Chapter 38: Lucas’s Suspicion

Chapter 38: Lucas’s Suspicion


The penthouse was unnervingly quiet, as though the walls themselves mourned Sienna. Dust clung to the corners of the once-pristine halls, and the scent of her perfume had long since faded into something faint—like a ghost refusing to leave. Lucas stood by the window, the golden rays of sunset painting his face in a strange mixture of sorrow and determination. He held the necklace tightly in his hand—the one Eve had carelessly worn earlier, flaunting it as though it were hers.
He had been calm when he approached her, though inside he burned with fury.
“I would appreciate you giving me what belongs to me,” Lucas had told her. His voice carried the weight of possession, of history, of something deeper than simple sentiment. His fingers brushed the chain as he took it from her hand, and for a brief moment, their eyes locked.
Eve didn’t flinch, nor did she back down. In fact, her lips curved into a smile that bordered on admiration. She tilted her head, studying him like one would study a painting of an old warrior.
“You’re… different,” she had murmured softly. “That fire in your eyes—Sienna must have loved that about you.”
Lucas ignored her attempt at provocation, pocketing the necklace before stepping back. But Eve’s heart gave a quick flutter she didn’t expect. Lucas’s quiet possessiveness, his dominance over what was his—she found it manly, dangerous, almost attractive. Still, she quickly masked it with her usual coyness.
“You shouldn’t hold onto the past, Lucas,” she teased, circling around him like a predator sizing up prey. “It makes you weak.”
But Lucas wasn’t distracted. He knew better than to let Eve’s beauty, her carefully curated innocence, or her words pierce his focus. He had come for answers, and the more he studied her, the more he realized how much of her story simply didn’t fit.
That night, Lucas sat in his car outside the penthouse, watching from a distance. Daniel’s car was parked in the driveway. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a happy couple sharing an evening together. But Lucas’s gut told him otherwise.
Inside, Eve’s plan was working perfectly.
Daniel had changed. He wasn’t the sharp, ruthless man Lucas had known from business meetings. Now, he was fragile, desperate—a man consumed by guilt and clinging to Eve like a drowning man clings to driftwood.
Every night became a ritual. The moment he stepped into the penthouse, Daniel gravitated toward Eve, needing her touch, her smile, her validation. His obsession was both emotional and physical, spiraling into something darker. The more broken he became, the tighter Eve wrapped her threads around him.
“I can’t lose you,” Daniel whispered one evening, his lips brushing against her skin, his eyes wild. “Without you, there’s nothing left.”
Eve stroked his hair, her expression unreadable. Inside, she smirked. That’s right. Depend on me. Forget her. Sienna is dead. I’m all you need.
But Lucas wasn’t fooled.
On the third night after he confronted Eve, he returned to the penthouse under the cover of midnight. He moved silently, like a shadow, slipping through the security system with codes Sienna once trusted him with. His shoes made no sound against the polished marble floors as he entered the study—Sienna’s study, not Eve’s.
And then, the sounds hit him.
Upstairs, the muffled rhythm of thuds against walls, the creak of the bed frame, and moans that echoed through the corridors. Daniel’s voice, broken and needy. Eve’s laughter, throaty and triumphant. The air itself vibrated with their wild frenzy, a sick parody of love that made Lucas’s jaw tighten.
He closed his eyes for a moment, pushing down the rage, the disgust. This isn’t why I’m here. He told himself. He wouldn’t give Eve the satisfaction of letting her lure him into the emotional chaos she thrived on.
Instead, Lucas moved deeper into the study. His hand brushed against the familiar shelf, the place where Sienna once kept her files. He crouched before the safe. The code came to his fingers instinctively—it hadn’t changed. Of course it hadn’t. Sienna had trusted only him with it.
The lock clicked.
He opened the door slowly, his pulse steady despite the storm upstairs. Inside were documents. Piles of papers that didn’t belong to Sienna. Fake IDs. Bank statements with forged signatures. Passports under different names. And at the center of it all—an old photograph.
A girl with wide, desperate eyes. A younger version of Eve. Or rather… Angel.
Lucas’s hand trembled as he held the photo up to the dim light. The pieces began to align. The inconsistencies. The lies. The way Eve had slithered into Sienna’s world and stolen everything, piece by piece.
His suspicion had just turned into certainty.
He looked up, hearing another loud thud from upstairs, Eve’s voice crying out in twisted pleasure. His grip tightened around the photograph until the edges bent.
“Angel…” he whispered to himself, the name tasting like venom on his tongue.
Now he knew. And knowing meant he finally had the weapon to take her down.

Lucas slipped the photograph into his pocket, his fingers tightening around it as though the old, faded paper were the last remaining fragment of Sienna’s soul. The safe now stood ajar, its metal door still humming with the echo of discovery. Eve’s fake documents, her forged past, the lies she had so carefully spun — they were all right there, crammed in the steel box. Proof. Cold, damning proof.
He exhaled quietly, controlling the rush of triumph and anger pounding through his veins. Every instinct in him screamed to storm upstairs, rip Daniel out of her bed, and expose her for the devil she was. But Lucas had learned patience. One wrong move, and everything Sienna had fought for — her legacy, her truth — would slip further away.
He closed the safe gently, ensuring the sound didn’t travel beyond the walls of the study. His movements were measured, careful, his tall frame blending with the shadows as though he were part of them. With one last look at the room that once belonged to Sienna, Lucas turned and moved toward the door.
His hand curled around the knob, his heartbeat slowing into something steady, calculating.
But the moment he opened the door, he froze.
Eve stood there.
Her silhouette was framed by the dim hallway light, her body draped in a silk robe the color of midnight wine. The fabric clung carelessly to her curves, barely covering her, as though she had intended to be caught in this state. A glass of red wine dangled from her fingers, the liquid inside shimmering like blood.
She smirked, her eyes glinting like sharpened glass as they roamed over him, head to toe. Lucas stiffened, instinctively stepping back, the study’s air growing denser with every inch she closed in.
“Well, well…” Her voice was low, husky, a purr sharpened with mockery. “Mr. Knight in shining armor, snooping around in the midnight. I didn’t expect you here.”
Lucas clenched his jaw, masking the fire of being caught. “I was… looking for something,” he replied evenly, his voice clipped, careful.
Her smirk widened as she stepped closer, placing her hand flat against his chest. The chill of her touch seeped through the fabric of his shirt, her fingers spreading as if testing the strength of his heartbeat. Lucas’s body went rigid, his every muscle taut, but he didn’t move.
“Wow,” she whispered, tilting her head, her eyes flickering with a mix of curiosity and dangerous amusement. “So protective over what’s yours… I like that. It’s very…” Her lips curved, dangerously close to his ear. “…manly.”
The wine glass in her other hand tilted, spilling a crimson drop onto the carpet. She didn’t even notice. Or maybe she didn’t care.
Lucas’s piercing eyes bore into hers, cold as steel, but inside, he felt the heat of rage coiling tighter. Every second she stood this close, testing him, tempting him, was another reminder of how poisonous she was — a venom that had already sunk into Daniel, into the company, into everything Sienna had built.
But now, Lucas had the evidence. He only needed to play the game until the right moment to strike.
And standing there, Eve’s hand pressed against his chest, her silk robe barely clinging to her body, Lucas realized one thing with absolute clarity: Eve wasn’t just dangerous. She was waiting for him to take the bait.