Chapter 63 — Shadows That Follow

The next morning came too quickly.

I woke with the faint feeling of being watched—not in a threatening way—but from the sharp awareness that my past had finally been dragged into daylight. My father’s confession clung to me like dew, cold but cleansing, a reminder of everything I thought I knew… and everything I had gotten so painfully wrong.

Lucian wasn’t in bed.

That alone was enough to make my stomach tighten. He was always there when I woke—solid, warm, reassuring. When he wasn’t, it usually meant something was weighing on him.

I slipped out of bed and padded down the hallway, the soft chatter of the girls in the kitchen guiding me. Arian’s squeaky laughter echoed first, followed by Aria’s serious tone—a tiny general already in charge.

“Daddy, no, the eggs need more salt,” Arianna instructed like she was Gordon Ramsay in a six-year-old body.

Lucian chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”

I leaned against the doorway, watching them. A strange, tender ache blossomed in my chest. My life had become something I once thought impossible: soft. Safe. Whole.

But the softness now trembled against the weight of what I had learned yesterday.

Lucian sensed me before he saw me. His head snapped up, eyes locking with mine. Something flickered there—worry, maybe. Or anger. Or something heavier, something he was trying to hide behind a carefully blank expression.

“Good morning,” he said gently.

The girls ran to me, nearly knocking me off balance as they wrapped their arms around my waist.

“Mommy!”

“Mom! Look, Daddy made pancakes!”

“I stirred the batter all by myself!”

Their joy was a balm I didn’t know I needed. I kissed the tops of their heads, one by one.

“That’s wonderful, my loves.”

But the second Lucian stepped closer, I felt the tension radiating from him—tight, controlled, coiled like a storm waiting for permission to break.

“You okay?” I whispered.

His jaw flexed. “We need to talk. Later.”

I swallowed. “Bad?”

He hesitated. Then nodded once.

My heart dropped.

Later, after breakfast

The girls begged my father to come back today, to read them the story he’d promised last night. So I called him.

He answered on the first ring.

“Sophie?”

“Dad… can you come over? The girls want to see you.”

A pause. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

The eagerness in his voice made my chest ache—with tenderness, and with a creeping dread I couldn’t explain.

Lucian watched me hang up the phone, arms crossed over his chest. His protective posture wasn’t unusual—but today, something in it felt harsher. Sharper.

“Lucian,” I said quietly. “You’re scaring me.”

He didn’t answer.

Not right away.

Instead, he walked to the front window and pulled the curtain aside, scanning the street as though expecting something—or someone.

My pulse spiked.

“What are you looking for?” I demanded.

He turned to me finally, eyes dark and troubled. “I spoke to someone this morning.”

“Who?”

“Your father.”

I froze.

“He called me at sunrise,” Lucian went on. “Said he needed to tell me something before he came here. Something he thought might… affect the family.”

My throat went dry. “Lucian—what did he say?”

Lucian’s voice dropped.

“He thinks the man who threatened you—the one from your childhood—might be back.”

The world tilted

For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

Not because I didn’t believe it, but because the fear arrived so fast, so violently, that it knocked the air right out of me.

“He told you that?” I whispered.

“He didn’t want to tell you until he was sure,” Lucian said quietly. “But I don’t keep things from you, Sophie. And especially not this.”

A cold trembling started in my legs.

“But why now?” I rasped. “Why would that man come back after so many years?”

Lucian came closer, his hands gripping my shoulders gently.

“Because your father didn’t leave town this time,” he said. “And that man… doesn’t like loose ends.”

My pulse thundered in my ears.

“But I don’t even remember the man’s face,” I said, shaking. “I barely remember anything at all.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Lucian said. “The man remembers you.”

A chill rippled down my spine.

A knock on the door

My heart stopped.

Lucian immediately pushed me gently behind him, posture shifting into something hard, dangerous. He motioned for the girls to stay quiet. They sensed the fear instantly and huddled near the stairs.

Another knock.

“Sophie?”

My father’s voice.

Lucian exhaled shakily and unlocked the door but didn’t open it fully—only enough to check through the crack.

When he finally let my father in, I realized instantly that something was wrong.

Terribly, horribly wrong.

My father looked pale. Sweaty. Agitated. His eyes darted around the house like he expected someone to burst in behind him.

“Dad,” I said, stepping toward him, “what’s going on?”

He closed the door behind himself quickly. Too quickly.

“Lock it,” he said sharply. “All of them. Every lock. Every window.”

The urgency in his voice froze me.

Lucian didn’t hesitate. He started locking the house down.

My father came to me, taking my hands. His were shaking.

“Sophie,” he whispered, “I think he found me.”

My breath caught. “Who?”

“The man from before,” he said. “The one who threatened you when you were a child. He’s here. In town.”

My world shattered

The girls sensed the panic and clung to each other silently. Lucian returned to my side, face carved from stone.

“How do you know he’s here?” Lucian asked.

My father wiped a trembling hand across his face.

“Because I saw him. Watching the house. Watching me. Same face. Same scar. Same eyes.”

I felt the blood drain from my body.

“Dad…” My voice cracked. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

He laughed—hollow, terrified. “Because he has half the town in his pocket. He always has. You can’t fight a man with that much power in the shadows.”

Lucian stepped closer. “Then we do it differently.”

My father looked up sharply at him.

“We protect the girls,” Lucian said, voice low and lethal. “And Sophie. Everything else comes second.”

My father swallowed hard. “That’s exactly why I stayed away all those years.”

I felt tears burn my eyes.

“Dad—”

“I didn’t care what happened to me,” he said softly. “But I would rather die than let that man come near you. That’s why I ran. That’s why I stayed gone. And that’s why you can’t hate me for it.”

I covered my face, trying to breathe.

Lucian slipped his arm around me, pulling me close. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered.

But in that moment, guilt tore through me like fire.

Because my father had lost decades with me—

because some monster had marked me as a child.

A plan takes shape

Lucian moved into action, his voice calm, controlled, frighteningly efficient.

“First,” he said, “no one leaves the house today.”

“Agreed,” my father said.

“Second,” Lucian continued, “I’m calling in help.”

My father’s eyes widened. “Help? You don’t understand—this man doesn’t just disappear. He’s tied to—”

“To the wrong people,” Lucian finished. “I know.”

My father blinked. “How do you know?”

Lucian’s jaw clenched.

“Because I investigated your past the moment you reappeared years ago,” Lucian admitted. “I needed to know the threat. I needed to know who I was protecting my family from.”

My breath caught.

He had investigated my father?

All those years ago?

My father stared at Lucian with something like awe. “And you still let me near her?”

Lucian nodded. “Because nothing I found ever suggested you were the danger. Only that you were running from it.”

My father swallowed hard. “I… I didn’t know you knew.”

Lucian didn’t respond.

Instead, he turned to me, taking my shaking hands in his.

“We’re going to get through this,” he said quietly.

“Lucian…” I whispered. “If this man is really back—if he remembers me—then the girls—”

Lucian cupped my face firmly. “The girls are safe. I won’t let anything happen to them.”

Something in his eyes—dark, determined—calmed me. Barely. But enough to breathe.

The truth behind the fear

Once the girls were upstairs with cartoons playing loudly to keep them distracted, Lucian, my father, and I sat at the kitchen table.

My father exhaled shakily.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you yesterday.”

I felt ice crawl down my spine.

He looked at me with sorrow so raw it cracked his voice.

“You didn’t just witness something that night, Sophie.”

“You stopped something.”

My stomach dropped.

“What… what do you mean?”

“You screamed,” he whispered. “And that scream saved a life. But it also put a target on yours.”

I stared at him, breathless.

Lucian leaned forward. “Who’s life did she save?”

My father hesitated, then said the name like it burned to speak it.

“A judge’s daughter.”

Lucian inhaled sharply.

My father continued, voice trembling.

“The man who threatened Sophie… is the same man who attacked the judge’s daughter. Sophie stumbled onto it by accident. Her scream made him run. But he saw her face.”

My entire world went white.

“I don’t… remember…” My words came out broken.

“You blocked it out,” my father whispered. “You were nine. Traumatized. Your mind shut it away.”

Lucian’s hand tightened on mine.

“And that man,” my father continued, “has been hunting loose ends ever since.”

The storm outside begins to roar

A shadow moved outside the window.

All three of us froze.

Lucian stood slowly, silently, like a predator recognizing another.

My father’s breath hitched.

“Sophie,” Lucian said quietly, without looking away from the window, “take the girls. Go upstairs. Lock the door. Do not come out unless I call for you.”

My heart slammed against my ribs.

“Lucian—”

He turned to me, eyes burning.

“I said go.”

I grabbed my father’s hand.

“Come with me.”

He shook his head.

“I’m not hiding,” he said. “Not anymore. This time, I stay. This time… I fight.”

Lucian nodded once, a silent agreement.

“Sophie,” Lucian said again, voice low and firm, “take the girls. Now.”

I hesitated only a second before running up the stairs, every instinct screaming, every muscle shaking.

But as I reached the landing, I heard something that made my blood run cold:

A knock on the door.

Slow.

Deliberate.

Confident.

And a voice—deep, calm, unmistakably dangerous—rang through the house.

“Hello, Sophie. It’s been a long time.”