Lucas lowered the file to his lap. His chest rose and fell too quickly, too shallow. He blinked, once—twice—but the pit in his stomach kept growing.
His mind flashed back to the day of the accident. How easily he had dismissed it.
He had believed… he hadtrulybelieved she was faking it. That she had thrown herself into the accident just to corner him. Just to guilt him. Just to push Amelia out of his life.
Taylor glanced sideways at him, then casually gathered the loose files, stacking them neatly. “Honestly, I don’t get why you’re so worked up. Anyway, you’ve never liked that clingy woman, right? Always crying, chasing after you, whining nonstop.”
Lucas looked up slowly, face pale, but expression unreadable.
Taylor, unaware of the storm tightening inside Lucas, casually snapped the folder shut and threw him a brief, indifferent glance. “Even that day, while she was literally on the operating table getting stitched up, you said over the phone, ‘Call me when she's dead. Don’t waste my time.’”
He chuckled under his breath, “And your secretary had you on speaker. Emily heard every damn word.”
The world around Lucas seemed to spin. Air rushed out of his lungs like a vacuum. His limbs froze.
“…What did you just say?” he whispered, his voice barely holding together.
“I mean…” Taylor went on with a casual shrug, “I said some things to her too. I didn’t realize how bad her injuries really were. I told her to stop pulling stunts like that for attention. I told her while she was bleeding out on the table that you don’t like women like her who always act needy.”
The moment the words left his mouth—
CRACK.
Lucas shot to his feet and drove his fist into Taylor’s face. The impact knocked Taylor off the chair and sent him crashing to the floor, slamming into the coffee table behind him. Papers flew, a file hit the ground, and a glass jar of pens tumbled and scattered across the floor.
Taylor grunted in pain, blood instantly pouring from a cut on his cheek where Lucas’s ring had torn skin. He coughed, clutching his jaw, his expression twisted in confusion and disbelief.
Lucas lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar, dragging him back upright with eyes blazing.
“Who the fuck gave you the right to sayanythingto her?!” he roared, voice cracking with raw rage. “Who the hell told you to insult her while she was bleeding out on a goddamn operating table?!”
Taylor spat blood to the side and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped, his voice shaking with pain and rage. “You were the one who treated her like a nuisance. Why would any of us act differently?”
Lucas’s chest heaved violently. His head dropped forward, shadowing his face, and when he looked up again—he was pale. Completely shattered.
Suddenly, everything came flooding in.
The memory of her shoulder bleeding. The tears in her eyes. The way she had winced when he gripped her shoulder—and how he had ignored it, brushed her off thinking she was exaggerating.
Lucas backed away a step. Then another. His knees buckled, and he sank into the chair like a man struck by lightning, his face pale and eyes wide with horror. His hands clenched into fists on his knees. Guilt poured off him in waves, his body frozen in place, his mouth slightly agape but no words coming out.
He couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t think.
He had ignored her pain, dismissed her wounds, thrown words at her like daggers… and now she didn’t even remember him.
***
Emily stepped out of Jacob’s office building, her bag slung over her shoulder and a slight skip in her steps. The sunset was soft, the air crisp, and her lips curled into a content smile.
Lucas hadn’t returned.
‘Finally,’ she thought. ‘Maybe he’s done trying to control me. Maybe he gave up.’
She let out a breath of relief and gave a soft, hopeful smile.
‘Maybe now, I can finally have some peace.’
