”
His tone was light, but his eyes told another story.
I didn’t trust him.
More importantly, I didn’t trust the way he looked at me—like he saw everything I desperately tried to hide.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He tilted his head slightly. “To make sure you’re okay.”
“That’s not your job.”
“It might be soon.”
- Writer
