Dual POV - Celeste & Lucien:
Celeste's POV:
His words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.
"He's approached someone else. Marco Rossi."
The name was a venomous whisper, and the fear that had been a cold tendril now tightened its grip around my heart. Lucien's arms around me felt like the only solid thing in a world that was suddenly tilting on its axis.
"Rossi…" I repeated, the name foreign and menacing on my tongue. "What does he want?"
Lucien's jaw was tight against my temple. "He wants to dismantle everything I've built. And Damien… Damien has given him the key."
The implication was clear, terrifying. I was the key. The vulnerability. The weakness that could bring down a king.
"I can't stay here forever," I said, pulling back slightly to look into his stormy gray eyes. "My life… my patients…"
"Your life is here now, Celeste," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument. "And your safety is my only concern. Everything else can wait."
The possessiveness in his tone, which had once ignited a thrill within me, now felt like a cage door clicking shut. I understood his need to protect me, but the thought of being confined, of my independence stripped away, sent a wave of panic through me.
He saw the conflict in my eyes. "I know this isn't what you expected," he murmured, his thumb tracing the line of my cheek. "But trust me. This is the only way."
Trust him.
The words echoed in my mind. I did trust him.
With my body, with my awakening desires, with the raw, terrifying emotions he had unearthed within me. But trusting him with my entire life, with my freedom… that was a different kind of surrender.
---
Hours bled into a tense afternoon within the confines of his penthouse. Lucien was a whirlwind of hushed phone calls and clipped commands. I watched him, a silent observer in his world of shadows and power. The man I had come to know in stolen moments of intense connection was now a ruthless strategist, a king preparing for war.
He had moved me into his private quarters, a spacious suite overlooking the city. The opulence was suffocating. I felt like a prized possession locked away for safekeeping. The gold bracelet on my wrist felt less like a symbol of his claim and more like a shackle.
As dusk began to paint the sky in bruised hues, Lucien finally came to me, his face etched with a weariness I hadn't seen before.
"It's done," he said, his voice low. "Rossi has made his move. He contacted someone… someone close to you, Celeste."
My breath hitched. "Close to me? Who?"
His gaze was dark, unreadable. "Nadia."
The name hit me like a physical blow. Nadia? My best friend? My confidante? It was impossible.
"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "There must be some mistake. Nadia would never…"
"Rossi offered her something she couldn't refuse," Lucien said, his voice grim. "Information. About her brother's death. Information that the police never uncovered."
My knees almost buckled. Nadia's brother… it had been ruled an accident, a hit-and-run years ago. The grief had haunted her ever since. The thought of Rossi exploiting that pain, using it to manipulate her…
"What did he ask her to do?" The question tore from my throat.
"To get close to you. To feed him information. Your routines. Your vulnerabilities." Lucien's eyes were filled with a cold fury. "He was planning to use her to get to you here."
Betrayal. The scent of it was thick in the air, far more potent than any fear for my own safety. Nadia. My rock. My friend.
Suddenly, my phone, which Lucien had allowed me to keep but had heavily monitored, buzzed. A text message. From Nadia.
Celeste, I need to see you. It's urgent. Something about Damien.
My heart hammered against my ribs. It was a trap. Lucien was right.
"He's trying to lure me out," I whispered, showing Lucien the message.
His jaw tightened. "You're not going anywhere."
But a seed of doubt had been planted. Nadia? Could it be true?
Then, another text message. This one from an unknown number.
Meet me alone. The truth about Lucien. You deserve to know.
My blood ran cold. This was escalating rapidly.
Lucien's POV:
Nadia.
The betrayal was a bitter taste in my mouth. I had underestimated Rossi's reach, his ability to exploit the deepest wounds. And Celeste… the look on her face when I told her… it was a pain I never wanted to inflict.
Her phone buzzing with Nadia's text confirmed my worst fears. Rossi was moving quickly, trying to isolate her, to use her own connections against me.
"You're not going anywhere," I repeated, my hand firm on her arm. "It's a trap."
But I saw the conflict in her eyes, the flicker of disbelief. Her loyalty to Nadia ran deep.
Then, the second text. The anonymous one. My senses went on high alert. This wasn't Rossi. This was someone else. Someone who knew about me.
"Show me," I commanded, taking her phone. The message was cryptic, dangerous.
The truth about Lucien. What truth? What lies had been spun?
"We need to find out who this is," I said, my mind racing. "It could be another of Rossi's pawns, or… something else entirely."
I activated a burner phone, a secure line. "Adrien, track this number. Immediately. I want to know everything. Who owns it, where it's been, every connection."
The tension in the room was a live wire. Celeste was watching me, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and a dawning suspicion. The carefully constructed intimacy of the past night felt like a distant memory, overshadowed by the encroaching darkness.
Suddenly, my own secure phone buzzed. A priority alert from Adrien.
"Lucien," his voice was urgent, strained. "We have a problem. Damien… he didn't just meet with Rossi. He met with someone else first. Someone… unexpected."
"Who?" I demanded, my gut clenching.
"Your mother, Lucien."
The words hit me like a physical blow.
My mother?
But she had been gone for years. Vanished without a trace. The official story was a tragic accident. But I had always suspected…
"What are you talking about?" I growled, disbelief warring with a sudden, terrifying understanding.
"She's alive, Lucien. And she's been in contact with Damien for months. He's been playing us all."
The world swam for a moment.
My mother. Alive.
And working with Damien? It was impossible. And yet… a thousand fragmented memories, unanswered questions, suddenly clicked into place. Her disapproval of my life, her veiled warnings…
"Where is she?" I demanded.
"We tracked her to a location just outside the city," Adrien said, his voice tight. "And… Lucien… she's not alone. Marco Rossi is with her."
The pieces fell into place with brutal clarity. Damien hadn't just sought Rossi out; he had orchestrated the entire thing, with my own mother pulling the strings. The betrayal wasn't just Nadia's; it was a wound that cut deeper than I could have imagined.
And then, the realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. The anonymous text Celeste received…
The truth about Lucien.
My mother knew my deepest secrets, the vulnerabilities I had guarded my entire life.
"Celeste," I said, turning to her, my voice raw. "There's something you need to know."
But before I could speak, the door to the penthouse suite burst open. Two figures stood silhouetted in the doorway. Marco Rossi, a cruel smile twisting his lips. And behind him… a woman I hadn't seen in fifteen years, her eyes cold, her face a mask of bitter resentment.
My mother.
"Hello, Lucien," she said, her voice chillingly familiar. "Did you really think you could escape your past?"
Damien's POV:
(A brief, unexpected interlude)
They were fools. Both of them. Lucien, with his arrogance, his belief that he could control everything. And Celeste, blinded by his dark charm, thinking she had found some kind of twisted liberation.
His mother had been right. Patience was the key. Planting the seeds of doubt, watching them grow. Letting Lucien believe he was the puppet master, while all along…
Rossi had been easy to manipulate. His hatred for the Moreau name was a festering wound. All it took was a little money, a little information, and the promise of finally bringing Lucien down.
And Nadia… her grief had been a pathetic, predictable tool. The promise of the truth about her brother had been enough to bend her to my will.
Standing outside Lucien's penthouse, watching through the hidden cameras, a grim satisfaction settled in my chest. They were trapped. Celeste, finally realizing the monster she had embraced. And Lucien… about to face the one person he never expected to see again. The one person who truly knew his weaknesses.
His mother.
Her plan was intricate, beautiful in its cruelty. Not just to destroy Lucien's empire, but to dismantle him piece by piece, starting with the woman he had foolishly allowed himself to care for.
The text to Celeste had been her idea.
The truth about Lucien.
Oh, Celeste would learn the truth. The truth about the darkness that ran in his veins, a darkness inherited from the very woman standing beside Rossi.
The door burst open. His mother's voice, sharp and cold, echoed through the surveillance feed.
"Hello, Lucien. Did you really think you could escape your past?"
A grim smile touched my lips. The reckoning had come. And it was far more personal than Lucien could ever have imagined.