Chapter 15 You Can Check If You Want

The parking lot lay in a heavy silence.

Under the dim glow of the parking lights, he shrugged off his suit jacket and slowly unbuttoned his white shirt, revealing a scar near his heart.

"Xavier Luxury Group’s a mess, and it's no easy prize."

"But that doesn’t matter anymore. After today, Nicole and the last of those who propped her up are going down."

"The whole Xavier Luxury Group, including myself, is yours."

He drew closer, staring into my eyes from just inches away.

Those eyes, once perpetually unfocused and blurred, now shone as if they contained all the stars in the universe.

I swallowed hard and whispered, "But you and Nicole..."

"I never kissed her. Never once."
His voice gained a slight edge as he said, "I'm clean, you can check for yourself if you want."
That was all it took. The last thread of my sanity snapped.

Memories rushed back as I lunged forward and yanked open his collar.

All those fervent moments we'd shared flooded my mind.

His lows had mirrored the most tumultuous and bewildering two years of my life, my emotions became a wild torrent with nowhere to flow, culminating in our desperate entanglements.

There on the reclined car seat, I clutched the necktie still knotted around Lucas's bare neck, pulling just like I had after so many heated arguments that had ended in pleasure.

Tightening the fabric, slow, methodical.

And in that slight breathlessness, Lucas squinted and let out a satisfied sigh, "I've missed you so much."

He hugged me, buried his face in the crook of my neck, his scorching palms grazing up and down my waist.

"They're such fools - thinking that a docile, ornamental woman could ever be you. No one could ever capture your essence."

His voice, usually cold and sharp, was now thick with desire.

...

When the storm had passed, it was already deep into the night.

Lucas drove us to a villa. His tie hung loosely; red marks still visible on his neck.

I took out my phone and saw the top news trending:

#NicoleTakenInForQuestioning

"Last month, my half-brother got in touch with her, threatened her with a secret of hers to steal tender documents and other confidential files from me," Lucas murmured after a moment of silence.

"I know," I said quietly.

"You know..." Lucas turned sharply, "Did you set this up, Madeline?"

I nodded, pinching the palm of my hand, forcing myself to hold his gaze.

"I came back to destroy the Vanderbilt Group, to ruin Nicole, to overturn the libel case against my mother from twenty years ago. I would pay any price for that outcome."

I worked in journalism—this was the crucial reason.

Twenty years ago, coveting my father, the young heiress to the Vanderbilt empire set a trap for my mother, accusing her of being a prostitute.

And Nicole, desiring the life of luxury, sided with strangers over family.

She pushed her own mother into the abyss.

My mother was taken away by the police, and she lost her job.

After she returned home, the neighbors whispered behind her back, sympathizing with my father.

Following the divorce, she took me back to our small town, a shadow of her former self. She died of illness just past fifty, never having found happiness again.

And on the day of her passing, the TV in the hospital was reporting on the Vanderbilt Group.

They were the picture-perfect family, a shining example even among the elite.

"It's actually laughable... When my mom passed away, she weighed less than a hundred pounds and her hands were riddled with bruising needle marks. She could have lived to a ripe old age. And the Vanderbilt Group? Their business is far from clean. How dare they parade themselves as paragons after ruining so many lives?"

I covered my eyes, struggling to hold back a surge of tears.

"Lucas, I took advantage of you because I knew you wouldn't let anyone who betrayed you off the hook. That's why I had her deliberately provoke you."

"You might feel hurt by this and resent me, but I had to send her to hell with my own hands."

I quashed all my emotions, striving to regard him with a calm and undisturbed gaze.

"...But Madeline, your hands are shaking."

Lucas caught my hands, tucked behind me, and carefully lifted them to his lips, planting a kiss.

"Don't be scared. The fact that you used me... I’m delighted by it. It means you have a place for me in your heart."

"Of course, I'll stand by you."

"Like I said, Xavier Luxury Group, myself included, is all yours."