Chapter 13
Lucas stood in Aria’s empty apartment, dust motes dancing in the stale air.
Hospitals, train stations, every city she might have gone to–all searches had turned up nothing.
Until today, when he’d impulsively come here, to what used to be her home.
The door opened to gray dust swirling in sunlight like frozen time.
The space was almost empty, devoid of personal touches except for a metal box on the desk.
His hands trembled as he lifted the lid.
Inside was a photograph.
The man in the picture looked exactly like Lucas but smiled with infinite tenderness, arms wrapped protectively
around Aria’s shoulders.
Adrian.
His brother.
Adrian Sinclair, who’d died in a car crash five years ago.
Lucas’s breathing stopped, his chest feeling crushed by an invisible weight.
He flipped the photo over with shaking hands. A line of faded writing on the back:
Aria, live.*
The handwriting was yellowed but clear.
His trembling fingers found a diary buried beneath the photo.
On the first page, Aria’s careful script:
“Adrian, I promise to take care of him for five years.
“After five years, I’ll come to you.”
The diary chronicled every day of those five years.
Every bullet she’d taken for him, every poison she’d drunk, every wound she’d suffered….
None of it had ever been for him. She’d never loved him at all.
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Chapter 13
Five years of devotion–all for Adrian.
Lucas’s knees hit the floor hard as a broken sound escaped his throat.
In Manhattan’s most exclusive private club, crystal chandeliers cast cold light across leather and mahogany.
Lucas tilted his head back, draining another glass of whiskey. The alcohol burned through his chest but couldn’t
douse the chaos in his mind.
Around the private room, his friends exchanged worried glances, none daring to speak first.
Finally Jake couldn’t stand it anymore, snatching the glass from Lucas’s hand. “Enough! You’ve drunk more in the past few days than in the last five years!”
Lucas laughed bitterly, reaching for the bottle. “Give it back.”
“No!” Jake smashed the bottle against the floor, amber liquid spreading across marble. “Look at yourself! All this
over some woman…”
‘You don’t understand shit!” Lucas shot to his feet, bloodshot eyes wild. “She’s not ‘some woman‘! She’s Aria!”
The room fell dead silent.
From a corner came a mumbled: “Now you know regret…”
Lucas’s pupils contracted, his stare boring into the speaker. “What did you say?”
oung man stood up, emboldened by alcohol: “I said you’re blind! When Aria was bleeding for you, you never
oked at her! Now that she’s gone, you want to die for her?!”
ANG-
Lucas’s fist connected with the man’s jaw, sending him crashing into the coffee table in an explosion of glass.
“Lucas!” Jake wrestled him back. “You’ve lost your mind!”
The bloodied man wiped his mouth, sneering: “Hit me all you want! You’re still pathetic! You thought Madison was so perfect, but I personally saw her-”
“Saw what?” Lucas’s voice turned deadly cold.
“Last year’s charity gala, she deliberately spilled wine on the Chen heiress’s dress, then played innocent. And last month, she threatened that model you were linked with, slashed her face and forced her out of the industry!” The man spat blood. “You didn’t know any of that, did you? Because around you, she’s always the sweet, gentle victim!”
Lucas’s fingers unconsciously tightened, knuckles white.
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Chapter 13
Something was wrong.
The Madison he knew wasn’t like that.
But people in their circle wouldn’t lie about something so specific.
Something was definitely wrong…
Three days later, in his office atop Sinclair Tower, Lucas stared at dash cam footage on his computer screen–purchased from the driver’s ex–wife.
In the grainy video, Madison stood in a parking garage shadow, handing a thick envelope to the driver.
“Make sure it looks like an accident when you hit them,” her voice was soft as silk, like discussing the weather. “Especially the man in the passenger seat. He has to die.”
The driver hesitated: “But Mr. Adrian, he…”
Madison smiled, stroking the man’s trembling hand: “I’ll cover your daughter’s entire education abroad.”
The video cut to black.
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