Chapter 19 #2
Because at that crushing moment in time, Lucius feels like the only unyielding, solid entity left standing in her entire collapsing universe.
She has no home to return to anymore. She has no family left to protect her from the cold.
She possesses nothing except her small boutique and the shattered, dusty pieces of a life she no longer knows how to hold together.
For the first few seconds of the embrace, Lucius stays completely, chillingly still against her frame, almost as if his calculated nature hasn’t expected her to execute an action so intensely vulnerable.
Then slowly, deliberately, one of his large, gloved hands comes to rest flat against the small of her back—firm, unyielding, and steady in a manner that somehow makes her nervous system feel entirely safe, despite everything she knows about the dark dangers surrounding his name.
“Sit on my bike, Tessa,” Lucius orders quietly, his deep voice vibrating against her cheek.
She cannot manage a verbal answer; her throat hurts far too much from the smoke and the tears. A moment later, his voice comes again, dropping into a lower, raspy register close to her ear. “You’re coming with me. Stay with me from now on.”
And strangely enough to her survival instincts, hearing those commanding words does more to calm her internal panic than anything else has all morning.
She quietly climbs onto the elevated seat behind him, hesitating for only a split second before wrapping her arms tightly around his waist once the powerful motorcycle roars to life and starts moving.
Cold morning wind rushes violently against her face as the familiar buildings of Brooklyn blur past around them like a faded painting, but her mind remains heavily trapped inside the terrifying demolition scene she has left behind on the pavement.
The collapsing brick walls. The blinding white dust.
The hollow, sickening feeling of losing yet another sacred place that once belongs to her mother.
Lucius barely speaks a single syllable during the entire, fast ride through the city. Still, his absolute silence feels comforting to her senses in a strange way—it is a controlled space where she isn't forced to explain her pain.
Nearly two hours later, the motorcycles finally come to a smooth halt in front of a massive, secluded mansion surrounded by high black iron gates and heavily armed security guards.
Even from outside the perimeter, the luxury estate radiates raw power, isolation, and total control in a way that immediately reminds her of Lucius himself.
When she slowly climbs off the leather seat, he removes his helmet with slow, precise movements, and under the pale morning sunlight, his sharp, aristocratically structured features somehow look even more dangerous than they do in the dark boutique.
“This is Alex,” Lucius says calmly, gesturing with his hand toward one of the formal men waiting near the main entrance. “One of the best, most lethal business lawyers currently working within my organization.”
Tessa quietly reaches out to shake Alex’s hand, her fingers still dusty from the rubble, before Lucius suddenly turns his intense gaze back to her face and asks a sharp question. “When exactly does your aunt leave this city for Jersey City, Tessa?”
The sudden question catches her off guard completely, fracturing her thoughts. For a few long seconds, she just stares up into his unreadable eyes before answering quietly, her voice small. “Almost a month ago…”
Lucius holds her wide gaze for several heavy moments afterward, his expression entirely unreadable, like his brilliant mind is already actively calculating dark variables and timelines that she cannot possibly understand.
Then, without further elaboration, they walk inside the mansion together.
And despite how exquisitely calm and luxurious the interior layout looks under the chandeliers, Tessa can still feel the exact same underlying, dangerous control hidden beneath the suffocating silence of his home.
They sit down in the main living area while a quiet maid brings glasses of fresh water, and Victor starts casually talking about random, trivial things in the room, as if his mind is intentionally trying to distract her from the trauma of the morning.
But Tessa’s mind still feels entirely numb from the psychological shock of the betrayal.
Across from her position, Lucius sits perfectly still, quietly watching her micro-expressions with that same unreadable, predatory depth before finally breaking the silence in a low, steady voice.
“You are entirely safe inside these walls, Tessa. There is absolutely no need for you to worry about your safety anymore.” Something painfully tight constricts inside her chest again at his delivery. Then he adds quietly, his tone absolute, “You can live here permanently.”
For a long moment, Tessa cannot bring herself to answer because she is utterly terrified that if she opens her dry mouth to speak, she will lose her dignity and start crying all over again in front of his guards.
A little later in the afternoon, Victor softly and politely asks why she has been living with her aunt in that specific building, and after several long, heavy seconds of absolute silence, Tessa slowly begins telling them the full scope of her reality.
She speaks about her mother’s painful illness, about her British father heartlessly abandoning their lives years ago, and about losing the only real family she has left in the world.
She explains how she ultimately ends up with Nisha aunty because there is simply nowhere else left for her to go in the city.
And while her soft voice is speaking the words, she slowly realizes something incredibly strange about the room.
All three of them—Lucius, Victor, and Alex—are listening to her story with absolute care.
They are silent. They are serious. Their postures are focused, as if her broken little history actually matters to their world.
And for the first time in a very long, dark time, a quiet, fragile thought forms somewhere deep inside Tessa’s chest.
Maybe she isn’t completely alone in the dark anymore.
~