Chapter 6
Selene’s POV
Lucien felt like he’d been punched in the gut reading it. So I had known all along about his broken promises. Back then, he’d actually been annoyed that my request was so simple, and now he couldn’t even deliver on something that basic.
He’d fucking destroyed everything. In the end, he’d pushed me so far that I never wanted to see him again for the rest of my life.
But memories of our past kept flooding back–how could I really let go? How could I force myself to wish him and Lorelei a lifetime of happiness? But that was the only way to guarantee Lucien would never come looking for me.
“Selene, you brilliant girl. Even your goodbye is designed to keep me the hell away,” Lucien whispered, his voice cracking.
He remembered that year when the company shareholders had tried to destroy him. During a corporate retreat in the mountains, someone had pushed him off a cliff.
He’d never expected to land in a flower garden.
It was part of a botanical preserve, carefully maintained by staff.
And I was that staff member–a landscape designer working on the preserve. While tending to the gardens, I’d found Lucien bleeding out. I was terrified but still found the courage to save his life.
When Lucien woke up, he saw my face–so hauntingly similar to Lorelei’s features. Unable to resist the obsession burning in his chest, he’d hired me at an insane salary to work as a landscape designer at the Castellan estate.
He’d approached me with the worst intentions, and I was just some innocent kid who knew nothing about rich bastards like him. The tiniest bit of attention from him made me fall completely.
50 Lucien turned me from a landscape designer into his personal plaything, making me sign contracts year after year. He promised he’d give me everything I could want, as long as I belonged to
him.
Lucien had always known he was just using me as Lorelei’s stand–in. Now that the real thing was
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When Flowers Turn to Fire:Watch Me Bloom Watch Him Burn
Chapter 6
back, my purpose was over.
But Lucien couldn’t fucking handle it. When I actually left, he felt like his chest had been ripped open and everything inside torn out.
He thought about how I’d been such a sweet, trusting girl who’d loved him with everything she had–how could he have been such a monster? How could he have let them destroy me like that?
The guilt was eating him alive when his phone rang. Lorelei calling.
After staring at the screen for way too long, Lucien finally answered. Lorelei’s baby voice came through: “Lucien, where are you? Why aren’t you back yet? I miss you so much.”
He used to think that voice was cute, but now it just grated on his nerves.
Because it was Lorelei’s constant manipulation that had pushed him to hurt me over and over again.
Thinking of this, Lucien’s tone went ice–cold: “I’m dealing with something. Stay at the hospital.”
“But I don’t want to! I need you here with me right now,” Lorelei kept whining.
“Lorelei, can you stop acting like a spoiled brat for five minutes?” Lucien snapped, completely fed up
He’d never spoken to Lorelei like that before, which shocked her into silence. Then she said in that fake hurt voice: “Okay, okay, I’ll be good, but you have to send Selene to take care of me. I only want her.”
“She’s not available, and that’s not her fucking job anymore. The nurses I hired are more than qualified,” Lucien said harshly.
Lorelei’s voice immediately turned shrill: “Lucien! Why are you defending that whore? Do you still have feelings for her? I knew something was going on between you two!”
“That pathetic slut must be manipulating you behind my back! I’m coming home right now to destroy that bitch once and for all!”
“Jesus Christ, you’re insane!” Lucien was disgusted by Lorelei’s psychotic breakdown and hung up immediately.
Lucien shoved all thoughts of Lorelei aside, clutching the note I’d left like it was the most precious thing in the world as he walked into my room.
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When Flowers Turn to Fire:Watch Me Bloom Watch Him Burn
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Chapter 6
He was desperately searching for any trace of my existence in this house.
But in this cramped little space, I’d completely erased myself.
བ
Only then did Lucien realize this was just a converted storage closet.
Before, he’d let me sleep in his king–size bed, but after Lorelei came back, she’d manipulated him into banishing me to this fucking storage room.
The realization hit him like a sledgehammer. All this crushing remorse crashed down on him at once, and he could feel tears burning behind his eyes.
“God, Selene, I’m so sorry. I never should have dragged you into my fucked–up life. I destroyed you… I let them break you into pieces.”
He collapsed to the floor, his voice breaking completely.
Harold watched from the hallway as this once–powerful CEO sobbed like a broken man, but he felt nothing but contempt.
Because he would never forget the shattered, half–dead state I’d been in when I came home that last time.
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