Angelica's Pov
His eyes locked on mine… or at least on the shadow of me behind the visor.
I tilted my head, revved the engine once, as the growl tore louder through the alley.
I pressed my bare left foot down and the other on the pedal. "You'd really hit me with that?"
Lucien smirked, extended an arm, and spread his palm open. "I won't do anything if you obey me. Just… do as I ask. And no one has to get hurt. And keep in mind that after humiliating me at the merger party and filing for divorce, if you step outside this estate… you and your father lose the hotels, the empire, the name. Everything to us… the Moreaus."
He leaned closer, creeping forward step by step.
Yeah…, like I'd believe that for a second.
"Why would we lose everything to you?" My voice came out muffled behind the visor, trembling with disbelief but carrying enough bite to make him stop pacing. "All I did was shatter the merger between my father's company and yours."
Lucien chuckled, and the cold night wind teased strands of his dark hair as he tilted his head, slicing a crooked grin across his face.
"Oh…" he drawled with gleaming eyes under the faint orange streetlight. "No one told you, Bambolina?"
My stomach dropped, and I gritted my teeth. "Told me what, exactly, Lucien?"
I leaned forward, gripping my fingers tighter around the throttle until my knuckles whitened. "All you want is to keep me around as your quiet pet, your shiny little possession to show off at parties. But I'm done being anyone's figurehead." My voice cracked for half a second, but I pushed through it. "I have dreams, you know. Things I want to build. Things I want to accomplish."
He stopped smiling. Then, slowly, he began again wider this time, flashing his teeth as his voice dipped low. "Didn't Solomon inform you that he signed the contract himself?"
I blinked. "What contract?"
Lucien took a deliberate step forward, tapping the steel rod against his palm, cutting each metallic click into the night. "The terms of the merger... Your father signed the deal knowing that if you ever bailed out of this marriage, every asset he owned…" he paused, letting his smirk twist crueler, "…would be handed over to us."
My breath hitched, and the air felt thinner. "My dad… did that?"
Lucien's tone softened, mockingly. "He did what was best for you, Bambolina. And really, I don't quite understand how that pretty little head of yours works."
He stepped closer, stretching his shadow across the cobble. "Why would you want to work hard… and suffer… for a mere dream," he murmured, "when you can stay as my wife and live that dream instead?"
I snapped my head toward him. "I don't believe a word you say, Lucien!" My voice rose over the roar of the engine. "And I especially won't stay married to a man who flaunts his love for another mistress without giving his wife any sort of attention! I'm done tolerating you!"
He chuckled again, slowly. "C'mon now, Bambolina," he took another measured step closer. "Let's talk this out, eh?"
My hands fumbled over the compartments of the belt, searching and searching, as adrenaline twisted through me. I needed something… anything… to shatter his attention.
"What the hell is that on your waist?" Lucien's eyes narrowed as his voice cut sharper. "Are you… cosplaying right now?"
"Funny," I muttered under my breath. My fingers finally closed around something… a cluster of small, smooth spheres, round enough to cup seven in one hand.
No clue what they were, but that didn't matter. Instinct took over. I pressed the button on one, feeling it vibrate faintly, then hurled the lot of them across the cobbled floor toward him.
They clattered, rolled, then burst.
One by one, sharp cracks detonated, each pop followed by a hiss.
A chain of tiny explosions lit the ground, scattering sparks and vomiting thick smoke into the air.
Within seconds, the area transformed into a choking haze, curling clouds of white swallowing Lucien whole.
He staggered back, cursing, slicing his rod uselessly in the fog.
I didn't wait. I slammed on the gear and twisted hard, revving until the engine screamed, skidding the rear tire against the cobblestones.
The bike lurched forward with a violent kick, scraping rubber, biting at the stone before sparks as I swerved past Lucien's silhouette in the smoke.
But just as I tore past him—
CRACK!
The steel rod slammed into the back of my helmet causing a hard ringing through my ears.
The impact rang through my skull, jarring my vision with a white-hot flash.
I grunted, jerking my body forward. Even with the helmet, the pain was brutal, causing a dizzying throb that rattled my brain in its cage.
My hands slipped on the handlebars as the bike veered, wobbling out of control.
The alley blurred, the lights streaked, my head swam, and my vision bent sideways.
That was when… I saw it.
A parked car dead ahead… waiting to embrace me.
And I couldn't steer away.
Everything blurred. The world, my thoughts, even my own pulse felt out of sync, hammering too loud and too fast.
And in that blur, I felt it… the cruel irony that everything I ever wanted suddenly seemed so far away. My desire to breathe free of chains. My dream of reviving my late mama's legacy, the one flame I swore would never die. All of it flickered in front of me as it was all about to slip through my fingers.
Because right now, I was about to slam head-on into a parked car. That would be the end of it… my grand escape plan cut short before it even found its wings.
Funny, isn't it? How the brain works. How in the one second before impact, a hundred thoughts fire through you. This is it. I'm done. His efforts were wasted, and everything you wanted… gone.
BUT… NO.
No, I can't let it end here.
I won't.
My eyelids fought to open, squinting one against the dizzy pain still rattling through my skull.