Episode Eight – The Betrayer
1176 Words
The morning after the ambush, the penthouse smelled of blood, alcohol wipes, and bitter espresso. Aria sat in one of Lucien’s oversized shirts at the breakfast bar, her hair a tangled mess from the night before, her thighs still aching from his relentless passion.
He hadn’t said a word since dawn.
Lucien stood shirtless by the window, a mug in his hand and a storm in his eyes. The scar on his ribs—new, red, and angry—was the only visible damage. But she knew better. That bullet had scraped more than flesh. It had reopened something darker inside him.
“I need to know,” Aria said softly. “Who would try to kill you in your own home?”
Lucien didn’t turn around. “Someone who used to stand beside me.”
She rose from her seat, barefoot on cold marble. “Who?”
He finally looked at her. “His name is Maddox Vale.”
Her breath hitched. “As in—Vale Corp?”
“Yes. My cousin.”
Aria’s knees almost buckled. “You told me your family was dead.”
Lucien’s smile was grim. “Maddox might as well be. He tried to sell me to a cartel when I was sixteen. My father covered it up, and I was sent to military school to keep quiet. Maddox inherited everything. Genevieve was the only one who ever believed me.”
She walked closer, trying to read his eyes. “And she’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“You think Maddox killed her?”
Lucien set his mug down with a sharp clink. “I don’t think. I know.”
⸻
Later that afternoon, Lucien took Aria to an underground private facility beneath one of his clubs. It smelled of gun oil and leather, and it buzzed with silent tension.
A man stood waiting.
Tall. Black suit. Gold pocket square. Crooked smile.
Lucien’s jaw tensed. “Rafael.”
Rafael DiSanti—Lucien’s right-hand man. Aria had heard his name before. Now, he looked at her with curiosity that felt too sharp.
“So this is her,” Rafael said, voice smooth as velvet. “The girl who has our king bleeding and distracted.”
“Watch your tone,” Lucien said coldly.
Aria stepped forward. “If you have something to say, say it.”
Rafael smiled wider. “Only that women who enter our world with that much fire usually burn.”
Lucien slammed a fist into the metal wall beside Rafael’s head.
“You don’t speak to her again unless I say so.”
Rafael’s eyes flicked to Aria. “Noted.”
⸻
That night, Lucien left to meet an informant.
Aria, restless and stirred by Rafael’s words, wandered back to the office. The flash drive she’d found earlier still haunted her.
She plugged it into the encrypted laptop Lucien kept in the drawer.
A single video file.
She clicked play.
Genevieve appeared on screen—alive, trembling, speaking into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, Lucien… I’m already dead. I found out what Maddox is doing with the Vale accounts. He’s laundering cartel money through the foundation—and he plans to frame you for it. There’s a ledger. It’s hidden in my studio.”
“And Aria…”
Aria’s heart stopped.
“…if he finds you, run. He knows your father used to work for Lucien’s family. You’re not safe.”
The screen went black.
Aria barely had time to process it when she heard a voice behind her.
“You weren’t supposed to see that.”
She spun.
Rafael.
Her blood froze.
“You’ve been spying on me,” she whispered.
Rafael tilted his head. “Not just you. But I didn’t expect you to be this clever.”
“Where’s Lucien?”
“Delayed. Thanks to a tip I sent Maddox.”
Aria backed away, pulse racing.
“You’re the traitor,” she breathed. “You set up the attack last night.”
Rafael smiled like it was nothing. “Lucien was getting soft. You made him weak. He forgot the rules of this world.”
“Why?” she snapped. “Why betray him?”
“Because I should’ve had the empire. I cleaned up after his messes for ten years, took bullets for him, buried bodies he wept over. And then you came along.”
He stepped closer.
“He chose you. And I can’t let him die for someone who isn’t even worth it.”
Aria lunged for the knife on the desk—but Rafael was faster. He pinned her to the wall, one hand at her throat, the other gripping her wrist.
“You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now.”
She gasped. “Then why don’t you?”
“Because Maddox wants you alive.”
He smiled again, and it made her skin crawl.
“I’m just the delivery boy.”
⸻
Outside, gunfire erupted.
Lucien stormed in like a beast unleashed.
He tackled Rafael, slamming him through the desk.
They fought with the fury of brothers turned enemies—Lucien’s fists fueled by betrayal, Rafael’s by jealousy. Blood sprayed across the wall as Lucien got him in a chokehold.
“I trusted you,” Lucien roared. “I saved your life!”
Rafael, face red and gasping, spat back, “You saved me so I could serve you!”
Lucien’s fist came down—once, twice—until Rafael went still.
Silence.
Lucien staggered back, panting, knuckles split.
Aria crawled to him. “Lucien…”
He fell to his knees.
Not from pain.
From heartbreak.
“I raised him,” Lucien whispered. “I gave him everything.”
Aria wrapped her arms around him. He didn’t resist.
This wasn’t the powerful, cold man she met at the club.
This was the broken boy who lost everyone—and kept losing.
⸻
Later that night, Lucien laid beside her in bed, his chest rising and falling steadily, one arm curled around her waist as if she might disappear.
Aria whispered into the dark, “We’ll survive this.”
He kissed the top of her head.
“I don’t want to survive,” he murmured. “I want to live—with you.”
She looked up at him. “Then stop pushing me away.”
Lucien’s gaze burned into hers.
“You’re my light in all this darkness. But that means… you’re also my weakness.”
Aria slid her hand across his chest, over the bandage near his ribs, and kissed the place he’d bled for her.
“Then let me be both.”
⸻
In a dark room lit only by the glow of monitors, Maddox Vale watched a live feed of Lucien and Aria asleep in bed.
He lit a Cuban cigar, smiling.
“She’s deeper in than I thought,” he muttered.
Then turned to the figure standing beside him.
A woman.
Red lips. Black heels. Familiar eyes.
“Is it time?” she asked.
Maddox nodded.
“Wake the ghosts.”
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