Lucien was so angry; his fists clenched and punched the wall hard.“And what did you do to Audrey?I trusted you about saying she had wanted to steal from me and my family, but now I think I wronged her because of you. I am a fool to give you so much of credit for old times’ sake.”Mia was speechless, she couldn’t stop crying, “I did wrong, I apologize, but that’s only because I love you.”Lucien told her ruthlessly, “I never want to see you ever again, and don’t think you can get a penny from me, I’ll leave you nothing. If you were only after me, I might still consider ending this marriage nicely, but you hurt Audrey, the love of my life, I’ll never forgive you for what you did to her.”“I’ll come back tomorrow; I want you to leave with all of your stuff out of here and never let me see you again.”“Where will I go?” Mia yelled.“I don’t give a fuck!” He then stormed out, leaving Mia alone sobbing.**************Lucien went to the bar alone, he blamed himself for what he did to Audre
“By the way, here’s my business card.” He added.“Lee Tung.”Audrey took his card.“You are a Michelin-rated chef?! I can’t afford it.”She was surprised.“And I am not Mrs Reynolds.” Audrey added.“No worries, you don’t need to pay me. Lucien called me to prepare dinner for his wife.”The door suddenly opened, Lucien was coming back from the grocery store, with two bags on his hands.“Oh, you’re awake.How’re you feeling?” He looked at Audrey.Emma took a glance at the chef, and said nothing.“Lee,I bought everything on your list.” Lucien said.“Especially the vinegar from your hometown, ZhenJiang.” He added.“Are you sure it’s the right one?” Lee asked.Lucien picked up the bottle to show Lee.“Not the brand I always use, but it’ll do the trick. Now let the magic begin.” Lee walked towards the kitchen, and closed the door.“You don’t have to do this.” Audrey looked at Lucien, and walked towards the couch.Before he said anything,she felt her baby was kicked .Lucien noticed Audrey migh
“You call that a place setting?” Lee scolded. “Have you ever set a table in your life?”“No, I actually haven’t. Pampered, rich brat upbringing and all that. You know?” Lucien teased.“Ugh. You poor little rich boys,” Lee shook his head. “At least you’re trying, I guess. Here. Use this photo as a guide.”Lee shoved a phone at him, and Lucien did his best to replicate the picture.‘A baby,’he thought.’I’m going to be a father.’The thought both excited and terrified him. But more than anything, he knew he would be a good parent. He had to prove to Audrey that he was capable of loving someone. That he could pour his whole heart into caring for another person.‘BUT WE ARE NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER!’The song played loudly suddenly, startling Lucien and Lee.Tracy chuckled behind the door.“Seriously?” she teased her friend. “That’s your ringtone?”“It’s my favorite song,” Audrey groaned from behind her hands. Her face was hot with embarrassment.“Sure, it is. Sounds mor
“No! I wasn’t!” Her hands fell to her mouth. She had never admitted that out loud.Lucien felt an icy stab in his chest. Jealously, anger, pain, betrayal all swirled within him. But the worst is that he knew he had no one to blame but himself.“Lucien.”she squeaked. “I wasn’t going to tell you. I was afraid. You hurt me so much. To protect myself I thought it was best to never see you again.”“You’ll never know how much I regret that.”“I wanted to hate you… but I…” she gasped. A sharp pain shot through her belly. She grabbed the edge of the table for support.“What is it?” Tracy and Lucien shot up and said in unison.Another stab of pain shot through Audrey, taking her breath away.“I think… I think I’m having contractions.”“Don’t panic,” Audrey stood, taking control of the situation. “The go bag is already packed. I’ll call the doctor and then Damian on the way there.” She delegated.“No!” Lucien yelled. “Why him? Why does he get to be a part of this? Why do you need him and not me
Goddamnit,Audrey! I’m trying to do what’s right!”“What’s ‘right’ would have been if you hadn’t left me in the first place!”“It’s what you wanted! Why are you fighting me on everything?”“Because I don’t need you!”“I’m not saying you do,” He countered, trying his best to pretend that statement didn’t hurt. “But I am going to take care of you. And our baby.”“My baby!”“Our baby, Audrey,” Lucien repeated. “Our baby. No matter how much you hate me, you can’t change the fact that I am that baby’s father. I want to do this with you, alongside you. Don’t use this child as a weapon against me.”Audrey gasped, and she wiped the tears off her face.‘Ooh, that one hurt.’Tracy thought.Lucien waited for a retort, but Audrey didn’t say anything.“I’m going to arrange a better room for you,” Lucien walked out.“Is that what I’m doing?” Audrey whimpered, looking over at Tracy. “Am I using the baby as a weapon against him?”“Em, you’re overly emotional right now with months of repressed feelings
How is that going?”“About as well as you’d expect.”“When are you coming home? Carl and I miss you.”“I miss you both too. I’ll go home after she has the baby. I want to be here for her.”“Okay. Tell Lucien I said hi. I’ve called him and he hasn’t answered. I imagine he’s preoccupied.”“Yeah, he is. I’ll tell him. Kiss our baby good night for me.”Tracy hated being away from her son, but she had to be there for her friend. She could only hope her child had a friend like that someday. Someone to watch over him no matter what.The three of them slept in the hospital room. Lucien slept on a pullout sofa, and Tracy shared the bed with Audrey. The night was peaceful, quiet. Each of them slept, their dreams taking them in very different directions.Suddenly, Tracy felt something squeezing her hand.“Audrey?” Tracy rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What’s happening?”Audrey’s eyes were screwed shut, and her hold on Tracy’s hand tightened.“My water broke. Everything hurts. I think… I think t
Tracy narrowed her eyes at him. Something was wrong. His tone was… off. She couldn’t quite place it, but something didn’t seem right.“Tell me something,” he said.“Did Mark feel like this? Like the center of his universe suddenly shifted? Like he was willing to walk through hellfire, if it meant keeping this little person he’d just met safe?”“It’s remarkable, isn’t it? How quickly they take over us?” Tracy was starry eyed. “When Carl was born, Mark was someone else. Every priority just changed. Nothing else mattered.”“I’d do anything for her. Be anything for her. I never knew I could love someone so much… so completely. I’d… destroy anyone that even thinks about hurting her.”“Is… everything okay, Lucien?” Tracy asked. His stance was rigid, as though something else had taken hold of him.“Yeah, it’s fine,” he answered. “It’s just… I want to be good enough for her. I need to be good enough for her.” He was thrilled to be a father, but terror had crept into his heart. There was more
“I know this seems like a lot. But you’ll see,” Minnie winked. “You’ll be thankful for the help.”“And the company,” Kelly said.Audrey quickly learned they were right. Kelly was sweet, attentive, and caring. Minnie was snarky, sarcastic, and funny. She liked them immediately. It was clear that they knew what they were doing, as they were an immense help to just that first night alone.Audrey had no idea that babies got up every two hours, and by morning she was a frazzled mess. It would have been a million times worse if Minnie and Kelly hadn’t been there.Bella’s first week home, Lucien was there every day.Audrey had begun to get used to his presence and actually looked forward to his visits.“Sorry I’m late,” he said one day.“Just in time for dinner,” Minnie said, ushering him to the table.Bella’s bassinet had been set up by the table.“Hi, Lucien.”Audrey said as she emerged from the nursery. “Look, she opened her eyes.They were right.Lucien looked at his daughter and bright h
NEARLY TEN YEARS LATER….Lucien came to a halt in front of a school,he sometimes come to get the kids from school,sometimes Audrey does that or their driver.He got down from his car and saw them approaching,all three of them.Louis ran up to him excitedly.Lucien caught him and carried him on his arms.“How was school today?”Lucien asked.“It was fine.”His eldest child,Bella replied with a broad smile.He gave Braylon,his second child who was seven years old a fist bump as they got into the car.***********Lucien hurried around the kitchen,Audrey was busy with work today so he had wanted to take care of the children,feed them and put them to sleep before she comes back home so that when she gets back,she can have a good rest…well a good rest after they finish making love.He was preparing pasta for the kids and he knew he had to make it perfect,otherwise,Braylon would complain and tease him for days.Audrey has been busy these past couple of days but she promised to make it up to him
“What does that even mean?”“He had a strange obsession with Lucien. Everything Lucien did, he wanted to do. Everything Lucien had, he wanted to have. There was one year that he intentionally matched everything Lucien wore. He used to tell everyone that they had the same middle name. He even started talking to another girl in our class named Mia just because that was Lucien’s girlfriend’s name. I never liked him.”“Lucien never noticed this?”Mark let out a long, heavy sigh.“What you need to understand about Lucien, especially at that age, is that he was hungry for validation. Starving for it. If anything, all that strange attention made him feel important. To be perfectly honest, there may even be a good chance he didn’t even notice it. He was so wrapped up in Mia… his world didn’t have capacity for anything else.”Audrey felt small for a moment.“He really loved her, didn’t he?”Mark glanced at her for a moment and noted the sadness in her eyes.“He thinks he did. That wasn’t love,
“We saw that sexy ass car out here, and Nathan got the keys to go move it,” another young officer explained with tears in eyes and panic in his voice. “We all wanted… we all wanted to see. But when he turned the key… when he turned the key…” the young man sobbed. “Some people were too close and got caught in the explosion.”Captain Whitlock looked over at Lucien.“I think you were already bait and didn’t even know.”It was as though he was moving through sand. Nothing registered. Nothing clicked. Not the unnatural metal of the handcuffs as they tightened around his wrists. Not the officers’ angry voices as the read him his rights, or the rough hands that pushed and shoved him into a cell. Not when those cell doors slid home with a loud, echoing clang. Captain Whitlock tried to stop the way they were mishandling him. But they had lost one of their own. A young man who was vibrant and full of life, at the beginning of his career.Another one. Because of me?“I get one phone call. I need
Lucien’s eyes flashed up at the captain, filled with anger and anguish.“She contacted me while I was in Italy,” he almost snarled.“After you and Audrey had just been married?” Captain Whitlock raised an eyebrow.“Don’t judge me. There were… circumstances about that marriage. Either way, I didn’t want to see her. But she said that she needed someone to keep her from… Hurting herself.”The irony. She had run to him once to prevent that. But in the end, she had forced him to witness it. His eyes were dark and stony as he fought to keep his emotions in check. Part of him wanted to give in. To breakdown and just give in to himself. Anything to make these feelings go away forever.Captain Whitlock softened as he realized what was going on in Lucien’s mind.“Sorry. Why was she seeking such an intense escape?”“She was running from him. She said their marriage was in shambles and that things had gone horribly wrong, that he was cheating on her.”“That was it? He wasn’t hurting her?”“She sa
“Philip Carson”The name hung in the air between them, like a two-ton brick. After all this time, Ghost had a name. Now the hunter, could become the hunted.“Holy shit,” the captain fell back into his chair. All the air left his lungs. “That punk? That punk is Ghost?”“You know him?” Lucien’s eyes almost fell from his head.“I had him. Right here in this office years ago,” Captain Whitlock seethed. “Right there!” he shouted and kicked his chair across the room. “Ghost was right there!”“What the hell for?”“That piece of shit kid was always getting into trouble. Vandalism, petty theft, property theft, arson… all kinds of stuff. Typical spoiled rich boy shit. No offense. I always knew that kid was disturbed. He had no remorse for anything. The only thing he ever regretted was getting caught”“This was before he became Ghost obviously.”“Well, yes. But do you know that this means?”“What?”“It’s insanity. It’s the most oversimplification of anything that has ever happened.”“What?” Luci
He began spending most of his time at the building. “Command” they’d been calling it. Eugene and Mia couldn’t be trusted. The first prisoner,Racheal…Rebecca … whatever her name was, was being beaten even though he had given explicit instructions that she was not to be touched. And Mia could not at all be trusted with the other one. God, what was that one’s name? Ava? Avery? It was something with an “A”he was certain. Either way, it didn’t matter. They had to keep them both alive and the two overly emotional idiots he was working with were going to mess it up.Lucien was supposed to do a press conference and announce that he was relinquishing the company over to his cousin. The press conference was Eugene’s idea. He wanted a public take down and humiliation of his cousin. He was all for anything that made Lucien suffer. This plan wasn’t going to work. But he was interested to see how it would unfold.They planned to watch the press conference together. After it, his plan was to slink
His life had become a tunnel and the only light at the end of it was the demise of Lucien. It was the driving force in his soul. It was the pulsing his blood. His first meeting with Eugene set his plan back into motion. There was no improvising. Without even realizing, Lucien had been slipping through his fingers like fine sand. Always just beyond his reach. But this time he would get inside of Lucien’s world and destroy him from within.He kept a close watch on Lucien’s personal life. It seemed Mia had run back to marry him as he had anticipated. What he didn’t anticipate was the wrath it fueled in him. It was interesting. It had been so long since he felt any real emotion that it caught him off guard. Ever since he’d killed his father, it was as though he’d murdered his own feelings as well. Other than hate, nothing else lived within him. He often wondered why he even continued to do anything. He did have to admit that he was chasing the thrill of that first kill. Nothing ever seeme
“I told you not to get involved with her. Her father is my rival, and he has been encroaching on our territory. This,” he indicated the dead woman. “is a message.”“I loved her!” he screamed back, cradling her corpse in his arms.“You loved the other one too.”“This was different,” he cried. “She was pregnant! You killed my woman and my baby! We were going to tell you tomorrow night at dinner!”“Then I did you a favor. Children are a weakness, and you aren’t strong enough yet.”“Not strong enough?” he saw red. The vestiges of whatever humanity he had left dissipated. All that was left behind was anger and a thirst for vengeance. All the warmth left his soul. There was nothing left now. Nothing except an abyss with no end. He leveled his own gun at his father. “No one is stronger than me.”“Son, be careful.” His father’s eyes went wide. He dropped his gun and threw up his hands. He walked backwards slowly, like an animal being cornered by a predator. “You’re overly emotional right now.
Once she made the mistake of asking him what he and his father did. He brandished a gun and held it to her chest. To her immense relief, it wasn’t loaded. But she found that out only after he fired it. Bone aching terror was all she knew. Whatever life she had was almost gone. The only thing that was left was the memory of Lucien.Being with him was the last time she felt happy and safe. She clung onto the memories, and they were the only things keeping her afloat. Life was a nightmare and she just wanted to sleep.He knew he should have been treating her better. He knew that, but he just couldn’t seem to care. They were in love once. Or perhaps they just thought they were. The truth was that he was an escape to her. An escape from a life she thought she didn’t want. It was obvious that she wanted out. But his one issue was who she wanted to run to. He’d let her go if he knew that she wasn’t going back to him, back to Lucien.He refused to lose to him. So, as long as he knew she would r