Chapter 27-- The Girl Who Spoke Back
Lucian’s POV – Age 17)
The chandeliers glittered above me like a thousand cold eyes, watching, judging, whispering. My father’s gala had always been the same: silk gowns, glass laughter, a hundred people pretending they weren’t afraid of the man who owned them all.
I stood by the balcony, a glass of scotch I didn’t drink in my hand, the fitted white suit pressing sharp lines against my shoulders. I was already taller than most men in the room, already sharper in presence than the heirs circling like vultures. My father liked to show me off—his son, the one who’d carry the Devlin empire, the one who’d already learned ruthlessness like it was carved into his blood.
And I played the role perfectly.
Cold. Detached. Devlin’s son.
Until the wine.
It ha
