Chapter 150: Ronan Grey

Cecilia

Arthur had gone completely still, his face pale beneath the exhaustion and stress of the past few days. When he finally spoke, his voice was so quiet I almost couldn't hear it.

"Finish that sentence." It wasn't a request. "Say what you were about to say, Ceci."

"I didn't mean—" I started, but he cut me off with a sharp gesture.

"You were going to say you won't be my wife," he said, and there was something broken in his voice that made my chest ache.

"That's what you were about to say, wasn't it? That if I won't let you risk your life playing detective, you'd rather end our engagement than listen to me."

"Arthur, no, that's not—" I reached for him, but he stepped back, creating distance between us that felt like a chasm.

"Is that really what you want?" His voice was still quiet, still controlled, but I could see the pain written across his face, could see the way his hands were shaking slightly at his sides.

"You'd rather throw away everything we have—everything we've fought for, everything we've survived together—than let me have a say in keeping you safe?"

"That's not fair," I said, my own voice breaking.

"You're twisting my words. I just—I want to be able to make my own choices, Arthur. I want to be able to pursue a career that interests me without you shutting it down because you're scared something might happen to me."

"Of course I'm scared!" The words exploded out of him, loud enough that I flinched. "I'm fucking terrified, Ceci! Do you have any idea what it was like—" His voice cracked completely, and he had to stop, had to take several shaky breaths before he could continue.

"Do you have any idea what it was like," he said again, quieter now but no less intense, "getting that call from Mrs. Chen saying you were missing? Spending hours not knowing if you were alive or dead, if you were being hurt, if I'd ever see you again?"

He moved closer, his eyes locked on mine with an intensity that made it impossible to look away. "And then finding you—seeing you bleeding and barely conscious."

His hands came up to frame my face, gentle despite the emotion making them shake.

"I can't go through that again. I won't survive it if something happens to you. So yes, I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe, even if that means telling you no when you want to do something dangerous. Even if it makes you angry at me. Even if—"

He stopped, his throat working as he swallowed hard. "Even if it makes you want to leave me."

The tears I'd been holding back finally spilled over, hot tracks down my cheeks that I couldn't wipe away because Arthur's hands were still cradling my face.

"I don't want to leave you," I said, my voice coming out small and broken.

"Arthur, I love you. I'm not going anywhere. I just—" I took a shaky breath. "I need you to trust that I can take care of myself. That I'm not going to do anything stupid or reckless without thinking it through first."

"But you already did," he said, and there was no accusation in his voice, just stated fact. "You went to Grey Manor knowing how dangerous it was."

His thumbs brushed away my tears with infinite gentleness. "That's not thinking things through, baby. That's throwing yourself into danger because you care about people and you can't stand to see them suffer. And I love that about you—god, I love how much you care, how brave you are, how you'd risk everything to save someone who needed help."

He pressed his forehead against mine, his eyes closing. "But it's also going to give me a heart attack. Because you don't seem to understand that you're the most important thing in my world. More important than anything. And if something happened to you—if I lost you—"

His voice broke completely, and I felt his whole body shudder with the force of emotion he was barely containing.

"You won't lose me," I whispered, my hands coming up to cover his where they still cupped my face. "Arthur, you won't lose me. I promise. I just want to try to become—"

Arthur cut me off. I could tell he was furious about my desire to become a detective.

A sharp knock interrupted us, making us both turn toward the door.

"Come in," Arthur called out, his voice still rough with emotion even as he straightened up and stepped back from me, putting professional distance between us like whoever was on the other side of that door might judge us for the raw vulnerability we'd just shared.

I calmed myself down. We'll deal with this matter later.

Ethan pushed through, his usual composed expression slightly strained as his eyes flicked between us with obvious awareness that he'd interrupted something significant. "Mr. Winston, I apologize for the intrusion, but there's a situation that requires immediate attention."

Arthur's entire demeanor shifted—the vulnerable man who'd been on the verge of breaking down moments ago disappeared, replaced by the controlled CEO who could handle anything thrown at him. "What kind of situation?"

"Ronan Grey just surrendered himself to our security team downstairs," Ethan said, his voice carefully neutral in that way that meant he was delivering information he knew would cause problems. "He's requesting an audience with Miss Locke. Says he has information she needs to hear, and he'll only speak to her directly."

My stomach dropped, a complicated mix of dread and curiosity flooding through me at the thought of facing the Grey family heir—the man who'd escaped while his father and the rest of the family were being arrested, the man who'd taken all the evidence that could have destroyed them.

"Absolutely not," Arthur said immediately, his voice going hard and final. "Tell him to go to hell."