What Happened Between You?

“Luciano?!!”

“Noora?!!”

Lucas’s voice broke through like a crack in glass. Shaken. Rattled. Too soft for anger, too hollow for comfort.

Then came Cindy’s voice, sweet and sharp all at once.

“Oh, my goodness. What was happening?” she gasped, eyes wide with exaggerated shock. “What’s this? I hope it’s some misunderstanding and not what I think it is. Is it?”

Silence.

Luciano didn’t speak.

Didn’t flinch.

Didn’t move.

His fury had morphed into something colder… emptier. His entire being radiated one thing; he’d been interrupted… Again!

And if there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was that. Being interrupted when he hadn’t finished.

Noora’s stomach twisted.

Her throat closed.

Lucas was staring at her.

And not the way he usually did. Not with soft eyes. Not with that warm, boyish tenderness that made her feel safe.

No. His eyes now were different.

Accusing. Betrayed. Hurt.

Something that he didn’t deserve to look at her with yet still did.

Like she’d broken something sacred between them and the worst part was, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

She forced herself to look away.

But it was too late. The damage had been done the moment his gaze collided with hers.

The moment her body instinctively shrank back, as if she was already trying to hide Luciano’s residual touch still burning on her skin. Of him claiming her… ruining her.

And that single flicker of guilt, of vulnerability, was all Lucas needed to see.

Not missing a beat of their eyes locked with each other, Luciano stepped forward dangerously.

Just one step.

But it was enough to shift the rage as he moved into their line of sight, subtly but deliberately blocking her from Lucas.

And when his eyes finally met his brother’s, something unspoken passed between them. Something unsaid and yet deafening.

Two storms crashing.

Rage flickered behind Lucas’s usual calm.

No more smiles.

No more softness.

Noora had never seen Lucas like this.

Not ever.

His fury was silent, but it was there.

Raw. Untamed. Brewing behind his irises like a warning. Like lightning about to kiss water.

And she realized; if anything explodes here… if a single word slips out wrong… everything will collapse.

Richardson family.

Richardson Corp.

Their reputations.

Her entire place here.

Her entire existence.

Luciano’s shoulders rolled back, his jaw tightening. The muscle there flexed like a loaded trigger.

He was about to speak.

To claim something. To shoot something.

Maybe her. Maybe the moment.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Before he could open his mouth, Noora lurched forward, grabbing a fistful of his shirt. Her voice cracked like wailing cry against the thick silence.

“Thank God the elevator opened!”

Tears spilled again from her eyes; new ones, sharper this time. It was born not from fear but from urgency… desperation.

“I was so scared,” she sobbed, clutching her head. “I didn’t know what was happening… I couldn’t breathe...”

She turned slightly, enough to catch Lucas’s stunned face. The look in his eyes. The confusion. The hurt. The dawning disbelief.

She needed to kill that look.

“Luciano—he—he held me up,” she rushed out, eyes wide. “If he wasn’t there, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me.”

Luciano went still.

Everyone else watched her unravel.

“What happened?” Lucas asked, voice cautious, almost too careful now. “What exactly was happening in there?”

“The elevator malfunctioned,” Noora said, without hesitation. “We got stuck. It kept going up and down, nonstop.”

She wiped her tears, sniffing as if trying to stabilize herself. “I felt nauseous, dizzy. Couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to pass out.”

She shook her head, gaze flicking up to him. Her eyes shimmered; not with lies, but with the weight of them.

“It was Luciano who helped me,” she whispered. “This time… he really helped me.”

She prayed… begged with her eyes… Lucas would believe her. Even if deep down, he knew better.

Even if this moment reeked of something else entirely.

Lucas didn’t speak immediately. His brows furrowed, eyes scanning her face, trying to decipher the truth between her trembling lashes.

“Oh my!” Cindy gasped again, jumping in with an otherworldly saccharine shock. “A malfunction? In the exclusive elevator of Richardson Corp.? Isn’t it maintained every day?”

Her voice tightened subtly on the last word, like she wanted someone specific to take the blame.

“How come—?”

Before Lucas could speak again, Noora took a step forward and pain shot up her leg like fire. Her ankle buckled beneath her and she stumbled.

“Woah—Noora!”

Lucas caught her instantly, his arms wrapping around her shoulder, leaning her down to floor before she could fall.

“Careful!” he shouted, panic flaring in his voice. “What happened? Your foot… it’s swollen!”

“I twisted it,” she murmured. “When I nearly passed out. I—I panicked and fell. Luciano helped me up…”

His arms didn’t loosen. His expression shifted fast, from fury to pure concern.

“No,” Lucas said firmly. “We need to treat this now. Your ankle, it’s really bad.”

He was about to lift her when—

“Oh, my God, yes!” Cindy cut in, her voice almost shrill, hands fluttering dramatically. “We have to get her to a doctor. Right now.”

She turned to Lucas with a sickly-sweet smile.

“But babe, don’t you and Luciano have that meeting with the international client that father told you about to rush in? It’s super important, right?”

Her tone was sugary. Her teeth were clenched behind the smile.

“I’ll take YOUR SISTER!” She said, each word pronounced loud as if to punch in the reminder of what they were. “Don’t worry. You go with your BROTHER.”

Before Lucas could object, Cindy was already at Noora’s side, kneeling with a gentle hand on her arm yet her grip was tight. Punishing. As if trying to punish her for what she dared to do.

Noora flinched slightly, pain stabbing her foot as Cindy helped her up.

Lucas hesitated, caught between his will and obligation like always. And in the end, his obligation always won.

“Call me immediately if something happens,” he said, his voice softer now, laced with concern and resignation.

Cindy looked back at him, giving him the same sweet smile.

But the moment she turned around, it slipped. The corners of her mouth curled downward, feral, poisonous as if she had just gotten what she wanted. As if Noora was nothing more than a piece on her board.

Noora didn’t look back.

Couldn’t.

She knew two things: her foot throbbed in agony… and she was walking into a room with someone who wanted her gone.

Luciano stood frozen, his presence still crackling with unspent rage. His eyes didn’t follow Noora. They didn’t flick toward Lucas either.

For a moment, he looked at nothing; his jaw locked, fists clenched, the muscle in his neck twitching like he was still tasting something unfinished.

The moment the elevator doors closed behind Cindy and Noora, a suffocating silence spilled into the hallway.

No footsteps.

No words.

Lucas didn’t look at his brother right away.

But when he finally did, it was with a gaze stripped of warmth, stripped of confusion, stripped of everything except one thing.

Certainty.

And when he spoke, his voice was low. Calm. But it had that edge.

The kind of edge that came before a blade was drawn.

“Was that really what happened, Luciano?”