Chapter 21
“I always knew a day like this would come.”
Pressing a sword against his throat, the intruder pulled off her mask.
Her neatly tied silver hair swayed lightly, and the face beneath the mask was revealed.
Melissa Arus.
As beautiful as ever—so beautiful it was terrifying—the woman stood before him for the first time in seven years.
“A day when I’d cut off your head.”
And she radiated a killing intent so sharp it made his whole body tremble.
Finally.
Melissa felt her whole body shiver.
Even more so as she looked at her ex-husband, offering up his neck like prey before her.
The only mistake of my life.
Melissa had come here today determined to erase that stain once and for all.
After this slaughter, Melissa Arus would be reborn.
A new person, carrying no grief and no pain.
“Farewell, Lucian Leander. Think of it as an honor to die by my hand.”
But just before her hand could sever the neck of her terrible past—
“Mom…?”
She heard the one existence she did not regret creating with him.
“Mom, is that really you…?”
Thud. Her heart dropped. Chills raced down her spine and her chest tightened.
This voice. The only voice in the world that could call her “Mom.”
“Mom, don’t!”
Melissa slowly turned her head.
And her eyes fell upon the face she had ached for beyond measure.
Chloe. Her daughter, whom she loved more than anything in the world, was shouting at her from the bed, half pulling back the canopy.
“Mom, no war! Please!”
“Chloe…”
The instant she saw that beloved face, Melissa’s strength gave out.
Clang—the blood-stained sword fell to the floor, and with it vanished her will to kill.
“Chloe!”
Melissa abandoned her revenge and ran to her daughter.
In that moment, she felt no hatred, no resentment.
Only the overwhelming joy of being able to see her daughter again.
“Come here, my sweet girl.”
Melissa spread her arms wide toward the child leaping off the bed into her embrace.
Whump. The child, fragrant and sweet, landed in her arms.
“Mom, I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Chloe. So much.”
Tears she hadn’t meant to shed streamed down her face as she clung to her daughter, then suddenly, as if afraid of something, she pulled Chloe back a little.
“Mom?”
Frantically, Melissa checked her body.
Hands—ten fingers, all there. Feet—ten toes, intact.
Legs, arms, stomach, bottom—
“Mom! Don’t touch my butt!”
“Sorry!”
Everything was fine.
And last of all, her face.
“Ugh…”
Eyes, nose, mouth—perfectly fine.
Her trembling hands cupped Chloe’s cheeks. Had her baby’s cheeks grown chubbier since the abduction?
“Hold me… tight…”
Unable to speak clearly with her face squished, her daughter pleaded. Melissa granted that wish almost excessively.
“Ugh, can’t breathe…”
Thank you.
Holding Chloe’s small body tight, Melissa sent up a prayer to the heavens.
Thank you for keeping her safe.
Thank you for bringing her back to me whole.
Truly, thank you.
The little girl squirmed briefly, then let out a soft grunt as her tiny arms wrapped around Melissa in return.
“It’s okay, Mom. Don’t cry.”
“Mm… Mommy won’t cry anymore…”
Yet, despite her words, Melissa’s tears fell again and again.
Only much later did she finally take a long breath and rise to her feet.
Chloe, her eyes damp as well, gazed up at her.
Melissa gently wiped her daughter’s face and whispered tenderly.
“Chloe, let’s go home now.”
“Home?”
“Yes. Our home. Our land.”
The child blinked, uncertain. Melissa stroked her hair with a bittersweet smile.
“Don’t worry. Sleep a little and when you wake, we’ll be home—”
“Who said so?”
Melissa’s words were cut off.
“Who said you could take the child?”
She froze. Near her neck, she felt something cold.
Damn it.
Melissa’s expression hardened as she turned her eyes to see it.
At her throat was a magic stone, already primed to activate.
And not just any—an offensive type, one with explosive power.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“The same thing you were about to do to me.”
Melissa glared upward with murderous eyes. Blood still trickled from Lucian’s neck, from the wound she had just given him.
I should’ve killed him.
But she’d held back—thinking only of saving Chloe.
And because, no matter what, she couldn’t kill her daughter’s father in front of her.
I should have just cut his throat without hesitation.
She watched as Lucian wiped at his neck as if annoyed by the blood, only smearing it further into a ghastly mess.
“You think what you’re doing to me is the same as what I did to you?”
Melissa spoke icily, rising slowly to her feet.
“I have that right. You don’t. Not if you have a shred of conscience.”
Her choice was deliberate—to minimize any harm that could reach Chloe if he triggered the stone.
Lucian seemed to understand her thinking. His hand moved slowly, tracking her every step.
Once they had gained some distance, Lucian said softly:
“You can’t take Chloe. But if you leave alone right now, I’ll pretend this never happened.”
Ha.
Melissa let out a cold laugh and glared at him with killing intent.
“If I were going to leave alone, I wouldn’t have come here.”
“…”
“And from the start—who are you to say whether I can take my own daughter?”
“I’m not irrelevant.”
Locking eyes with her, Lucian’s throat bobbed before he continued.
“Because Chloe is my daughter too.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Melissa gave a sharp, bitter laugh at his brazen words.
“I thought you gave up every right that day.”
His green eyes flickered ever so slightly—guilt.
Melissa seized it and twisted the knife.
“You have no claim on her. You have no rights.”
“…No rights, but I have obligations.”
But Melissa’s assumption—that he carried any remorse—was wrong.
Clutching the magic stone tighter, Lucian spoke with a steady, unshaken gaze.
“I have a duty to protect Chloe. To make sure she grows up safely.”
That shameless line shattered Melissa’s control.
“No! You have no duty, nothing! Chloe has nothing to do with you!”
Her chest burned as she screamed.
She knew he was shameless. She knew he was always selfish. But still—
“Why? Why now, suddenly, do you care about your child? Do you need her blood for your precious magic stone experiments?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. I know everything!”
He had always been this way.
In this relationship, it was always her who got emotional.
Whenever she lashed out, he stepped back and pretended to be the calm, rational one.
Melissa’s fists clenched as the memory of that day flashed before her.
“Remember. You’re the one who destroyed the future we could have had with our child. You’re the one who abandoned me that day.”
“Melissa, lower your voice.”
“Don’t you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth!”
“We’ll talk. Just not now. In a little—”
“No, we’ll talk now! You humiliated me back then, and now I need to know why suddenly you want your daughter—”
“Chloe!”
Lucian’s stern voice cut her off.
“Chloe is terrified.”
What…?
Melissa’s brow furrowed.
She whipped her head toward where Chloe sat.
She thought he was lying.
Just trying to use Chloe to distract her.
But the moment she saw her daughter in the corner, Melissa’s breath caught.
“C-Chloe…”
He was right.
Chloe was crying.
Not loudly, but curled up in the corner, pressing both hands tightly over her ears as she wept.
Melissa’s eyes wavered in confusion.
Why… why is she crying like that?
Why is my daughter trembling so miserably?
The girl shook like a child thrown naked into the winter cold.
Her hands, clamped desperately over her ears, had turned deathly pale.
This was no time to hesitate. She had to calm Chloe first.
“Chloe, Mommy will hold—”
But before Melissa could rush to her daughter—
Someone else moved first.
“It’s all right, Chloe.”
It was Lucian Leander, quickly putting away the magic stone and striding toward the girl with long steps.
