Chapter 4

Lucien's POV

I locked my phone and responded apathetically, "A friend."

Seeing my reaction, the corners of Eira's mouth lifted, though the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Is that so? I had no idea you had other friends besides me."

"It's just a text message. Surely you're not going to make a scene over something so trivial, Ms. Primrose?" I calmly used her words against her, yet her expression instantly hardened.

Jaden, who was beside her, put on a pitiful expression. "Eira, is he behaving like this because he doesn't want to look after me? I think he just looks down on someone like me who only does odd jobs at the racetrack. In his eyes, even if I solved his problem and allowed him to effortlessly become a father, I'm still not worthy of a bit of his care."

Eira scoffed. "Do you think he's any nobler than you? Without me, he'd just be a homeless blind man right now."

Right after saying that, she kissed Jaden lightly on the lips and drawled, "Since he doesn't respect you, I'll allow you to teach him a lesson."

Ignoring my protests, I was forcibly shoved into a modified race car.

Jaden pretended to be surprised. "Eira, are you sure it's okay to take things this far? There are no brakes on this car. Once it takes off, it'll just keep accelerating. He won't have control over anything besides the steering wheel."

Eira wrapped her arm around him and smiled indifferently. "You're the one who made me a mother. If it makes you happy, consider it his way of making amends."

I stared intently at the couple in front of me, a chill spreading through my heart.

The vehicle shot forward, controlled remotely by the device in Eira's hand.

I didn't dare let my guard down. Clutching the steering wheel, I desperately tried to keep the vehicle under control. However, with a loud thud, the rear of my car was struck violently, nearly wrenching the steering wheel from my hands.

Before I could regain control, a barrage of collisions followed in rapid succession. Countless sparks burst from the rear of my car.

The vehicle continued to accelerate, tearing through the wind at a lethal speed. Despite the protective roll cage, my skin was shredded with burning, stinging scrapes.

I noticed Jaden behind the wheel in my rearview mirror. He wore a sinister smirk.

Realizing that my car had been knocked off course and was hurtling closer to the ocean beyond the guardrails, I couldn't hold it together any longer. My whole body began to shake like a leaf. "Eira, make him stop!"

Back when she first made a name for herself, she crossed quite a few people. Those people had plotted against her, stuffing her into a burlap sack and dumping her into international waters.

I'd thrown caution to the wind and dived into the icy winter sea. My body had turned blue from the bitter cold, and I'd nearly lost my life just to drag her back ashore.

Ever since then, I'd been left with severe psychological trauma. The moment I came close to the ocean, that deep-rooted fear would instantly engulf me, rendering me immobile.

After hearing me bellow, Jaden's unbridled laughter crackled through my racing helmet. "Eira said someone who knows they're wrong but refuses to change isn't worthy of calling himself her husband.

"Tell you what, I'm not a petty guy. All you have to do is get down on your knees, slap yourself across the face, and apologize to me. Then, I'll stop. How does that sound?"

I glanced at Eira through the rearview mirror. Sitting beside him, she remained silent, silently condoning his actions. Ironically, I remembered how she had once sworn that she would never let me be put in harm's way again.

Unfortunately, at the moment, she was sitting beside another man, tacitly allowing her lover to use my Achilles' heel to force me to submit.

I smiled wryly as I withdrew my gaze. Looking at the red dot on the GPS that was getting closer and closer to my location, I no longer hesitated. I ground the side of my car against the railing, using the friction to forcibly slow the car down and turn around.

Following the violent grinding against the railing, my car accelerated once again.

I watched as Eira's expression shifted from disbelief to sheer panic through the windshield. She frantically mashed the buttons on the controller, but inertia made it impossible for her to stop the two cars from rapidly closing in on each other.

"Lucien, have you lost your mind? Stop!" Her furious bellow boomed through my helmet.

Before severing the connection, I smiled at her. "You're right, Eira. I'm not as magnanimous as you. I can't sit calmly beside the man who killed my child!"

As soon as my words fell, the two cars collided with a deafening crash. My car was already on the verge of falling apart, and after being launched into the air by the fierce impact, it plunged into the vast sea behind me.

Eira's heart-wrenching scream tore through the wind. "No! Luc—" she only had time to shout out that one sentence before the massive impact rebounded on her. In the blink of an eye, she blacked out.