Lucian swallowed hard. I could see it clearly now, the way panic flickered through his eyes, the way his jaw tightened like he was bracing for something that couldn't be stopped anymore. It was as if he were silently begging me not to listen. Not to believe a single word that came from his father's mouth.
Severin noticed.
Of course he did.
His smirk widened slowly, cruel and deliberate, the kind that wasn't meant to wound in one strike but in a hundred tiny cuts.
"Might want to ask him," he said lazily, tilting his head toward Lucian, "about what happened to his first love."
The words sank straight through my chest.
First love?
I blinked once, then turned my eyes to Lucian again, searching his face for anything that would tell me this was another lie. Another twisted story meant to tear us apart.
Lucian didn't speak.
And somehow… that silence said more than any denial ever could.
