CHAPTER 9
Memories had a cruel way of returning at the worst possible moments.
They didn’t arrive gently or with warning.
They crashed into your thoughts like shattered glass, sharp and impossible to ignore.
Sera experienced it often when she least expected it, when the house grew too quiet, when she passed certain rooms, when she caught the faint scent of her father’s cologne lingering in places.
Those small reminders carried weight. The kind that settled deep in the chest and refused to move.
She used to believe strength meant burying those feelings. Pretending the past couldn’t reach her anymore, but strength, she had learned, was far more complicated than that. Sometimes strength meant simply continuing to breathe when every memory felt like a knife twisting deeper into your ribs.
Standing near the tall windows of her room, Sera watched the wind bend the trees beyond the estate walls.
The sky had turned that deep shade of gray that always came before a storm.
The kind of storm that rattled windows and made the entire house feel smaller than it was.
She wrapped her arms loosely around herself, exhaling slowly.
Somewhere down the hall she could hear faint movement of guards changing shifts, quiet footsteps echoing against marble. Life continuing like it always did.
Yet beneath that routine, something else had begun to shift.
Lucien .
His presence had changed more than just the structure of the business.
It had changed the rhythm of the house itself.
Conversations stopped when he walked in.
Orders carried more weight when he spoke to them.
Even Ronan, who rarely looked impressed by anyone, watched Lucien with a kind of careful respect.
Sera wasn’t sure when she had started noticing these things or when she had started noticing him.
Maybe it was the way he moved through rooms with quiet certainty, maybe it was the way his voice carried calm authority even when tension filled the air. Or maybe it was something far more dangerous than that.
Because every time their eyes met, something unspoken passed between them.
And Sera had begun to realize that whatever it was…
It was only getting stronger.