A Scandal By Any Other Name

Lucas stopped touching the pink ribbon. He turned and faced her fully. The fake, mocking smile vanished from his face, replaced by a look of cold, calculating intelligence.

"Because I do not trust you," Lucas replied bluntly. "I have known you for twenty years, Delaney. You are quiet, but you are not stupid. You are entirely too willing to marry a monster like Lord Hawksley. You might be planning something to escape, and I will absolutely not let you ruin my plans."

He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Lord Hawksley has given his butler the remaining payment for your delivery," Lucas explained, his voice filled with pure, selfish greed. "It is a massive amount of gold. A true fortune. And since my father will not be here to take it, I will take it on his behalf."

Delaney frowned slightly. She looked at him with genuine, deep confusion. She knew Lucas was a psychopath, but the sheer coldness of his logic was staggering.

"But he is your father," Delaney replied softly, her voice carrying a trace of genuine shock. "He has just been arrested for high treason. He might hang. How could you think like that about him? How can you only think of the gold?"

Lucas let out a loud, harsh laugh. It was a completely joyless sound that echoed loudly against the marble walls of the grand foyer.

"The same way you are thinking about him, Delaney," Lucas replied, pointing a finger directly at her chest. "Do not act so holy and innocent. He is already dead to you. You are probably the one who sent the guards."

He lowered his hand, his face turning incredibly dark and bitter.

"He became completely dead to me the very moment he laid his hands on my mother," Lucas stated coldly. "My mother wrote to me that he slapped her face so hard she bled. He hit her for you. He humiliated her in front of the servants for you."

Lucas stepped closer. He was now only an arm’s length away. Delaney could smell the sharp scent of his expensive cologne.

"I will take the carriage to London tomorrow," Lucas said, laying out his cruel, selfish plan with perfect clarity. "I will hand you over to Lord Hawksley. He will certainly be back. He has the backing of Lord Farrington while my father has none which is not of any use to me. I will take the massive payment of gold. And then, I will return here, collect my mother, and we will leave London entirely. We will move to France or Italy, far away from the scandal."

He shrugged his broad shoulders, completely indifferent to his father’s terrifying fate.

"My father is a fool," Lucas finished, his voice completely empty of any familial love. "He was greedy, he was sloppy, and he got caught. He is just facing what is coming to him. What does that have to do with me? I am simply collecting the final prize."

Delaney was completely silent.

She stared at the young man standing before her. She didn’t know what to say. It was breathtakingly evil. Cole Kingsley was a terrible, wicked man who had murdered her parents, but he had always provided for his son. And yet, Lucas was completely willing to leave his father to swing from the hangman’s rope without a single second of hesitation, simply so he could steal the money and run.

Seems betrayal really runs deep in Cole’s side of the family. It was a poisonous bloodline, rotting from the inside out.

Delaney realized there was absolutely no point in arguing with a madman. Lucas had no conscience. He had no soul. He was a dangerous obstacle, one she needed to deal with as soon as possible.

Delaney decided to simply walk away.

She moved past him. She walked toward the sweeping marble staircase. She placed her bare hand on the cool wooden banister and began to walk up the stairs toward her room on the first floor.

She heard Lucas turn around on the marble floor.

"Delaney," Lucas’s voice called out, cutting her short.

His voice was no longer loud or mocking. It was a very quiet, very deadly whisper that carried perfectly up the open staircase.

Delaney stopped on the fourth step. She did not turn around. She stood perfectly still, her back facing him, listening to the quiet menace in his words.

"I am not as stupid as my father," Lucas said slowly, ensuring she heard every single word clearly. "My father was blinded by his own greed. But my eyes are wide open."

He took a few steps toward the bottom of the stairs.

"I just want to let you know," Lucas continued, his voice sending a dark, terrible chill down Delaney’s spine, "that I am always watching you. I am watching your every move, exactly as I have been doing since we were little children. I see the quiet way you observe rooms. I see the way you calculate your steps."

He paused. The heavy, suffocating silence filled the grand foyer for several long seconds. He was watching her back, waiting for her to tremble or show weakness as she stood still, hearing his dark words.

When she did not move, he delivered his final warning.

"Do you still remember my promise?" Lucas asked softly. "The promise I made to you in your room, three years ago, right before you were dragged to the ball?"

Delaney remembered it perfectly. She remembered his hateful eyes.

I swear to God, I will find you, and I will kill you myself.

Lucas continued, his voice completely serious and utterly devoid of mercy.

"That promise still stands, Delaney," Lucas vowed. "If you do anything funny between now and tomorrow morning... if you try to run away, if you try to fight back, or if you try to ruin my chance at taking that gold..."

He let the threat hang in the air for a second before finishing it with a brutal, cold finality.

"...I will kill you."

The threat was not an empty boast. It was a genuine promise from a man who would feel absolutely no guilt in ending her life. He was fully capable of snapping her neck and leaving her body in the woods.

Delaney said absolutely nothing.

She did not turn around. She did not reply to his terrible threat. She simply tightened her grip on her velvet reticule,lifted her chin, keeping her posture perfectly straight and dignified.

She continued walking up the marble stairs. Her soft shoes made absolutely no sound as she ascended. She reached the top landing, walked quickly down the long corridor, and entered her bedchamber.