Chapter 241: it’s time

Lucien’s POV

I still remember the accident like it happened the night before.

The moment Genny called and told me Raphael had gone to talk to Braelyn, a bad feeling settled deep in my gut. It was instinct, the kind that had kept me alive and ahead of everyone else for years.

Right then, I knew the board had shifted. New rules had been quietly introduced into a game I had always controlled.

And Raphael… Raphael was the most dangerous piece on that board, no matter how much Braelyn refused to admit it. His breaking down was a bad move. I thought he was just being possessive but things were complicated. My mind went to Ivan’s warning. There were pieces I didn’t know.

She still loved that bastard. Maybe not with the same fire as before, maybe not enough to forgive him, but feelings like that don’t just disappear. They linger, rot, and turn into weaknesses. Weaknesses that get people destroyed. Feelings that needed to die.

The second the call ended, I drove to the building. I found them on the rooftop, and the sight that greeted me wasn’t one I enjoyed. Raphael was kneeling on the floor with Lynn, looking nothing short of devastated.

Still, the truth was impossible to ignore, something in Braelyn had changed.

I didn’t know what Raphael had said to her, but the look in her eyes was different. Once, she looked at me with curiosity, defiance, even that dangerous spark of intrigue that made everything between us feel like a loaded weapon was gone, replaced with fear. I held her but it felt like I was slipping off.

She tried to hide it, but she failed. She was afraid of me now, as if she had finally understood the kind of danger I posed.

It was almost insulting. I had never pretended to be safe. I had never offered her gentleness or protection. From the very beginning, I had every intention of ruining her.

The memory replayed in my head over and over her panic, her desperate attempt to get away from me before everything spiralled out of control. Something shifted in me that night, something I wasn’t used to feeling. It wasn’t fear for myself, but a colder, more unsettling realisation that for the first time, the game master might be getting outplayed by a pawn.

After the accident, I didn’t visit her. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t afford to. Things were reaching a point where weakness would be fatal, and there were too many eyes watching me. Every move mattered now.

Still, no matter how many times I told myself to stay away, I couldn’t stop myself from coming today. It felt like I needed to see her once before the storm finally broke. I had already delayed too many things because of her, and yet the moment I saw her walking out of the hospital, I forgot every rule I had forced myself to follow.

I stood across the road, leaning against my Aston Martin with my hands in my coat pockets. My posture looked loose, casual to anyone watching, but nothing about me was relaxed. My eyes locked on her the second she appeared.

She looked smaller, more fragile than I remembered, and the sight made something dark twist in my chest. The hospital bracelet was still around her wrist, and her steps were careful, slower than usual, like her body hadn’t fully caught up with her will yet. For a brief second, instinct screamed at me to cross the road, to go to her, to touch her and make sure she was real, standing, breathing.

I didn’t move despite my urges.

Then Raphael stepped into view beside her.

My jaw tightened as I watched him carry her bag like some devoted husband, staying close without touching her. He was playing gently. Playing the role of the patient husband. How completely ridiculous.

She didn’t see me at first, it was like she was distracted by him. Something about the way she was with Raphael left me unsettled. They were still distant, but the tension between them was gone, as if they were slowly mending their broken bridge, and the distraction, like me, would be discarded.

I heard Raphael kicked Amelia out. That was an interesting development, not what I expected, though.

My gaze dropped to her hand, and when I saw there was no ring, I felt a flicker of satisfaction that died almost as quickly as it came. It wasn’t enough. They might not have fully reconciled now, but they didn’t think they would later.

When she finally looked up and saw me across the road, she froze. Even from that distance, I saw the shift in her expression and the way her entire body went still.

It wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t a relief. It was hesitation, and beneath it, fear.

Something in my chest went cold as the truth settled in. Raphael had gotten into her head after all.

I held her gaze, my face unreadable, giving nothing away. I didn’t wave or move toward her. I didn’t even straighten from where I leaned against the car. We just stared at each other for what felt like forever.

Cars passed between us slicing through the space like moving barriers. The seconds stretched, but she didn’t move, nor did I.

Raphael noticed me then. I saw the change, the subtle stiffening in his posture and the possessive way his hand settled on the car door. He didn’t look surprised. He looked wary.

His phone rang, breaking the moment. He answered, distracted from us but tension still bleeding into his expression. I looked back at Braelyn her gaze remained unreadable

Then Raphael touched her shoulder, and she turned away.

I didn’t react. I didn’t shift or blink. I just watched her get into the car, watched the door close, watched the vehicle pull into the road and pass right in front of me.

Our eyes met again through the tinted glass. Hers were filled with questions she didn’t know how to ask.

Mine were already at war.

I kept watching until the car disappeared down the street. Only then did I exhale, slow and controlled, as I reached for my phone.

Too late, I thought as I made the call.

“You already stepped onto my side of the board, Braelyn,” I murmured under my breath. “You just don’t know it yet.”

When the line connected, my voice turned cold. “Start it. No more delays. It’s finally time.”

The storm I had been holding back for her sake was finally about to fall.

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