Chapter 227 Love Too Deeply, It Became an Illness
"I'm not afraid," I answered with certainty.
I'm different from Lucas.
I let the subject drop and looked Eugene over from head to toe. "Come with me to my hospital."
"The wellness center at Platinum Haven Hotel? That's quite famous. I've been wanting to check it out!" Eugene's eyes lit up. "Does this count as poaching from Lucas?"
I chuckled softly. "If you're willing to switch jobs, you're very welcome."
Eugene nodded and fell in behind me. "I didn't think you'd take it this well. Don't you blame Lucas or hate him?"
My heart was far from calm.
"How could a god hate their own worshiper?" I said lightly. "I've always known about his unhealthy possessiveness toward me. I only blame him for not being honest with me sooner."
Eugene's eyes crinkled as he smiled. Once we were in the car, he pulled out his phone and started typing.
I guessed he was contacting Lucas. I didn't stop him.
When Eugene arrived at the wellness center, he looked around curiously. I arranged accommodation for him, right next to Roger's place. It was a step up from the suburbs he'd been staying.
When Roger heard I'd brought in another doctor, he came running over excitedly, grumbling about wanting to see which poor soul had been tricked by me, this unscrupulous capitalist.
I figured he was worried about being replaced. Once he found out Eugene's specialty didn't overlap with his, he warmed up to Eugene considerably.
After leaving Eugene in Roger's care, I immediately headed to the Co-governed District.
Brian had just finished a campaign event and was resting in his RV. He looked pleasantly surprised to see me. "What are you doing here? I'm not hurt."
"I won't feel at ease until I see you myself," I sat down beside him. "Who sent the assassin?"
A sharp, cold glint flashed in Brian's eyes. He kept his voice low, "A hitman hired by city hall officials."
"'So those officials want to drive a wedge between us and the Co-governed District?" I caught Brian's eye signal and lowered my voice, nervously scanning around the RV, mouthing the word, "Bugs?"
Brian shook his head and pointed at my belly. "What we're talking about isn't good for prenatal education."
I rolled my eyes and burst out laughing.
In the evening, the front door flew open.
Lucas burst into the living room, out of breath.
I was stretched out on the sofa playing with my phone, surprised to see his neatly styled hair from this morning now disheveled.
His eyes were bloodshot. He looked wrecked and lost.
"What happened?" I sat up.
Lucas crossed the room slowly and dropped to one knee in front of me, his voice trembling. "I thought you'd left."
"Left?" I blinked in confusion, "Where to?"
Lucas fell silent.
"Don't shut down on me. How am I supposed to know what's in your head if you won't talk?" I tugged at his hand in frustration. He didn't budge, so I pinched the back of his hand. "Get up!"
Lucas laughed. I stared at him oddly. "What are you laughing at? Doesn't it hurt?"
"It hurts." He let me pull him up and settled beside me, arm coming around my shoulders. "I rushed to the suburbs and didn't see you. I went to Platinum Haven Hotel to find you, and they said you had already left. I tracked you to the Co-governed District. You weren't there either."
I smiled and patted his cheek. "Bad timing. You're a bit unlucky, just kept missing me by minutes."
Lucas pressed his lips together, saying nothing.
"I was home the whole time. You could have just come here." I said pointedly, then complained, "Why didn't you call me? If you'd just asked where I was, you wouldn't have kept missing me."
Lucas rested his head on my shoulder. "You're right."
"Of course I am." I pushed Lucas away. "Sit properly. Are you ready to come clean?"
Lucas nodded. "Many of the Dons in our family history loved only one woman. None of them ended well. There were also promiscuous ones like my father, who ended up just as lonely in their old age."
His Adam's apple bobbed as he struggled to speak, each word seemingly carved from his heart. "Before Grandpa became paralyzed, he said I was just like them, that I'd never be happy in this life."
"You believed him?" I pulled back to look at him in astonishment. "How could you believe what he said?"
Lucas held my hand, gazing deeply into my eyes, then as if making a huge decision, slowly said, "I really regret not cherishing you properly before. Looking back, I was such a fool, such an asshole!"
"I watched you stop needing me. I couldn't control wanting to know where you were, what you were doing, who you were with."
"I wanted to hide you away, keep you somewhere only I could find you. I was so scared. I even dreamed that you'd rather have an abortion than have any relationship with me anymore."
Lucas cupped my hand around his face.
His lashes brushed my palm. His face was wet.
"But I knew I couldn't do that. I kidnapped you once, took away your freedom. Doing it again would only make you hate me more."
Something ached in my chest as he poured out his heart.
He'd turned love into obsession, hidden obsession as a secret, and kept it buried until it rotted into something else.
His silence and anxiety stemmed from insecurity, and the root of that insecurity was me.
"Don't you trust me?" I asked him.
"I do." Lucas's answer was very quiet, accompanied by his rapid, unstable breathing.
"Next time you go see Eugene, I'll go with you." I wanted to give him a hug, but he was holding my hands.
"Stop overthinking." I squeezed myself into his embrace, leaning against his warm chest, then took his cold hands in mine and said gently but firmly, "I'm right here beside you."
At dinner, Lucas's eyes were still red.
He probably felt embarrassed and tried hard to act composed. "The broccoli might have been cooked a bit too long."
"It's fine, it's delicious." I smiled without calling him out, and tasted the food Lucas had made for me himself. "I like this, the milk pudding."
"I'm glad you like it." Lucas leaned down and kissed my cheek.
That night I lay there holding his hand, turning it over in my mind. After I found out I was pregnant, I had allowed Lucas move in without making it official, and my brothers didn't object either. So where was all this insecurity coming from?
Besides Holden, had someone else said something to him?
Before I could figure it out, I fell asleep. Gunshots woke me in the middle of the night.
"What happened?" I sat up instantly.
"It's nothing, caught two little bugs." Lucas held me with one hand, the other wrapped around a gun he'd pulled from the drawer.
I looked at him groggily. Lucas kissed my eyebrows and nose, coaxing me in a gentle tone, "Go back to sleep."
I nodded and closed my eyes, feeling at peace.
The next morning, I asked him what had happened.
Lucas said two drones had flown close in the middle of the night, hovering above the house. When they wouldn't pull back, he shot them down.
They hadn't traced the operator, so they didn't know the drones' purpose, but I had a gut feeling it was related to the mayoral election.
If Brian successfully won the mayoral race, the Sorelli family's influence would expand further, and many people didn't want to see that happen.
I had a feeling that those trying to obstruct us would use increasingly aggressive tactics.