Chapter 128 Hidden Secret
Lila POV
Nico brushed my hair gently over my shoulder, his fingers lingering for a second longer than necessary, as if grounding himself. Then his hand slid beneath my chin, firm but not rough, lifting my face until my eyes were forced to meet his.
“What was he talking about, little pet?” His voice was low, dangerous in a quiet way. “What did he want to tell me?”
My heart stuttered painfully against my ribs, like it was trying to escape the cage of my chest. He could never know.
Nico could never know what really happened at the club. That truth was too ugly, too heavy, too destructive. It would shatter everything we had barely managed to hold together.
That secret would die with Nikolai.
I turned my gaze slightly, my eyes landing on Nikolai’s broken body, his face was barely recognizable, twisted and ruined, blood still dripping in thick, dark clots that stained the floor beneath him. The sight should have made me feel something fear, disgust, maybe even satisfaction but all I felt was emptiness.
Whatever happened at the club ended here with him and I would carry the rest of it with me to the grave.
We had already suffered too much. I refused to let a ghost drag us back into hell.
“He was the one who caused it,” I said slowly, my voice quieter than I intended but steady enough.
“He… violated me and he forced those pills inside me. His fingers....” My breath hitched, the memory scraping against my throat like broken glass. “They went so deep it hurt.”
The words tasted bitter, incomplete, but they were enough they had to be.
Nico’s expression darkened instantly. A curse tore from his lips as his hands tightened around my shoulders and he turned me fully toward him, his grip firm and almost desperate.
“Never again,” he said, his voice shaking with restrained fury. “Never again, Lila.”
His eyes burned into mine, raw and unguarded in a way I had never seen before.
“You’ve been surrounded by lies for too long. Too many people have failed you.” His grip softened slightly, but his intensity didn’t. “From this moment on, I swear, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you’re surrounded by nothing but truth. By vows.”
My throat tightened.
“I should have protected you from him,” he continued, his voice dropping, heavy with guilt. “I should have seen it and stopped it but I didn’t.”
A tear slipped down his face, slow and unhidden.
“I swear to God, Lila… I will never leave you again.” His voice broke slightly, but he didn’t look away. “I vow to protect you. I vow to make you my entire world. I vow to keep you always and I vow to love you… even after death.”
That single tear did something to me.
It cracked something open inside my chest that I thought had already died.
For the first time since everything happened, I felt… safe not whole not healed but safe.
“I love you, Lila,” he whispered.
He kept holding my hands and staring occasionally at me through out our ride back to Uncle Lucas house and by the time we arrived at Uncle Lucas’s place, the weight of everything came crashing back down on me.
The walls felt too close and even the air felt suffocating.
This place… it didn’t feel like safety. It felt like a reminder of everything I had lost and I didn’t hesitate.
The moment we stepped inside, I went straight to my room and started collecting my things then i started packing both clothes, bags and anything I could grab. My movements were rushed, almost frantic, like if I didn’t leave immediately, I would completely fall apart.
I couldn’t stay here not for another second.
Somewhere behind me, I could hear Nico’s voice, low and controlled, speaking to the doctor he had called to check on me. The sound barely registered because all I could think about was the fact that my baby was gone.
The emptiness inside me felt endless, a hollow ache that no words, no promises, no vengeance could ever fill.
“The doctor is coming, Lila,” Nico said, stepping into the room.
His voice softened when he saw me packing. “Just calm down, lie down and rest until he arrives.”
I didn’t even pause. “I’m leaving.”
The words came out flat, final.
Silence stretched between us for a moment before he spoke again. “To where?”
There was frustration in his voice now, tightly controlled but unmistakable.
I stopped for just a second, my hands gripping the edge of my bag as I tried to steady the storm inside me then I turned to him.
“Let’s go to your house,” I said.
My voice wavered slightly, but I forced the next words out anyway. “And… let’s get a dog.”
The words landed between us like a bomb because it wasn’t really about a dog.
It was about needing something just anything to hold onto and something to make me alive again.
Something that could fill even the smallest piece of the void my baby left behind.
I held his gaze, daring him to understand… without asking me to explain because if I tried to explain, I would break.
"I haven't been in my house in months, just calm down when the doctor arrives, I will go fix the place up and come get you, can we do that."
I wanted to argue, I didn't see the need for the doctor coming to confirm what we already know but I was exhausted and when he took my hand and led me to the shower, I couldn't stop crying.
I didn't know what drug he gave me to calm my body but when I went to sleep I heard the doctor speaking but couldn't make out a word from what he was saying, have been through a lot but I was satisfied that Nico didn't find out what happened at the club.
Now that Damon and Nikolai is gone, my next focus was Matteo and everyone involved in my kidnapped, they would pay for killing my baby.