Chapter 246

Chapter 246
Serena felt the blood drain from her face.

Lucien didn’t move, but something inside him broke.

Not loudly.

Quietly.

Fatally.

His eyes slowly lowered, and his breathing turned slow, too slow, like a predator deciding exactly how to eviscerate its prey. The muscles in his shoulders bunched, his fists curling until his knuckles turned bone white.

Serena could feel the shift in him.

This wasn’t jealousy.

This wasn’t irritation.

This wasn’t even anger.

This was wrath.

Pure, unfiltered, uncontainable wrath that he had been holding onto for months, from the moment someone first drugged Serena at a banquet… to sabotaging their relationship… to nearly killing Meilin… to manipulating the Zhao downfall… and now threatening Serena’s mother.

A line had been crossed.

A line no one survives crossing.

“Lucien…” Serena whispered, sensing the storm building behind his stillness.

His voice came out like ice cracking under pressure. “From the beginning, she’s done nothing but try to destroy you.”

His gaze lifted, and it was terrifying in its cold clarity.

“Poisoning you at the charity gala.”

Serena’s breath hitched.

Lucien’s jaw clenched harder.

“Sabotaging your reputation in the industry so no CEO dared hire you.”

Serena gasped. “That was her?”

“She intercepted every offer.”

Mrs. Lin’s hand shot to her mouth.

“And when that wasn’t enough, she used Adrian to kidnap Meilin.” His voice darkened. “She kept her locked up for years. Years, Serena. And when Meilin escaped…” He exhaled heavily. “She tried to finish the job.”

Serena felt sick. Despair clung to her like a second skin.

“And now,” Lucien continued, staring at the wall like he hated the very air Arabelle breathed, “she dares threaten your mother?”

Serena instinctively took his hand. “Lucien...”

But Lucien’s self restraint snapped.

“This is the last time,” he said, voice flat, dead, lethal. “The very last time I allow that woman to touch anything connected to you.”

Serena blinked rapidly, overwhelmed. “Lucien…”

He turned his head slowly toward her, and the look in his eyes made her heart stumble.

He wasn’t just angry.

He was done.

Not the cold, calculating Lucien the world feared.

Not the protective, teasing man who loved her.

This was a man pushed past sanity, a man who had held back for her sake, again and again, until the restraint strangled him.

“Every single time I spared her,” Lucien whispered, more to himself than to her, “she crawled back like a parasite and went after you. Every. Time.”

Serena rubbed his knuckles gently. “Lucien, breathe.”

His breath shuddered, ragged.

Mrs. Lin flinched at the raw violence in the room.

“She hurt you,” Lucien said, staring into Serena’s eyes. “She tried to destroy you. And I stayed quiet because I didn’t want to stain your world with what I’m capable of.” His voice dropped, dangerously soft. “But she’s now crossed the only boundary I cannot tolerate.”

Serena’s pulse quickened. His hand was trembling, not in fear, but restrained bloodlust.

“You,” he said slowly, “…and the people you love.”

Before Serena could speak, Lucien leaned down and kissed her forehead, a kiss too soft for the fury vibrating in him.

“Stay with your mother.”

“Lucien...”

He stepped back.

Straightened his suit.

And the man standing before her wasn’t the husband who held her all night. It wasn’t the lover who whispered in her ear and made her blush.

This was the CEO who made empires kneel.

This was the predator who buried enemies so deeply they were forgotten by history.

Serena grabbed his wrist desperately. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

Lucien finally met her eyes.

“I’m done being merciful,” he said. “For you, I’ve been patient. For you, I’ve tolerated insects crawling. But Serena…” He brushed her cheek with his thumb, gaze blazing. “They touched you. They touched your family. For that, mercy is over.”

A chill crawled across Serena’s spine.

“Lucien...”

He kissed her, fierce and brief.

“Wait for me.”

Then he walked out of the hospital room, leaving behind an atmosphere so tense Serena felt she could barely breathe.

Mrs. Lin whispered shakily, “Serena… dear… did your husband just declare war?”

Serena stared at the door Lucien disappeared through, heart racing, a mix of awe and terror swirling inside her chest.

“No,” she whispered.

“He just decided to burn the world down.”

The moment he stepped into the hallway, the mask Serena knew was replaced by something lethal. A storm. A promise of destruction.

His men waiting outside stiffened as they saw the change.

“Move,” Lucien ordered, voice low, cold, and merciless. “We’re ending Arabelle Weng. Today.”

The hall seemed to freeze with the weight of it.

He loosened the cuff buttons of his dress shirt, rolling them up to his forearms as he walked, each movement deliberate, furious, controlled.

He had held back for far too long. For Serena. For peace. For hope that maybe, maybe Arabelle would stop pushing.

But Serena’s mother being threatened?

Manipulated?

Almost harmed?

That crossed every line.

“Get me everything,” Lucien ordered. “Every record. Every camera. Every person who saw Arabelle in the building. I want a timeline. I want evidence. I want names. Now.”

His second in command swallowed. “Sir… the Weng family...”

Lucien turned his head slightly, eyes murderous. “The Weng Family is irrelevant.”

He took out his phone, dialing someone with a sharp flick of his thumb.

“Mobilize every division,” he said the moment the line picked up. “Financial, political, technological. I want every Weng enterprise audited. Every contract reviewed. Every asset frozen the second we have grounds.”

A pause.

“And if we don’t have grounds yet… create them.”

He ended the call.

Another rang immediately. His cybersecurity chief.

“Sir, what am I targeting?”

Lucien didn’t stop walking as he replied: “Everything Arabelle has ever touched. Her private networks. Her accounts. Her travel records. Her secret investments. Her burner numbers. I want her exposed down to her skin.”

A beat.

“And dig into the facility where Meilin was held. Adrian wasn’t acting alone. Arabelle was part of it.”

His men exchanged looks.

Lucien rarely raised his voice. But his fury was volcanic now.

They reached the elevator. Lucien’s phone vibrated, a message.

FOUND FOOTAGE: Arabelle entering the hospital. Timestamp matches Mrs. Lin’s collapse.