Chapter 73 Unwanted Relief

Chapter 73 Unwanted Relief

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Elowen stared at the transfer notification until the numbers began to blur.
The amount Lucian had transferred sat there in brutal, undeniable clarity.
Triple.. Exactly triple her usual payment and it made her stomach twist again.
For one wild second, fury surged so sharply through her that she nearly threw the phone across the room.. The audacity of it.
The sheer, infuriating nerve of that rich annoying cute golden daddy issues boy.. He had done it anyway.
After she had explicitly told him not to dare help her, after she had made herself painfully clear for him not to show her pity.
Her fingers trembled as she typed out another message.
‘I said no.’
The response came almost instantly as though he had been expecting a banter with her.
‘I know.’
Her jaw clenched because that somehow made it worse so she typed again.
‘Take it back.’
This time, his reply took longer, three dots appeared.. Vanished.. Returned. Vanished again then..
‘No.’
Just that one simple firm and stubborn word.
Something hot and helpless coiled in her chest Elowen tossed the phone onto the bed as though it had burned her then she shoved both hands into her hair and paced the length of her tiny room.
Back and forth… Back and forth to the extent her thoughts spiraled violently.
She should send it back.. Immediately.
That was the obvious answer.. The only answer because keeping it meant accepting help and accepting help meant acknowledging weakness, it meant admitting she could not fix this on her own, it meant surrendering some piece of the pride that had kept her standing through every impossible season of her life.
She stopped pacing and stared at the laptop screen still open on the floor, at the spreadsheet she had built at two in the morning, at the ruthless columns of numbers that had reduced her to tears.
Slowly and almost reluctantly, she quietly sat down then opened her banking app and began recalculating.
Her account balance, now with Lucian’s transfer.
The new rent, the overdue tuition balance, utilities, groceries, Kieron’s prescriptions.
The calculator clicked softly beneath her fingers and this time, the numbers shifted, not dramatically though but enough..
Enough to cover the rent increase, enough to delay immediate disaster and enough to bypass another month.
The realization landed like a blow and shame followed instantly because the relief she felt was real and that somehow made everything worse.
She hated herself for it, hated the way her shoulders loosened fractionally, hated the tiny, traitorous sense of safety the transfer provided and hated the fact that Lucian had looked at her drowning and reached out without hesitation while she had stood there too proud to admit she was sinking.
Her throat tightened painfully as she closed the app and dropped the phone face-down onto the bed and as usual for the overthinking Elowen sleep didn’t come.
When morning finally came, Elowen had already made up her mind.
She was confronting him and this time, she was not walking away.
The gym was nearly empty when she arrived that afternoon but Lucian stood near the heavy bags, methodically wrapping his hands.
He looked up the moment she entered and immediately went limp. He must have seen something in her face because his expression shifted into wary understanding.. He knew why she was there aside training of course.
Good.
Elowen crossed the room without preamble. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Her voice cracked through the quiet space like a whip and Lucian calmly finished securing his wraps before answering and hisinfuriating calm only sharpened her irritation.
“I was thinking you needed help.”
“I told you not to send that money.”
“I remember you saying you don’t need help I don’t remember you being specific.”
“Then why did you?”
Finally, he looked at her fully and the quiet steadiness in his gaze made something in her chest twist.
“Because you needed it.”
The simple certainty in his voice sent heat flooding her face.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“No?” His brow lifted slightly. “So what was your plan?”
“That is none of your business.”
His jaw tightened. “Elowen.”
“No.”
Her voice rose. “You don’t get to insert yourself into my life because you saw a few overdue notices.”
“A few?” His laugh was humorless. “There were tuition warnings, utility shutoff notices, and a rent increase.”
The bluntness of hearing it spoken aloud made humiliation crawl up her throat so she folded her arms tightly across her chest.
“That still doesn’t justify what you did.”
Lucian stepped closer. “What exactly are you angry about?”
The question caught her off guard. “What?”
“Are you angry because I helped?” His voice remained frustratingly gentle. “Or because part of you was relieved I did?”
The words struck too close and her pulse spiked.
“Don’t psychoanalyze me.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
His expression softened and somehow that was infinitely worse than if he had argued.
“Elowen.”
The quiet way he said her name made her chest tighten. “I’m not trying to humiliate you.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
His face shifted then with something wounded flickering briefly beneath his calm and when he spoke again, his voice was lower.
“I know what pride looks like.”
That made her falter because there was no arrogance in his tone.. Only painful understanding.
Lucian exhaled slowly and dragged a hand through his pale fine already messy hair.
“When my family sent me away after the championship, they covered everything.” His eyes darkened. “The clinic.. The rehab lie.. The press suppression.. The image cleanup.”
He laughed softly, bitterly. “On paper, it looked like help.”
Elowen stayed silent.
“I hated every second of it.” His gaze held hers. “Because every dollar they spent felt like proof I was broken enough to need saving.”
The raw honesty of it hit her unexpectedly hard and Lucian took another step closer.
“I know exactly how it feels to have someone force help on you when your pride is the only thing keeping you standing.”
Her anger wavered, it wasn’t gone but it was no longer sharp enough to shield her.
“Then why do it to me?”
For a moment, he said nothing and when he finally answered, his voice came painfully quiet.
“Because I’d rather you hate me than drown silently.”
The words landed squarely in her chest and it was hard enough to steal her breath.. Because there was no manipulation in his expression, no expectation and no self-congratulation.
Just devastating sincerity and that affected her far more deeply than anger ever could.
She looked away because suddenly holding his gaze felt unbearable.
No one had ever said something like that to her, no one had ever looked at her struggle and chosen discomfort over indifference.. Chosen her anger over her collapse.
The realization unsettled her profoundly and Lucian being the green flag that he is, softened his voice even further.
“You don’t have to thank me.”
She swallowed hard. “Uhm.. Well.. I wasn’t going to.”
That finally drew the faintest ghost of a smile from him and somehow that small expression made the tension between them feel even more intimate.
Elowen hated how warm her face felt, she hated the ache blooming low in her chest and most of all she hated the dangerous softness threatening to undo every defense she had built.
Slowly, she looked back at him at the steady concern in his eyes, at the quiet patience in his posture, at the strange, impossible tenderness he was offering her so freely.
And the question slipped out before she could stop it.
“Why do you suddenly care this much?”
And Lucian’s expression shifted into something she could not quite name.