บททั้งหมดของ His Runaway Queen: บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

*Aria's POV*"Miss Aria." Helena called from outside my room. Then she opened the door and entered."What do you want?" I asked her."Capo is hosting a gala today. You need to get ready." She said."I don't want to attend." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You have no choice in the matter." She said walking more inside the room. Helena forced me into an elegant red dress, putting make up for me, along with 2 other maids. I was overwhelmed, as I always got ready by meself, even when I was the Hale princess. There are days where I miss my parents, but when I remember how they wanted to kill my unborn baby, I hate them more. *The past: The day when Aria decided to run away.*I wasn't supposed to be awake. Ever since I found out I was pregnant, which was 2 days ago, I couldn't sleep. The house was quiet in the way only powerful; houses ever are – too quiet, too controlled, as if silence itself had been trained not to breathe without permission. The kind of quiet that presses

*Aria's POV* (Back to the present)The mansion did not prepare for a gala. It transformed. Chrystal chandeliers bloomed overhead like frozen fire. Marble floors were polished until they reflected a thousand versions of myself - none of them quite real. Men in tailored black moved like shadows with purpose; women draped in silk and jewels smiled with mouths that had learned how to lie beautifully. And at the center of it all stood Lucian.He was standing at the top of the stairs, immaculate in a black suit cut to dominance. He had no crown, no insignia. He didn't need them. Power clung to him the way gravity clings to planet. Beside him stood Lila. His fiancée. Her hand rested slightly on his arm, claiming without squeezing. She wore gold tonight - liquid and deliberate - its color echoing the bracelet that still burned in my memory. Her smile was serene, rehearsed and devasating. I felt suddenly, sharply underdressed in my own akin. "You look like you are attending you own exec

*Aria’s POV*By morning, the mansion no longer pretended to be beautiful. I had stayed with Adrian the whole night because he was scared. Lucian didn’t show up again that night.This morning felt like no other. The mansion was awake. Not the usual quiet.The sunlight was spilling across marble, servants moving softly, life resuming its rituals – but alert, coiled and watching.I dressed instantly, my hands shook as I buttoned my blouse, fingers clumsy, betraying the calm I pretended to have mastered. I kept thinking of the maid’s face – how young she’d looked, how her scream hadn’t sounded like fear so much as shock.Lucian had doubled the security. He had reshaped it to be exact.There were at least four guards outside Adrian’s room now. They stood quietly, unmoving, observing their surroundings.There were no unnecessary footsteps anymore. No idle chatter. Every movement had intention behind it, every guard positioned like a chess piece already mid-game. Cameras blinked awake in cor

*Lucian’s POV*Adrian wouldn’t stop shaking.He sat on the edge of the bed with his small hands clenched in the blanket, eyes too big for his face, breathing shallow like the air itself had betrayed him. The room smelled like lavender and fear. One of the guards had cleaned the blood from the corridor, but no amount of polish erased what a child saw and felt.I knelt in front of him.The movement pulled at the wound in my hand – freshly stitched, throbbing – but pain was background noise. It always was. This was worse.This was unfamiliar.“I want mama.” He whispered.The words landed harder than any blade or bullet could.I swallowed and forced my voice into something steady. Something human. “She’s… away for a moment.”His lower lip trembled. “She didn’t say goodbye.”No. she didn’t.Because they took her like thieves in the dark.I reached out before I could stop myself. My injured hand refused to close properly, fingers stiff and useless, so I used the other – awkward, uncertain –

*Lucians POV*Life was too quiet without her.It was even harder when I was alone with Adrian. The son I never bonded with. I tried hard to be with him so he wouldn’t feel alone.I don’t know how she managed alone.And Adrian was very attached to her.That’s the first thing I noticed once Adrian finally falls asleep again—curled on his side, one small fist knotted in the sheets like he was holding on to something invisible. I sit at the edge of the bed longer than necessary, my palm hovering just above his back, unsure whether touch will comfort him or remind him of what’s missing.“You’re safe,” I told him anyway.The lie tasted bitter.Because Aria wasn’t here.And safety has always been a fragile thing in my world.I stood and left the room before the stillness broke me. The door closed softly behind me, but the sound echoed too loud in my chest. I didn’t go back to my office. I didn’t go anywhere that feels like power.Instead, I stopped in the hallway.This was the exact place wh