Victoria's POV
The rest of my shift was a blur of adrenaline and stubborn focus. Every time I passed a window or a security camera, I felt the weight of the town's gaze.
I had officially become the woman who rejected the king, and the silence in the hallways was deafening.
When 7:00 PM finally rolled around, I didn't wait for the bus. I called Veronica.
"I'm at home sorry i can't pick you up , Tee. Dinner's almost ready. Just get back safe," she said, her voice sounding strangely tight.
I boarded the next bus something was wrong i could feel it .
I walked fast, my heels clicking sharply against the pavement.
The streetlights of 5th Avenue flickered, casting long, distorted shadows. I reached our building, jogged up the stairs, and fumbled with my keys. My hands were shaking not from fear, I told myself, but from exhaustion.
I pushed the door open. "Vee? I'm home."
The apartment was dimly lit, the only light coming from the small lamp in the corner. The smell of garlic and herbs filled the air, but the kitchen was silent.
"Veronica?" I called out again, stepping further into the living room.
I stopped dead.
Veronica was sitting on the edge of the armchair, her face ashen, her hands gripped tightly in her lap. She wasn't looking at me. She was looking at the man sitting on our sofa, looking as comfortable as if he'd signed the lease himself.
Lucien Moretti.
He didn't have his jacket on. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing tanned forearms and a glimpse of a dark tattoo snaking toward his wrist. He was holding a glass of water, his dark eyes tracking my every movement.
"You're late, Victoria," he said, his voice dropping into that low, resonant frequency that seemed to vibrate in my chest. "Again."
"What are you doing in my house?" I demanded, my protective instincts overriding my shock. I moved to stand between him and Veronica. "This is private property. You can't just"
"I told you Stonehaven is unpredictable at night," he interrupted calmly, setting the glass down on the coffee table with a soft clink. "I wanted to ensure you arrived home to appreciate the... hospitality of this town."
He stood up slowly. He was so much taller than I remembered, his presence filling our small living room until the walls felt like they were closing in. He took a step toward me, and despite my resolve, I felt my back hit the front door.
"Mrs. Gable was very pleased with the roses," he murmured, leaning down until his face was inches from mine. I could see the flecks of gold in his dark irises. "She said you were a 'saint' for giving them to her."
He reached out, his thumb grazing the collar of my shirt. "But I didn't send them to a saint. I sent them to a doctor who thinks she can tell me 'no'."
A flicker of something—anger? amusement?—crossed his face. He leaned in closer, his breath warm against my ear.
"You think this is a rejection," he whispered. "To me, it's just a longer conversation. Sleep well, Victoria. I'll see you tomorrow."
He turned, gave a short, terrifyingly polite nod to a trembling Veronica, and walked out the door.
The silence he left behind was heavier than the air in an operating room.
I looked at the door he'd just walked through. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
He hadn't touched me, he hadn't threatened me, but he had shown me the one thing I feared most: There was nowhere in this town he couldn't reach.
"Tee..." Veronica finally choked out, her voice trembling. "He was here for twenty minutes before you arrived. He didn't say a word. He just... sat there. Waiting."
I'm really sorry about that .
It's okay what's important is you're safe, but please don't offend more i beg you."
Veronica looked at me and I could sense she is afraid, I won't get on his bad side I said. Let's get some sleep.
Victoria's POV
I didn't sleep. I sat by the window until the sun started to bleed over the horizon, watching the empty street. Veronica eventually fell asleep on the sofa, her hand still clutching a kitchen knife she'd hidden under a pillow.
When my alarm went off, I didn't feel tired. I felt cold. A strange, sharp clarity had taken over. If Lucien Moretti thought his little home visit would make me stutter or hide, he was about to be very disappointed.
I dressed in my sharpest professional attire, pinned my hair back until not a single strand was out of place, and walked into the hospital ten minutes early.
"Victoria?" Doctor Harem whispered as I passed him in the hall. He looked like he'd been waiting for me, his eyes scanning my face for any sign of a breakdown. "I heard… someone saw his car outside your place last night. Are you alright?"
I didn't stop walking. I didn't even blink. "I'm perfectly fine, Doctor Harem. I have three consultations and a minor surgery scheduled before lunch. I'd prefer to focus on my patients."
"But Victoria, he was there—"
"He was a guest who overstayed his welcome," I interrupted, my voice as flat and professional as a dial tone. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on Mrs. Gable."
I spent the morning being the most efficient doctor Loretta's Hospital had ever seen. I was robotic. I was precise. I was untouchable.
When I entered Mrs. Gable's room, she was still beaming at the roses.
"He came by, you know," she chirped, her eyes twinkling. "A very handsome man in a suit. He asked if I liked the flowers. I told him you were the one who gave them to me."
"That's nice, Mrs. Gable," I said, checking her IV drip without a tremor in my hand. "Let's focus on your blood pressure."
After checking Mrs Gable I went to my desk to focus on my work.
I knew he was there before I saw him. The air in the hallway changed the nurses stopped talking, and the temperature seemed to drop.
I was standing at the central station, charting a file, when the heavy, polished shoes stopped right in front of my desk.
Lucien was leaning against the desk, looking down at me with an expression that was dangerously close to fascination. He was waiting for the flinch. He was waiting for the 'Why were you at my house?' or the 'Stay away from me.'
Instead, I looked at him like he was a particularly boring medical chart.
"Mr. Moretti," I said, my voice cool and professional. "You aren't on today's surgical list, and your vitals were stable yesterday. Are you experiencing a new symptom, or are you just lost?"
The silence that followed was so thick you could have cut it with a scalpel.
A guard behind him actually coughed in surprise.
Lucien's eyes darkened, a small muscle in his jaw feathering. He wasn't used to being treated like an inconvenience.
"I'm here to see if my... visit... had the intended effect," he murmured, his voice a low vibration.
"It did," I replied, meeting his gaze with total indifference. "It reminded me that I need to install a better deadbolt. Now, if you aren't bleeding or dying, I have a surgery to attend. You're blocking the path to the scrub room."
I stepped around him without waiting for an answer.
I felt his gaze burning into my back a physical weight that made my skin crawl but I didn't look back. I had just treated the most powerful man in Stonehaven like a loitering teenager, and for the first time, the power in the room had shifted.
Victoria's POV
The shift finally ended, and for the first time since I arrived in Stonehaven, I felt like I had won. I had looked the devil in the eye and dismissed him. But the victory felt hollow the moment I stepped off the bus and saw a familiar black sedan idling in front of my apartment.
I rushed up the stairs, my heart sinking. I didn't even have to put my key in the lock; the door was already propped open.
Inside, the living room was filled with sturdy men in gray uniforms carrying boxes. Veronica was standing in the middle of the kitchen, her face streaked with tears, clutching a legal document like it was a death warrant.
"He bought it, Tee," she sobbed, handing me the paper. "The whole building. He bought the deed this morning. The old landlord didn't even give us a heads-up. And this..." she pointed to a bolded paragraph at the bottom, "is a notice of 'immediate structural inspection.' We have to vacate this unit by tonight."
My blood turned to ice. "He can't do that. There are tenant laws!"
"In this town, he is the law," a deep, smooth voice interrupted from the hallway.
Lucien stepped into the room, looking devastatingly elegant against the backdrop of our chaotic, half-packed life. He didn't look angry about my coldness at the hospital. He looked... satisfied.
"his eyes trailing over the room before landing on me.
I looked at him with anger, are you that jobless that you can leave me for one second without tormenting me and now you want to trow us out on the street ".
The men in the room froze. No one spoke to Lucien Moretti like that.
His expression didn't change, but his eyes darkened to a shade of midnight. "I'm not throwing you onto the street. Your friend Veronica has already been assigned a lovely renovated suite across town. All expenses paid."
I looked at Veronica, who looked horrified. "And me?"
Lucien took a slow, predatory step forward until he was hovering over me. "You, Doctor, are moving into the penthouse of the Moretti Estate.
Since you're so concerned with my 'vitals,' I've decided you should be my personal physician. On-call. Twenty-four hours a day."
"I refuse," I snapped.
"Then your friend's 'all-expenses-paid' suite becomes a cold sidewalk," he countered, his voice dropping to a whisper that only I could hear. "And I think we both know Stonehaven is a very dangerous place for a girl with no roof over her head."
I looked at Veronica, who was trembling, then back at Lucien. He had found the one thing I couldn't ignore: the safety of the only person I loved in this town. He hadn't just bought the building; he had bought my freedom.
"Fine," I whispered, the word tasting like poison. "I'll go. But don't expect me to be 'interested' in anything other than your medical charts."
Lucien reached out, his fingers trailing down my jawline, forcing me to look at him. "Oh, Victoria. The charts are just the beginning of the story."