Victoria Velmore never visited without reason. When she stepped into Lucian's office that morning, her elegant steps and calm poise carried the weight of a storm.
Lucian looked up from his desk, his cold eyes narrowing slightly. "Grandmother. To what do I owe this visit?"
Victoria didn't answer immediately. She walked toward the glass wall, gazing at the city below. "I needed to talk to you… about Lucca."
Lucian's grip on his pen tightened. "What about him?"
She turned to face him, her eyes sharp and unyielding. "Whose blood runs in that child's veins, Lucian?"
He froze for a moment, then leaned back in his chair with an emotionless expression. "He's my son. That's all you need to know."
But Victoria's intuition honed by years of reading people and guarding family secrets didn't falter. "At the gala," she said quietly, "I saw how Caliste looked at him. That gaze… it wasn't of mere affection. It was of a mother watching her child from afar."
Lucian's mask wavered. "You're imagining things," he said, his voice controlled but strained.
"I wish I were," Victoria replied, pulling an envelope from her handbag. She placed it gently on his desk. "But I had the test done."
Lucian's eyes widened, a flicker of alarm breaking through his calm exterior. He hesitated, then tore open the envelope.
Inside lay the truth. The DNA results were irrefutable.
Lucca Velmore: 99% matched to Caliste Winslow..Mother and Child.
Silence suffocated the room.
Lucian's jaw clenched as he placed the papers down. "So what if she is?" he said lowly. "She gave up every right the day she signed the agreement. She wanted freedom. I gave it to her."
Victoria's expression softened, though her tone remained firm. "There is always a reason for such a decision, Lucian. Do you truly believe freedom was all she sought? Or did something someone push her to it?"
Lucian's gaze darkened, his thoughts racing back to that night, to her tears, her silence, her trembling hands when she let go of Lucca. He had buried that memory deep, refusing to confront what it truly meant.
"Whatever her reasons," he muttered, "it changes nothing. Caliste is not his mother. Not anymore."
Victoria sighed, the sound heavy with disappointment. "Perhaps not by law. But blood and heart don't follow rules, my dear boy." She stood, resting a gloved hand on his desk. "And one more thing Caelum is serious about her. If you continue to act like a man made of stone, you will lose her. Not just as the mother of your son, but as the woman who once loved you beyond measure."
Her words cut deeper than he expected. When she left, the room fell into silence once more except for the echo of her warning.
Lucian stared blankly at the DNA report, his heart a battlefield of pride and regret. Caliste. The woman who once held his soul. The woman he hurt most.
And now, she might become another man's wife.
"Caelum…" he muttered, the name tasting bitter on his tongue. The thought of that man touching her, making her smile again, ignited something dangerous within him.
He slammed the folder shut and pressed the intercom. "Get Caliste Winslow in my office. Now."
Moments later, the door opened softly. Caliste stepped inside, calm yet cautious. "You called for me, Mr. Velmore?" she said, her tone polite but distant.
Lucian rose from his chair slowly, his eyes fixed on her. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, with a sudden surge of emotion he couldn't restrain, he crossed the room.
Before Caliste could step back or question him, his hand caught her wrist, pulling her close.
"Lucian...what are you.."
Her words were cut off by the force of his kiss. It wasn't gentle or planned ..it was raw, filled with anger, longing, and something deeper he had refused to admit for years.
Caliste stiffened, her mind spinning. Shock froze her body as his lips pressed against hers, as if trying to reclaim something already lost.
When he finally pulled away, his breathing was ragged. "Caliste tell me the real reason why you gave up Lucca" he said hoarsely, his voice trembling between fury and desperation.
Caliste's eyes widened, her lips still parted, breathless not just from the kiss, but from the truth she had tried so hard to hide..
The air between them burned with everything unsaid.
Caliste stumbled back, her palm instinctively touching her lips.
Her heart raced not because of desire, but because of the flood of memories the kiss had ripped open.
"Lucian…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "You shouldn't have done that."
Lucian stood before her, chest heaving, his icy composure shattered. "Then tell me why!" he demanded, stepping closer. "Tell me why you signed those damn papers. Why you gave up Lucca as if he meant nothing to you."
Her eyes glistened. "Don't," she said quietly, her tone shaking. "You have no right to ask me that after everything."
"I have every right!" His voice cracked like thunder, echoing in the room. "You carried him! You're his mother, Caliste! And yet you let the world believe you were nothing why?"
Tears welled in her eyes, her breath shallow. "Because you made it impossible for me to stay," she said, her voice breaking at last. "Because every time I looked at you, I saw the man I once loved turn into someone I didn't recognize."
Lucian froze, the anger faltering for a moment.
"Get out," Lucian's voice was hoarse low and trembling, yet cold enough to pierce.
Caliste froze for a heartbeat, stunned by the shift in his tone, then quickly gathered her composure. Without another word, she turned and left the office, closing the door softly behind her.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Lucian stood still, staring at the empty space where she had stood moments ago. Her scent still lingered faint traces of vanilla and something familiar, something that had haunted him for years. His pulse pounded in his ears, his hands trembling slightly as he loosened his tie.
He walked toward the corner cabinet, pulled out a bottle of aged red wine, and without hesitation, drank straight from it.
The liquid burned his throat, sharp and bitter but not nearly as bitter as the ache in his chest.
He drank again, longer this time, until the bottle was half empty. His reflection in the glass window mocked him the powerful Lucian Velmore, CEO, untouchable, feared… yet completely undone by one woman.
"Damn it," he muttered, his voice breaking.
He lifted the bottle again and drained what was left. Then, in a surge of frustration, rage, and helpless longing, he hurled it against the wall.
The shattering sound echoed through the office like thunder. Crimson wine splattered across the pale wall a reflection of the turmoil inside him.
He braced himself against the edge of his desk, his breath ragged. The memories came flooding back uninvited Caliste's laughter in their old home, the nights they spent by the fire, the softness of her voice whispering his name.
He had buried those memories deep, locked them away beneath layers of pride and ambition. But one kiss one look into her eyes and everything he'd tried to forget returned to suffocate him.
Lucian dragged a hand through his hair and sank into his chair.
The silence of the office pressed down on him again, heavy and suffocating.
"She still owns me…" he whispered to the empty room, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
He stared at the wine-stained wall, his eyes clouded with regret. "And I still love her," he admitted softly, almost to himself.
But the truth settled in like a blade twisting in his chest their love was no longer a balm. It was poison.
A beautiful, consuming fire that refused to die — and yet burned them both alive.
Lucian leaned back, closing his eyes, feeling the ache in every breath.
"She's destroying me," he murmured. "And I'm letting her."
Outside, the city lights flickered distant, uncaring as Lucian Velmore sat alone in the dim office, surrounded by the ghosts of what he lost and the one truth he could no longer deny:
Caliste Winslow still owned his heart.
And no matter how hard he tried, he would never be free.