Chapter 18 — The Distance
Later that day,it started raining.She found him in the study , his sleeves rolled to his forearms, tie discarded and his jacket draped over the leather chair. Rain tapped softly against the windows, casting a gray sheen across the room.He looked up when she entered but didn't smile.Lucien rarely smiled."You're leaving," she said.He nodded once.
"Tomorrow morning. Early flight. I'll be gone a week."Something dropped in her stomach, something unexpected and sudden.
A week, just seven days but it felt longer than it should've."Is it business?"Aria asked.
He leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled under his chin."Corsica. Barcelona then Palermo,three meetings in a row and two of them volatile."
"Dangerous?"she asked.His lips curved faintly. "Everything is."She crossed her arms, leaning against the doorframe."Why are you telling me now?"Lucien studied her.
"I didn't think you'd care."Her throat tightened."I don't."Then followed a pause."Then why are you frowning?"He asked.She blinked, startled. "I'm not."avoiding to meet his eye.
He said nothing and wallked toward her slowly and stopped a foot away."You've become too quiet."
"I've always been quiet."she said
Something made her chest ache and she knew that he knows.
She looked away. "You'll be back in a week. I'll be fine."Lucien's voice lowered. "I never said you wouldn't."
He reached for her then,gently brushing his knuckles down her arm before walking past her without another word but the warmth he left behind stayed long after he was gone.
The next morning,he was already gone when she woke.He didn't leave any note or message only the faint scent of his cologne lingering in the hallway and the distant sound of wheels from his departing convoy.The silence in the house settled like a second skin and she tried to ignore it.
She wandered the grounds that afternoon, pretending the quiet didn't bother her, pretending she didn't keep checking the time, calculating what city he might be in or s didn't pause outside his study door three times… before finally walking away.
It was ridiculous.They barely spoke some days,they weren't lovers,they weren't even that really married but his absence felt like something stolen.A weight removed that left her off-balance instead of lighter.
Two Days Later in Corsica.He hadn't planned to miss her,he never missed people,not even his own family but on the second night, after another pointless dinner with smug arms dealers and petty Sicilian warlords, he found himself checking his phone, then scowling when he realized she hadn't texted and why would she?,he hadn't asked her to,still… the silence from her stung him even more than Sofia's taunts or any bigger cryptic threats from warlords opponent because he wasn't sure if Aria was waiting for him at all and that bothered him more than it should have.
Three days later,Aria told Clara not to ask how she was.She focused on small things,arranged the library,read half a book,took her tea in the garden like everything was normal but it wasn't.She missed the way he filled a room even in silence,missed his brooding glances over coffee,missed the way he always looked at her like she was a puzzle he wasn't ready to solve, but couldn't stop trying.
At night, the ache was worse.She'd grown used to the faint sounds of him moving in the next room,the scent of his aftershave when he passed too close,the tension, the pull like a string tied around her middle, always tugging when he was near and now there was nothing,only stillness and the weight of her own chest as she tried not to admit:
She missed him,more than she should.
She decided to send him a message.
In Barcelona, Lucien phone buzzed ,a message from Aria,He raised his phone immediately and read it.
Aria: Clara says the roses are blooming early this year,thought you might want to know.
Lucien stared at the screen,just that,No "how are you," no warmth but at least she had reached out and for her, that meant something.He typed a reply,pause and deleted it and then typed again.
Lucien: You should check the red ones by the eastern path.They always bloomed before rain.
He didn't ask if she missed him or anything at all but his hand lingered on the phone after he hit send as if he was waiting for something more.
Aria wasn't expecting him to reply her message but when she saw his message, smiled and walked the eastern path like he said and sure enough,the red roses were blooming, petals heavy with color, thick with perfume.
She remembered his voice, when he was around and now he was halfway across where he was and still telling her where to find things she didn't know to look for.
That night, she stood on the balcony outside her room, watching the stars and whispered, almost to herself:"Come back soon."
The sixth day inPalermo,he dreamt of her,of her pale skin and soft eyes and silence that wasn't empty, but full.He woke restless,he hated that feeling, the lack of control and yet…he didn't want to fight it.
She had done something to him,quietly and gradually and now he couldn't shake her from his mind.He opened the book he carried the same one she'd once found him reading and inside, tucked between the pages, was a pressed red rose.He didn't remember putting it there but somehow… he knew she had.
On the seventh day,she heard the convoy returning before she saw it.The engines of his car and gravel crunching like the low bark of commands.She stayed upstairs,she didn't rush but didn't pretend to be casual either and when she stepped out into the hallway and saw him,her chest did something foolish, beating up crazily.
He looked the same with his dark suit, tired eyes, hair slightly windswept but his gaze lit when it landed on her.He didn't smile but the tension in his shoulders eased.
They stared at each other for a long moment and then he broke the silence and said, voice low: "Did you miss me?"
She raised a brow. "Of course not."her head low trying not to meet his eye.
Lucien lips twitched,he didn't know how he acted but instinctly he spread his arms and there was Aria jumping into his arms,her hands wrapping around his waist,she said there because right there was unconsciously becoming her safe zone.