2026-09-11 20:26:18Inside the bar, the lights were dimmer than the night before, and the same bartender who'd been wiping glasses last night was doing the exact same thing now.
"I need to talk to the owner." Lucien Legion kept his voice level. "Short blond hair. She was here last night." The bartender's eyes flicked up, then back down to the glass in his hand. "Owner's not in tonight." "Then when is she in." "Couldn't say." Lucien Legion pressed his palms flat on the bar counter, leaning in. "Look, she paid for a hotel room under my name last night. I want to pay her back and I want to know exactly what happened. That's it. I'm not here to cause trouble." The bartender shrugged, wiping the same spot on the glass he'd already wiped twice. "I just work the bar, man. I don't know anything about hotel rooms." "Can I see the footage from last night. The cameras." Lucien Legion gestured toward the small black dome mounted near the ceiling in the corner. "System's down. Been down for repairs since yesterday morning." The bartender said it flat, without even glancing up this time. Lucien Legion's jaw tightened. That's convenient. He stood there a moment longer, searching the man's face for any crack, any hesitation that might mean he was lying. There was nothing to grab onto. Just a bored guy wiping glasses who clearly wanted this conversation over. Lucien Legion finally turned and walked back out into the night, his mind spinning in the same useless circles it had been spinning in for two days straight. No footage. No owner. No answers. Just a blond haired ghost who'd apparently paid cash, vanished, and left him holding nothing but questions. He checked into the same hotel from before and didn't bother leaving the room for the rest of that day, or most of the next. Lying on top of the sheets with the curtains shut, Lucien Legion stared at the ceiling and let all sixteen years crash over him at once. He thought about the fellowship offer he'd turned down eleven years ago, the one that would have sent him to train under one of the best surgeons on the coast, because Stacy had just landed her first big role and needed him close, needed someone steady at home while her career took off. He thought about the research position he'd walked away from two years after that, back when Chloe started struggling in school and someone needed to be there every single afternoon, and it obviously wasn't going to be Stacy with her filming schedule. Every time, without complaint, Lucien Legion had folded his own future down small enough to fit around theirs. And for what. For a daughter who wasn't his blood. For a wife who'd apparently been keeping secrets bigger than anything he'd ever imagined. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes until colors burst behind them, but no amount of pressure made the ache in his chest let up. Three days passed like that, mostly silence, mostly staring at nothing. On the fourth day, a knock came at the door. Lucien Legion opened it to find Stacy standing there, dressed down for once, no cameras trailing her, just her and a look on her face he hadn't seen in years. Something almost soft. "Can I come in." He stepped aside without a word. She walked past him into the room, glancing around at the rumpled sheets and the takeout containers stacked on the desk. "You've been living like this?" "Better than living with lies." Lucien Legion's voice came out rougher than he meant it to. Stacy turned to face him, arms crossing loosely over her chest. "Lucien Legion, come home. Whatever you think you know, we can figure it out together. Chloe's asking about you. She doesn't understand why you disappeared." For a second, guilt twisted low in his gut at the mention of Chloe's name. Whatever the DNA said, she was still the little girl he'd taught to ride a bike, still the same kid who used to fall asleep on his chest during long car rides. But that guilt didn't erase anything else. Lucien Legion walked to the desk, pulled a folder from underneath his jacket, and held it out to her. "I'm not coming home." Stacy's eyes dropped to the folder, then back up to his face. "What is that." "Divorce papers." He said it plainly, no drama in his voice at all, just flat exhaustion. "You cheated on me. Chloe isn't mine. There's nothing left here for me to come home to." Her face went rigid. "You're seriously doing this." "I already did it once, in that restaurant." Lucien Legion's eyes stayed steady on hers. "You just didn't want to hear it." "I never cheated on you." Stacy's voice rose sharp and fast, her hands curling into fists at her sides. "I don't know where that test came from or who ran it, but it's wrong. It has to be wrong." "Three labs, Stacy." Lucien Legion's tone didn't waver. "Three different results. All the same." "I don't care if it's thirty labs." Her voice cracked with something that might have been real anger or might have been fear, Lucien Legion couldn't tell anymore which was which with her. "I have never once cheated on you. Not once, not with anyone." They stood there, the space between them thick with sixteen years of everything unsaid, both of them refusing to bend an inch. Finally Stacy snatched the folder from his hand, gripping it so hard her knuckles whitened. "Fine. You want to do this the hard way, we'll do it the hard way." She turned and walked out, the door clicking shut behind her instead of slamming this time, which somehow felt worse. That afternoon, Lucien Legion drove to the courthouse and filed the paperwork himself, signing his name on every line where it was required, his hand steady even though nothing inside him felt steady at all. He sat in the waiting area of the family court office, expecting Stacy to walk through those doors at any minute, ready for one more round of arguing in front of strangers. She never showed. Instead, the door opened and a man walked in, dressed in an expensive suit, carrying a leather folder under one arm, moving with the kind of calm confidence that only came from being sent somewhere on someone else's behalf.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
92: Old Scandal
The reporter did not leave a message the first time. She simply called, asked whether she was speaking to Lucien Legion, and disconnected when he confirmed it.The second call came twenty minutes later.Lucien was standing beside a workbench at Vale Industrial, reviewing the final inspection notes for the contract he had signed the previous afternoon. His phone vibrated against the metal surface. The number was unfamiliar, but he answered.“Mr. Legion? My name is Vanessa Cole. I’m a journalist with The Daily Ledger. I’m preparing a feature about your recent engineering contract, and I’d appreciate a few minutes of your time.”Lucien glanced at the technician waiting across from him. “You can send your questions to the company’s communications office.”“I can, but there’s another part of your story that readers may find relevant.”“Then it probably isn’t about engineering.”There was a brief pause. “It concerns your divorce from actress Stacy Legion. And the child you’re reportedly exp
91: Contracts
Lucien arrived at Vale Industrial’s technical offices ten minutes before the scheduled meeting, carrying a folder of notes that had been marked, corrected, and reorganized twice on the journey.He had considered wearing his only suit. It had been pressed carefully the night before, but the shoulders no longer sat quite right, and the jacket carried the faint signs of years spent in storage between occasions that had never come. In the end, he chose a clean charcoal shirt and dark trousers. He would not pretend to be someone he wasn’t. If the company wanted his mind, he would give them that.At reception, a woman in a navy jacket checked his name against a list. Her eyes flickered briefly toward his hands, where a thin line of grease remained beneath one fingernail despite his efforts to scrub it away.“Mr. Legion, they’re expecting you. Please take the lift to the fourth floor.”No one smirked. No one asked whether he had come to repair a company car. The ordinary courtesy unsettled h
90: The Threat
The photograph lay on Clarice’s kitchen table long after the room had gone quiet.Lucien stood in the picture outside the engineering workshop, his sleeves pushed to his elbows and a dark smudge of grease crossing one wrist. He was looking toward someone beyond the frame, his expression unguarded in a way Clarice had rarely seen. Beneath it, the message had been typed in plain black letters.He will be your weakness.Clarice had read it so many times that the words had begun to blur. The threat was not loud. It did not need to be. Whoever had sent it knew enough about her to understand that Lucien had become more than a man helping her through a difficult season. He had become someone whose safety mattered to her in a way she could no longer dismiss.When Lucien returned from washing his hands, he found her still staring at the photograph.“You haven’t moved,” he said.Clarice looked up. “I’ve been thinking.”“That usually means you’ve decided to carry the whole world alone.”“Not the
89: The Answer
Clarice’s question remained between them long after she asked it.“Are you afraid of loving another child?”Lucien did not answer immediately. His gaze had settled on the open notebook on the table, on the neat rows of appointments and practical necessities he had written down as if careful planning could protect everyone involved. The room was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator and the distant sound of traffic beyond the windows.“You don’t have to answer me,” she said.“I do.”He finally looked at her. There was no anger in his expression, only exhaustion and a kind of reluctant honesty.“Yes,” he said. “I’m afraid.”Clarice’s fingers tightened around the edge of the cushion. She had expected him to deny it, or to offer a carefully measured explanation that made fear sound like a temporary inconvenience. She had not expected the answer to come so plainly.“Because of Chloe?” she asked.“Because of what happened with Chloe. Because I spent years believing that being the
88: Pregnancy Changes Everything
The first thing Lucien Legion bought for his unborn child was a thermometer.Not a gold-plated crib. Not a designer stroller with a price tag that could have covered several months of rent. Not one of the extravagant gifts Clarice’s family seemed to believe could solve every problem money had ever caused.A thermometer.He stood in the pharmacy aisle, comparing two brands with the seriousness of a man reviewing engineering specifications. One had a larger display. The other had better reviews and a protective case. He read both labels, checked the warranty, then put the cheaper one in his basket.The pharmacist watched him with faint amusement. “First baby?”Lucien’s hand paused on the basket handle.“Yes,” he answered after a moment. “My first biological child.”The distinction escaped before he could stop it. The pharmacist’s expression softened, but Lucien did not invite sympathy. He paid, folded the receipt into his wallet, and left with a small paper bag that seemed almost absurd
87: His Fear
Edwin Lincoln did not return to his car immediately after Chloe left the café.He stood beside the window with one hand resting on the back of the chair she had occupied, watching her disappear into the afternoon crowd. The conversation kept replaying in fragments: her steady voice, the questions she had asked without raising it, the way she had looked at him as if she were trying to decide whether there was anything worth saving in him.He had expected anger. He had even prepared himself for tears. Anger could be answered with patience, and tears could be met with a carefully chosen apology. What he had not expected was that quiet, unmistakable disappointment.Chloe had not come looking for a famous director. She had come looking for the father who had allowed another man to raise her.And Edwin had failed her again.His phone vibrated in his pocket. A message from his assistant appeared on the screen, asking whether he was still attending the evening production meeting. Edwin ignore
You may also like
Underestimated Son In Law
Raishico311.5K viewsI AM NOT A POOR SON-IN-LAW
Calendula616.3K viewsUnexpected Trillionaire.
Max Luthor95.3K viewsFrom Prison To Power
Rex Magnus81.7K viewsAPEX ASSASSIN
Chidezny177 viewsThe Richest God of War
Kingfisher165 viewsThe Almighty Commander of Pyreking
fechisheddy140 viewsThe Billionaire System: Only I Know the Currency Has Changed
Halora writes61 views