Craved by the Wrong Volkov-Chapter 258: What was destroyed

Braelyn’s POV

"You know the truth, Lynn," Lucien said gently with a smile that made him devastatingly handsome. Silence bloomed between us. The wind howled in the distance, and I bowed my head, unable to meet his gaze. He just stared at me, his silent gaze burned into me.

I didn’t know how long we stood there lost in our thoughts and the heat of the moment. His words echoed in my mind.

You know the truth, Lynn.

The words echoed louder than the waves. They wrapped around my ribs and squeezed until breathing felt like a chore.

My thoughts spiralled, searching for meaning, for proof, for something solid to hold on to, but everything inside me felt blurred and shaken. What truth was he talking about?

Lucien must have noticed the way I drifted somewhere far from him because the next thing I felt was a sharp flick against my forehead.

"Ow..." I winced, snapping back to reality. My fingers rushed to rub my forehead.

He rolled his eyes lightly. "Stop overthinking. You’ll ruin a perfectly good night." he clicked his tongue then moved to grab another sparkler...it was cute seeing him hold one.

I scoffed, a perfectly good night, that’s right, like we hadn’t just discussed burning my husband’s world to the ground.

Still, he moved away from the edge of that conversation as if it had never happened. As if he hadn’t just cracked something open inside me. He handed me another sparkler, his fingers brushing mine for a second too long, and turned toward the ocean.

We stood side by side, lighting firecrackers in silence. The sparks hissed and crackled, bright and short-lived, dying out almost as soon as they were born. I tried to focus on the sound, the light, the smell of smoke in the air. I tried to enjoy the moment the way he wanted me to.

But the tension never left. It stayed between us like an unspoken truth neither of us wanted to touch again.

By the time we left the beach, the air had turned colder. My skin still carried the scent of salt and smoke as Lucien drove me back to Raphael’s villa. The road was quiet, streetlights flashing across the windshield in steady intervals.

"You could stay over," he said casually, one hand resting on the steering wheel. "Spare yourself the drama." he was right but I was feeling a bit guilty about tonight. Despite telling myself not to care...

"I’m tired," I replied, leaning my head against the window. "I just want to sleep." I sighed heavily.

He didn’t push, but I could feel his gaze linger on me for a moment longer than necessary before he looked back at the road.

It was close to midnight when the gates of the villa opened. The house looked darker than usual, the windows like hollow eyes staring back at me. I reached for the door. "Goodnight..." I muttered.

"Wait..." he blurted, stopping me. I turned towards him confused why he stopped me then his lips crashed against mine. Leaving me frozen in place. It was a short kiss but enough to scramble my poor brains.

Lucien gave me a faint smirk. "You were leaving without a Goodnight kiss " he chimed, leaving me flustered. My face burned and I rushed out of the car.

I stepped out of the car, hugging my arms around myself against the cold trying to avoid his gaze.

"Goodnight, Viper," Lucien called softly with a teasing tone. I didn’t reply and only gave him a glare before rushing ahead. I heard him laugh behind me.

The door shut behind me before my nerves could relax.

The silence in the villa felt heavy, almost suffocating. I let out a long breath I hadn’t realised I was holding and headed toward the stairs, my heels quiet against the marble floor as I made my way through the foyer

Then I heard it, voices that made my brows furrow. I froze mid-step glancing in the direction of the sound.

They were coming from the sitting room. Low at first, muffled, but it felt familiar. The door was slightly open, light spilling out into the corridor. I frowned, moving closer, my heartbeat picking up for reasons I couldn’t explain.

The closer I got, the clearer the sound became. It was my voice, my frown deepened. A chill ran through me as I stepped into the doorway.

The television was on. Old footage flickered across the screen, slightly shaky, badly angled, the kind of videos taken without thinking about lighting or framing. The clip graphics were poorly taken from an old camera.

I walked further inside, my eyes locked on the screen as recognition hit me all at once. It was us, me and Raphael from back in the university days.

I used to film everything back then. Dates, random walks, stupid jokes. Raphael had always complained about it, saying I was turning our lives into a documentary, but he still went along with it every time.

On the screen, we were in a cat café. I was laughing, trying to fix a pair of ridiculous cat ears onto his head while he looked completely mortified. His ears were red, his jaw tight, but he didn’t stop me.

"You look cute," a past me teased from the screen.

"I look stupid," he muttered, but he still let me record him.

That day I’d failed a test. I remembered crying outside campus, convinced I was useless. It was in my freshman days when we started dating freshly when our engagement was confirmed.

I was nervous that day Raphael was going to scold me because a day before the test instead of studying I had gone to a concert but to my greatest shock Raphael had dragged me here to cheer me up, even though he hated cats and public embarrassment.

My vision blurred. I blinked hard, but the sting didn’t go away.

"Raphael?" I called softly, my voice strange in my own ears. There was no answer.

I finally looked away from the television and scanned the room. That’s when I saw him. He was sprawled on the couch, one arm hanging off the side, an almost empty bottle of alcohol resting against his chest. He was still wearing his shirt from the summit, the top buttons undone, tie and jacket gone. His hair was messy, his face flushed.

Even from where I stood, I could see the tear stains dried along his cheeks. He looked like a wreck, a beautiful wreck as at that.

Something twisted painfully in my chest. I remember how much I loved that face