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CHAPTER SIXTEEN — THE FRAGILE LINE
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21.02.2026 16:45:32The atmosphere in the hospital room shifted from clinical silence to the heavy, suffocating pressure of an impending storm. Lucien stood by the window, his back looked like a wall of rigid charcoal wool, his hand still dripping blood onto the white floor. He didn't seem to feel the glass shards embedded in his palm. His entire being was focused on a single point of cold rage directed toward the Blackwood Mansion.
"Marcus," Lucien repeated, his voice devoid of any human warmth. "The car, now."
Marcus nodded, his face pale despite his own injuries. He knew better than to argue when the Boss looked like he was ready to dismantle the world with his bare hands. As Marcus turned to leave, the reality of the situation crashed over me.
Lucien was going to kill the relationship with his mother. He was going to walk into that mansion and burn every bridge, every legacy, and every shred of peace he had left, all because of me. The "Dark Lord" persona Chen joked about wasn't a joke anymore, it was a terrifying reality that threatened to swallow the man I loved.
"No," I whispered, my voice cracking as I struggled to sit up on the hospital bed.
The doctor tried to hold me down, but I shoved his hand away, my eyes fixed on Lucien’s frozen silhouette. "Lucien, wait. Don't go."
He didn't move. He didn't even turn around. "She tried to have you taken, Aria. She handed the keys to your life to a man who would have discarded you like trash. My mother didn't just overstep, she declared war on my house."
"And if you go there now, you're giving her exactly what she wants!" I scrambled off the bed with shaky legs. My head spun, and the bruises on my face throbbed with every heartbeat, but I forced myself to walk toward him.
I reached out, my fingers trembling as they brushed the sleeve of his suit. "Please. Look at me."
Slowly, with a mechanical stiffness that was more frightening than a shout, Lucien turned. His grey eyes were like storm clouds reflecting a fire. The fury in them was so concentrated it felt like a physical heat. Seeing the blood dripping from his hand somehow made my chest ache.
"She’s your mother, Lucien," I said. "If you do this, if you go there in this state, there’s no coming back. I won’t be the reason you lose your family. I won’t be the wedge that destroys your bloodline."
"She destroyed it the moment she issued those codes," he rasped, stepping closer until he towered over me. His dark aura was overwhelming, a suffocating weight that made the air in the small room feel thin. "She treated you like a pawn in a game I never agreed to play. Do you expect me to sit here and let her do the same thing over again?"
"I expect you to be better than her!" I shouted, grabbing his injured hand. I didn't care about the blood staining my fingers. I didn't care about the glass. I just needed him to stay. "Look at what she’s doing to you. She’s turning you into the monster she thinks you are. If you go there tonight and tear that house down, she wins. She proves that 'love destroys' and 'legacy endures.'"
Lucien’s jaw tightened so hard I thought it might shatter. He looked down at our joined hands, my small, pale fingers covered in his blood. For a second, what looked like a molten silver in his eyes flickered.
"I am not a good man, Aria," he whispered, his voice dropping to a dangerous, low vibration. "I told you that. I am possessive, and I am vengeful. I have spent five months watching you try to leave me, and now that I finally have you back, someone tried to snatch you away. I will not let it go."
"Then don't let it go for me," I pleaded, stepping into the circle of his personal space, ignoring the way the nurses hovered at the door in terror. "Stay here. Let the doctors check you. Let the police handle Ethan and Lydia. If you go to her now, you're not protecting me, you're abandoning me to the guilt of ruining your life."
I buried my face against his chest, clutching his lapels. I could feel the tremors of restrained violence vibrating through his frame. He was a man on the edge of an abyss, and I was the only thing tethering him to the ledge.
"Please, Lucien," I sobbed into his shirt. "I just got you back. Don't go somewhere I can't follow."
The silence in the room stretched, agonizing and thick. Outside, I could hear the faint, frantic whispers of Chen and Marcus.
“At the rate at which this is going, if she fails to calm him down, I'm definitely taking a permanent break!“ Chen said
Inside the room, the tension finally snapped. Lucien let out a long, shuddering breath that sounded like a wounded animal. He didn't pull away. Instead, his uninjured hand came up to cup the back of my head, pressing me harder against his chest. His touch was so possessive it was almost painful, but I didn't care.
"You are a fool, Aria," he murmured, his voice thick with a dark, twisted kind of affection. "You’re asking me to show mercy to a woman who has none for you."
"I’m asking you to choose us over her hate," I whispered back.
Lucien remained silent for a long time, his heartbeat thundering against my ear. Finally, he looked over my head at Marcus, who was still standing by the door.
"The car," Lucien commanded in a cold voice that was no longer lethal. "Cancel the trip to the mansion."
Marcus let out a breath so loud it was practically a whistle of relief. "Copy that, Boss."
"But," Lucien added, his eyes narrowing as they fixed on the far wall. "Tell the legal team to begin the severance of all shared Blackwood assets. I want her stripped of every board seat, every trust, and every title by Monday. If she wants a war of legacy, I will give her a legacy of nothing."
He looked back down at me, his face still a mask of aristocratic beauty and lingering rage. He reached out with his bloody thumb and wiped a tear from my cheek.
"I'm staying," he said, his eyes slowly livening up. "But don't think for a second that this is over. You've stopped the fire tonight, Aria. But the world is still going to burn."
As the doctors rushed in to finally tend to his hand, I realized that while I had saved the rift between mother and son for now, I had unleashed something even more terrifying. Lucien wasn't going to the mansion, but he was bringing the war to his own terms.
I sat back on the bed as he sat in the chair beside me, his hand being bandaged while he never once broke eye contact with me. I felt like a kitten that had successfully tamed a lion, but the lion was still hungry.
Just then, my phone, the one Marcus had recovered from the van buzzed on the table as a message flashed on the screen.
H.B.: You think you’ve won because he stayed? You’ve only made him a target. See you on Monday, Aria. If you’re still alive.**
I looked at Lucien, who was watching the phone with a renewed, deathly stillness. Now, the main threat wasn't even the threat itself, it was the fact that Lucien had already seen the message over my shoulder.
"Monday," Lucien whispered, a ghost of a smile appearing on his lips that didn't reach his eyes. "I look forward to it."
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