If Your Heart Doesn’t Lean Towards Me I Don’t Want It Chapter 33
I froze for a second.
“I would.”
There was a time when I had lived in shame because of that video.
Now, the judgment had become a tool I could use to protect myself—and maybe help the next person who had to walk this path.
When I left work, Lucian was waiting downstairs.
He wasn’t holding flowers or some elaborate gift.
He just handed me a cup of warm water.
“I heard the project went well.”
“How did you know already?”
“Your mom told me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“It did.”
“There was a small hiccup, though.”
I told him what had happened in the meeting.
By the time I finished, Lucian’s expression had darkened.
“Do you need me to have a lawyer handle it?”
“No.”
I held up my phone, showing him the saved file of the judgment.
“I handled it myself.”
He looked at me, and a slow smile spread across his face.
“Coralie Ricci, you need me less and less these days.”
I asked teasingly, “Regretting it?”
“Not at all.”
He opened the car door for me.
“I wanted a partner, not a project.”
I got into the car but didn’t close the door.
I looked at him.
“Lucian.”
“Yeah?”
“I still have the ring.”
He went still for a beat, but he didn’t ask when I might put it back on.
He only answered quietly, “I know.”
Just then, my phone buzzed.
It was a notification that one of the court-ordered compensation payments had been deposited.
Right after, a text arrived from an unknown number.
This money isn’t compensation. I know nothing can make it right. I won’t bother you again.
I looked at it, took a screenshot for my records, then blocked and deleted the number.
Lucian didn’t ask who it was from.
Outside the window, the sky was painted with the colors of sunset.
It occurred to me then that when people leave your life, they don’t always leave a hole.
Because that empty space had long since been filled by my work, my friends, and the courage I had slowly, painstakingly, grown for myself.