All Chapters of Lucky in Love: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

“I’m taking you somewhere.”Sebastian’s voice came from the dining-room door the next morning, pulling Karen out of her dark thoughts.She had spent the night awake, staring at the ceiling, thinking about Peter, about annulment, about running away to Chicago, New York, or returning to the orphanage. Anywhere but this gilded cage.“Where are we going?” Karen asked, not really caring. She didn’t have the energy to argue.“It’s a surprise,” Sebastian replied, and there was something different in his voice. Something Karen couldn’t quite put her finger on.The butler appeared, impeccable as always. “What would you like for breakfast, Mr. Sterling?”“I’m not hungry, maybe later,” he said, and waited while she grabbed her purse and followed them to the car.After a few minutes of silent driving, the car stopped in front of a store with immaculate glass windows and gold lettering.CartierKaren looked at the building, then at Sebastian, confusion clear on her face.“What are we doing here?”

The days passed too quickly until the long-awaited and dreaded date arrived: the night of the Sterling dinner.Sebastian was in the living room, adjusting his suit for the third time in front of the mirror. Everything had to be perfect. Every detail mattered tonight.Hair precisely combed. Tie adjusted. Gold cufflinks—a gift from his grandfather, the only person in the Sterling family who had ever been genuinely kind to him.His gray eyes stared back at him in the reflection, and for a moment Sebastian saw the twelve-year-old boy leaving the orphanage. Scared. Hopeful. Foolish enough to think he would be accepted.He blinked, and the image vanished.Sebastian checked his watch. Karen was late.She had been locked in her room all afternoon, getting ready. Or perhaps just postponing the inevitable.Sebastian called out, and the butler appeared immediately. “Go see if Mrs. Sterling needs any help.”“Yes, sir.”The butler climbed the stairs with his usual calm, knocking softly on Karen’s

Karen didn’t know what was going on around her.She saw Sebastian tense; she saw the Russian man waving; she saw Marcus’s eyes shining with something that looked like victory. But she didn’t understand why. She looked at everything with curiosity and innocence; she was a spectator in a game whose rules she didn’t know.But her heart almost stopped when she saw Peter arrive with a woman. Lindsay, his girlfriend.Karen knew Lindsay existed. She had heard about her. She knew she was the reason Peter had planned to steal her kidney, but seeing the face of her rival, the woman Peter loved, and still having to smile...It was more painful than she had imagined.Lindsay was beautiful. Even sick, even pale and too thin, there was a delicacy about her that made Karen feel ordinary in comparison. Blonde hair falling in soft waves. Big blue eyes. A light pink dress that hid, but not completely, how fragile she was.And the way Peter held her; with such care, such devotion that it made something

When the dance ended, the music stopped, Karen and Sebastian remained there for a second longer than they should have.Too close. Too aware of each other.It was Karen who pulled away first, breaking contact. Her fingers slid through his, her hand on his bare back slowly, reluctantly withdrawing.An awkward silence fell between them.Karen looked at the other guests, anywhere but Sebastian. She feigned interest in the floral arrangement. In the orchestra. In the way Dorothy laughed too loudly at some comment from another guest.Anything to avoid acknowledging what had just happened. What she had felt.“Viktor Kozlov,” Marcus’s voice cut through their discomfort. He was approaching, bringing the tall Russian with him. “I want you to meet my son.”The word son sounded strange. As if Marcus were trying out the term, seeing if it still fit after so many years of rejection.Sebastian straightened his shoulders, the mask returning instantly. “Mr. Kozlov,” he said, extending his hand.Viktor

Sebastian left his father’s office boiling with rage. He searched for his wife among the guests, scouring every group, every corner of the hall, but couldn’t find her. Karen had vanished into thin air.He dialed her number. Once. Twice. Three times. Only the silence of the unanswered call. The stifling atmosphere of the dinner seemed to stick to his skin like a second layer, heavy and threatening.“Have you seen my wife?” he asked his stepmother, trying to control his tone of voice.“Oh, she was around, drinking...” she replied indifferently.“Where?” The word came out harshly and without room for beating around the bush.“Sebastian, dear, I really don’t know,” his stepmother shrugged.He held her arm harder than he had planned.“Don’t make a scene. People are watching,” his father’s voice came from behind him, firm and controlling.“I don’t care about people,” Sebastian retorted, without looking away.“But I care. And this house is still mine.” His father approached, authoritatively.