Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Despite the surrounding storm of chaos, the kiss felt dangerously right–like dancing barefoot on glass and not caring about the blood. His hand was buried in my hair, fingers threading through the strands with an aching gentleness that contradicted the wild heat between us. And even as dread curled around my spine, I was drinking it in–this forbidden electricity that shouldn’t have felt so good.
“Lucy!”
Mom’s voice pierced the moment like a lightning bolt tearing through a summer sky.
I jolted, the spell shattering in an instant. Guilt surged before thought could catch up. I shoved Kaiden away, breath snagging in my throat, lips still tingling. The kiss broke–but the echo of it clung to me, loud and hot, as my heart thundered in my chest, caught like a thief in the dark with nowhere to run.
“What the hell are you two doing?” she approached us, whispering now, her narrowed eyes darting around as if she didn’t just yell the crap out of my name.
“You ungrateful brat,” she spat, her voice razor–sharp and shaking with rage. Her hand clamped around my wrist, fingers cold and merciless like steel cuffs. With a forceful tug, she yanked me toward the mansion, treating me like some rebellious marionette who’d stepped out of line. “Come with me.”
“No, she won’t,” Kaiden growled, his tone like flint striking stone. His grip tightened around my other hand, grounding me like an anchor. The muscles in his jaw flexed beneath his skin as he held his ground. “She will stay here, and today, we will clear everything.”
“There is nothing that needs to be cleare,” Mom bit out, her voice a venomous whisper as her eyes sliced toward him. They were wild and sharp, like broken glass reflecting firelight. “Let’s go, Lucy.”
She yanked at me again, this time harder–her nails digging crescent moons into my skin like a silent threat.
“There are a lot of things that needs to be cleare and get closure,” he countered, voice low but unwavering as he pulled me gently back. I was practically grinding between my mom and my… I don’t know how to address him… boyfriend? Lover? Stepbrother? Man?
“I love Lucy,” he declared, voice stripped of all games. Mom’s grip faltered, her hand slipping down my arm as if shocked by sudden static. “And it’s not a sibling kind of love. It’s the kind of love that a man does to his woman.”
His eyes, blazingly locked with my mom’s, then turned to me–and in that moment, the fire softened, like warm dusk after a brutal sun, like the shadow of a huge tree in hot summer.
“I love you, Lucy,” he whispered, as he intertwined his fingers with mine, our palms fitting like puzzle pieces. His grip was firm yet gentle, a contradiction as comforting as it was intense. “And I know you love me too.”
I looked at Mom. Her lips barely parted, yet the message in her eyes screamed louder than any voice could. They burned with silent menace, unblinking–like a cobra poised to strike, venom already gathering.
“End this drama,” her words echoed in my mind–not spoken aloud, but still chillingly clear. Even in the heat pounding through my skull, her voice slithered in cold and calculated, like frost creeping across a windowpane. “Or I will make sure it ends in the most tragic way possible.”
“No,” I let go of Kaiden’s hand, stepping back even as my soul cracked. “I don’t love you the same. Yeah, I agree, I used to get attracted to you. But it was just an infatuation, and since we had sex, now it’s over,” I said, my voice hollow yet sharp, and then I ran towards the mansion, shoes echoing against the stone like betrayal itself.
Again, instead of freeing myself from the cage, I locked myself in it.
Again, instead of supporting him, I hurt him.
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TU, 24 Apr
Chapter 95
Again, instead of breaking the chains, I tightened it.
Again, instead of confessing my true feelings, I ran from it.
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I had locked myself in my room.
Sitting on the floor with my back against the door, I cried.
I was so desperate to cry that my knees were buckling like my will. I didn’t even wait till I reached my bed. I just dropped the moment I closed the door and cried into my trembling palms.
“Lucy,” I heard Kaiden’s voice–low, almost breathless–before a soft knock followed like an afterthought. “Introvert,” he called again, more softly than before, voice barely grazing through the wooden barrier like a breeze that knew my name. “I know you are scared. I know you are lying to protect me, but…”
I turned to the door and pressed my hand flat against it, fingertips splayed like I was touching more than just wood–like I was palming his cheek, willing it to be warm beneath my skin, aching to cradle the pain he wouldn’t let himself show.
“I will be vulnerable anyway if I don’t have you by my side,” he murmured, each word trailing like it carried its own weight. “You are my courage, Introvert. You are my reason why cherish my life so much. Before, I was just breathing because I didn’t want to suffocate myself, but after I saw you for the first time, I began to breathe because I was curious to see my future with you. You are my everything, Lucy.”
His voice cracked, and my chest tightened with every syllable that dared to tremble.
“If there is no you in my life, I am as good as dead. So please, if you are strangling your happiness for me, for my safety, then please, let me tell you–you have bewitched me.”
My lungs forgot how to function. The air grew thick, like I was trying to breathe underwater.
“I am connected to your happiness–if you strangle your happiness, then you are not just strangling it but me as well.” His voice faltered, and I imagined him with his forehead leaning against the door, speaking into the wood like it was a confessional. “It kills me to see you not being able to express your feelings,” he continued, his tone thick like syrup, full of unshed tears. “It kills me how you feel so lonely in the huge crowd. It kills me when you evaporate your tears so that they won’t be visible to anyone. It just kills me when you are not you but someone else’s puppet.”
He inhaled sharply, as if the pain was clawing through his ribs.
“The protection for which you are working so hard… it’s just killing me, Lucy. It’s just… kil-”
I stood up suddenly, anger flaring beneath my ribs like a sudden storm, and flung the door open with a shaky gasp.
“Stop it.” My voice broke as I stepped into the doorway, my fists clenched by my sides. “Don’t you dare say the word ‘kill‘ one more time.”
He was standing there, his chest heaving, his eyes like a hazel island in the middle of a red sea of pain and chaos. His cheeks were flushed and his tears were glossing raw with emotion.
My eyes then shifted to the corridor–there was Mom.
She stood like a statue carved from warning, arms crossed tightly against her chest. Her jaw was clenched, lips pressed into a cold, colorless line. Her eyes, wide and fierce, bore into me with silent fury.
I could hear her thoughts without her speaking, her slow, dangerous headshake echoing louder than words. “No, Lucy. Don’t,” she said–not aloud, but with a stare so sharp it felt like a blade pressed to my throat.
I then looked back at Kaiden, his eyes begging me to free myself from the cage made by my mom.
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22:04 Thu, 24 Apr
Chapter 95
One wanted to cage me.
One wanted to free me.
Though the decision was simple, I was still courageless to choose.
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But then, I saw a twitch in my mom’s lips. There was a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes, and then I knew it–Ross wasn’t the monster that I should be scared of. It’s my mom. She is the real monster. The monster who didn’t even spare her own child.
If I let her win, she will be more powerful than before. I handled Ross once, I will handle him twice. I will protect Kaiden from him. I will take every bullet, every stab, every cut, every scar that Ross will direct at Kaiden.But I will not let my mom win. I am not a bloody princess, and if I have to be, then I will be Mulan.
To be continued…
