Chapter 4: I lived alone long enough
The doors opened before the car fully stopped. Servants were already preparing to make sure that their mistress’s needs were fulfilled without any inconvenience.
Lucas stepped out slowly, the soles of his shoes meeting white stone too clean to belong to a place meant for living. The estate stood ahead, glass and carved limestone columns softened by creeping ivy and perfectly trimmed hedges that lined the walk like obedient courtiers.
It looked less like a home and more like a curated performance.
One where no one forgot their role.
Inside, the light shifted. Warm, quiet. The air was cool, lightly perfumed with jasmine and something older—waxed wood, perhaps, or the sterile sharpness of money well spent and rarely questioned.
NovelFire
It reminded him of Count Velloran’s estate.
Count Velloran.
When had he started to think of him by title and not name?
Christian Velloran.
A name that made his chest tighten in pain and panic—an old reaction, instinctive, one his body remembered before his mind caught up.
’Will I meet that man again?’
The thought wasn’t dramatic.