All Chapters of Blood Vengeance; a mafia romance story: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Zolandria's POVI wake up touching my jaw, where his were last night. I lie there for a moment in the dark and feel it, and then I get up because lying there reminiscing about that touch is foolish. It’s five forty-three am.I make coffee and sip it standing by the window, looking down on a street where a cat is moving idly. Then I think about how rough Lucien’s voice had sounded when he said goodnight, with the look of want in his eyes.But my mind drifts to the surveillance footage and pictures that were spread out in front of me, and how Lucien had been at it for more than ten years, building something to destroy my family. I press my forehead against the cold glass of the window, letting both thoughts settle within my core.I should only focus on his cruelty towards my family, but somehow, I can’t. And that’s a problem.I order room service for breakfast and eat while looking at the city coming to life. Then, at eight fifteen, there’s a knock on my door. I open it, and Lucien stan

Zolandria's POVKatherine doesn't say anything for a long moment after. She just looks at me, and I stare right back at her, the clock ticking so loud in the silence. "There's more," she says finally. "And I think you need to hear it before anything else makes sense."I nod because I don't trust my voice enough to use it.She refills her water glass and just holds it, trying to find something to do with her hands that are trembling slightly. "You and Lucien knew each other," she says, and my stomach drops. "Before any of this. Before I disappeared, before his family—" She stops, then looks at him. "Before everything."Lucien goes very still."What?" he says flatly, like he didn’t plan to speak at all.Katherine looks at him with a much gentler expression, which is different from whatever I’ve seen in this short period that I’ve known her. "Our families were close once, before things turned," she says. "Edgard and your father did business together for years, before the betrayal, bef

Zolandria's POVI wake up with a lot on my mind and a hollow feeling in my chest. I'm Ava.And my mother is alive.And Lucien? We were close friends in childhood until something happened that made him bitter. But how deeply was I brainwashed that I didn’t remember any part of him in my childhood? I get up, dragging my feet to the shower. I stand under it till the water goes cold against my skin. Then I wrap myself in a towel and stand at the window, watching the beautiful morning in Vienna, and I feel something settle in my chest, like acceptance and gratitude. For months, I've been trying to find answers to a whole lot of puzzles, and now I know a lot. It might not fix anything, but at least I know. ***Lucien's POVBy six, I’m already dressed.Because I never took my coat off yesterday, and I had barely slept a wink. I drag my feet to the shower, take my bath, and look at myself in the bathroom mirror for a long time.The man looking back at me looks nothing like the man who h

Zolandria's POVI wake up on Katherine's couch with a crick in my neck and my body sore. I don’t remember when I actually slept off; then it all comes rushing back: the storm, the room and Lucien asking me to get out. I press the heel of my hand against my sternum and breathe.The apartment is quiet. Grey morning light streaks through the gap in the curtains; the storm has passed, leaving the city clean and wet outside the window. The smell of something being cooked in the kitchen fills the living room, making me sit up.I run my hands through my hair and look at the room on my way to the kitchen. The door is still closed. Katherine is at the stove, making coffee and something with eggs, looking too domestic for the kind of life she’s lived. She looks up when she hears me and says nothing about me sleeping on the couch. And I’m glad because how am I to explain what happened? She just pours a second cup and sets it on the counter beside her and goes back to the eggs.I sit on the st

Zolandria's POVThree days later, and everything is different now. More men at the checkpoint, security posts, lobby, and the executive floor with different faces on rotation that I haven't seen before.The world knows, or enough of it does, but why is that a big deal? They already know I'm the daughter of Azaeres, so what makes this different then?I sit at my desk, do my job, and pretend the elevated protocol doesn't feel like the walls are closing in on me.Lucien is in back-to-back meetings all morning. I manage his schedule, screen his calls, draft correspondence, and take minutes of the meetings I am allowed to join. At eleven, Kane almost passes my desk, but he slows slightly as he reaches me and sets a coffee on the corner of my desk without comment.I look at it, and look at him, then, he's already moving away."Kane," I say. He stops. Turns."Thank you," I say. "For managing everything while we were away."He looks at me for a moment, and a warm expression creeps up on his f