Chapter 28 Elsie
Elsie
My nerves were still completely shot even three hours later, tucked under a blanket on Lukas’s couch with a warm cup of tea in my hands. I’d been backed into a corner yet again.
Vacantly, I stared at the light peeking through the gap in the curtains on the back wall of the family room, replaying the incident over and over.
But more than the fear, I replayed the moment Lukas came bursting through the door, rage and concern in his eyes that both softened the instant he looked at me.
It had brought all of my tears back immediately, but not in fear or sorrow.
Rather, I cried because of how much he cared for me.
The second I asked him to come get me, I heard shuffling, then his pounding footsteps.
The way Lukas cared for me in such a new and intense way was hard for me to comprehend.
I’d had good friends growing up and into college, great friends, even.
I’d had good boyfriends before that were kind.
But the only person in my life who had ever cared for me in such an obvious and profound way was my mother.
She had been my best friend and leader my entire life, and losing her was the worst experience I’d ever known.
Honestly, in the last seven years, I’d lost hope that I was ever going to see that kind of affection and care again.
But here I was.
Lukas was attentive, caring, thoughtful, and protective. And I was beyond thankful I was done hiding from him or pushing him away.
My mind couldn’t fully wrap around it, but I knew one very solid truth. I loved him.
“Els?” Lukas called from the kitchen. I turned my head in time to see him approaching with his phone in hand.
My brow raised as I noticed his concerned look as he handed over the phone.
Booked and Cornered: Prosecution Intern Rescues Attorney’s Daughter from Media Siege
The trial already reads like a legal thriller, but on Tuesday afternoon, it veered into full-blown drama between the bookshelves of Birdwell’s Book Shoppe.
Cornered by a mob of reporters hungry for quotes, Elsie Clarke, the disgraced defense attorney William Middleton’s daughter, found herself trapped in the quiet shop turned media circus.
Enter Lukas Bristol, a young intern for the prosecution Potion Specialist, who pushed past flashing cameras and safely aided her escape.
Witnesses say the scene looked less like courtroom procedure and more like the climax of a romance novel—raising eyebrows, questions, and maybe even rumors about this unlikely pairing.
Have the two of them been colluding this entire time?
I stopped reading the article. There was a picture of Lukas ushering me into his car, along with two smaller photos.
One of me from before Lukas arrived, somehow taken through the window of the shop before I’d hidden, and one of an outraged Lukas pushing through the crowd of reporters.
I smiled a bit to see his determination to get to me.
“Great, now the public will think we’re swaying the case, too,” I muttered, handing Lukas his phone.
His expression looked as exhausted as I felt with all of this. My father’s scandal would now become a problem of mine, no doubt, and my being romantically involved with Lukas would be a problem as well.
“Don’t worry about it too much. I spoke with Ed briefly, and he doesn’t think it’ll amount to anything.”
I nodded, resting against the back of the couch. Lukas came around and joined me, pulling me into his embrace. The two of us just sat there for a bit, soaking in the silence.
“Noah and Henri are coming over and bringing dinner with them, as long as you’re fine with that?” Lukas muttered into the top of my head, his fingers moving up and down my arm in a soothing pattern.
“That sounds great.” Tilting my head back, I looked into Lukas’s eyes and gave him a gentle smile.
Tingles shot down my spine as he reached up and brushed his fingers against my cheek.
Our lips met slowly, both of us resting in each other.
In the closeness that we’d found amidst all the chaos around us.
I wanted to say it. I wanted to tell him exactly how I felt in that moment, but fear held my tongue. I’d never said any of my former boyfriends that I’d loved them, nor had they ever said it to me.
Instead, I just tried to show him how much I loved him with my lips, pouring my emotions into the kiss. With every movement, I wordlessly told him I loved him. Perhaps I would soon be bold enough to say it out loud.
After a few moments of tenderness, Lukas pulled back yet pressed his forehead against mine. “How do you feel?”
I nodded slightly against his forehead. “Better. Good, even.” My breathing was still staggered from the kiss, but my words were honest. Today had been full of emotional highs, but I was okay.
It wasn’t long before the front door clicked open, startling both of us from where we’d settled into comfortable rest.
“Honey, I’m home!” called Noah. I never would have thought he was the type to make so many jokes with his friends, but his interactions with Lukas were typically bromantic.
Both of us stood from the couch and headed to the foyer, where smells of marinara and mozzarella wafted to us. Noah held two extra-large pizza boxes in one hand and gripped a bottle of wine in the other.
Henri was just behind Noah, but she rushed forward the second she saw me, wrapping her arms around me.
“How are you? Are you okay?” She pulled back to look over me, almost maternally.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I peered at her temple, which had a thin, scabbing line. Thanks to medical magic, I’m sure it was healing at a much faster rate than usual, but it still hadn’t even been a week since everything happened. “Are you feeling well?”
“I’m good as new. Just a scratch.” She dabbed at the line and waved her hand. “Really, how are you feeling with everything?”
“I’m feeling hopeful. I don’t think there is any way they won’t find Aster guilty at this point.”
“How do you feel about your dad being arrested?”
I laughed cynically. “I’m the one who turned in the evidence against him. So I’m pretty glad.”
The look of shock on Henri’s face was enough to make me laugh more fully. I smiled and turned to see Noah, shocked as well.
“I found some pretty incriminating evidence in his office, so I took it to Vane this morning. They worked pretty quickly.”
Henri remained silent, her shock turning into something warm. She grabbed my hands and squeezed. “Thank you.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t defend him for doing something like this.” I looked at her scab again, guilt twisting in my chest that I was even associated with my father.
Henri crushed me in a hug suddenly, her arms nearly squeezing the life out of me. “Thank you,” she whispered again.
Once we were done hugging, Noah and Lukas led us to the kitchen, where we each chose our pizza slices, then set up camp in the living room to watch movies for the rest of the night.