My Fiancé Erased Our Nine-Year Mark For His Blood Servant Chapter 05
What Was Always Mine
My phone won’t stop vibrating.
The moment I step inside Blackwood Castle, Adrian’s messages flood the screen.
Where are you? You’re not at the castle.
Sophia still needs to go over the wedding details with you.
Answer your phone, Evelyn. Stop acting like a child.
Where the hell did you go?
I stare at the screen.
As expected, there is no concern in his messages, let alone love.
He only wants me back because Sophia needs me for tomorrow’s wedding.
He still thinks I’m throwing a tantrum.
A bitter laugh catches in my throat.
I turn off my phone.
“Evelyn?”
A man’s voice stops me.
I look up.
Lucien Ashford stands at the foot of the staircase.
His eyes move over my face, then lower to the faint silver burns still visible above the neckline of my dress.
His expression changes instantly.
“What happened to you?”
“Nothing.”
I try to walk past him.
Lucien’s gaze drops to my wrist, where an angry red burn circles my skin.
His face goes cold.
“That’s silver.”
Before I can react, he bends down and lifts me into his arms.
“Lucien, put me down.”
He ignores me and carries me toward the stairs.
“Who did this to you?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It matters to me.”
The answer comes so quickly that I look at him.
There is no pity in his eyes. Only cold, controlled anger.
“Was it Adrian?”
My silence tells him enough.
His jaw tightens as he carries me upstairs.
“What happened?”
“Adrian made me try on Sophia’s wedding dress. Then he had the attendants force an entire set of silver jewelry onto me.”
His face darkens.
“What else happened?”
I hesitate before answering.
“I was pregnant.”
Lucien’s steps falter.
I force myself to continue.
“I’m not anymore.”
His arms tighten around me.
“He knew?”
“I told him the baby was his. I begged him to take the silver off.”
With every answer, Lucien’s expression grows colder.
“He didn’t believe me,” I finish quietly.
For the rest of the walk, he says nothing.
Grief settles over me as I mourn the love I was foolish enough to believe was real and the child I will never hold.
I find myself resting my head against the curve of Lucien’s neck. His cool skin brushes my cheek, and his entire body goes still for a moment before his arms tighten around me.
I close my eyes, too lost in grief to notice anything except the comfort of being held.
When he pushes open my bedroom door, I freeze.
Everything Adrian threw away is here.
My clothes hang neatly inside the wardrobe. My books line the shelves. The photographs, letters, and keepsakes he had ordered removed from his castle have all been returned to their proper places.
Nothing is missing.
Nothing is damaged.
It feels as though this room has been waiting for me all along.
“You kept them?”
Lucien’s expression finally softens.
“I kept everything that belonged to you safe.”
Something tightens my chest.
Adrian discarded every trace of me to make room for Sophia.
Lucien saved it all without ever knowing whether I would come back.
He carries me to the bed and lowers me onto the mattress with careful hands.
Then he turns toward the man waiting outside the door.
A large black velvet case is brought into the room and placed in front of me.
“There’s something else,” Lucien says.
My breath catches before I even touch it.
I know that case.
Slowly, I open the lid.
For a moment, I can only stare.
Blackwood heirlooms.
Every single one.
My grandmother’s ruby necklace.
My mother’s emerald earrings.
The signet bracelet worn by the founding matriarch of House Blackwood.
And resting at the center is my black diamond choker—the piece created for me when I became the Blackwood heir.
Yesterday, Adrian told me Sophia would wear it at their wedding.
He told me I could have them back after she died.
Now they are lying in front of me.
“How…?”
I look at Lucien.
“How did you get these?”
“I brought them back.”
“Adrian wouldn’t give them back to me.”
Lucien’s expression doesn’t change.
“I didn’t ask Adrian.”
I blink.
For a moment, I don’t know what to say.
Adrian made me beg for what was mine. Lucien simply brought it home.
I touch the old Blackwood signet with trembling fingers.
Yesterday, I stood in front of Adrian and asked for my own family’s belongings.
He looked me in the eye and told me to wait until another woman was dead.
Lucien didn’t even wait for me to ask.
Something inside my chest twists painfully.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“I do.”
He shakes his head.
“No, Evelyn. You don’t.”
I look at him.
His voice softens.
“They were always yours.”
My throat tightens.
I quickly look back down at the jewelry.
After everything that has happened, such a simple sentence almost breaks me.
“You knew about Sophia,” I say.
“I knew Adrian planned to marry her.”
“And the jewelry?”
“I found out he intended to let her wear it tomorrow.”
A dangerous stillness enters his eyes.
“I wasn’t going to let another woman walk into her wedding wearing the inheritance of House Blackwood.”
I look down at the open case again.
I don’t understand why that makes my eyes burn more than Adrian’s messages did.
I close the case carefully.
Then I look at Lucien.
“Why did you do this for me?”
His gaze holds mine.
“Because they were yours.”
He pauses.
“And I’m tired of watching Adrian take what belongs to you.”