Chapter 136 136. Don't Leave Me, Camila
Camila's POV
The words hit my chest like a physical blow. My knees threatened to give up on me. A detective approached me with handcuffs.
"Lucien, what's happening?" My voice didn't even sound like mine.
"Get your hands off her!" He shielded me. "I want to see a warrant."
"Sir, I need you to step back or you'll be arrested for obstruction of justice. We have a direct order from the DA."
My trembling hand found his arm. "Lucien." He looked at me, and the anguish in his golden eyes broke me further. His hands gripped my shoulders, his touch desperate.
"Don't say anything. Not a word until Park and Weiss gets there. Do you understand me? Nothing."
I nodded, but my throat had closed up. Tears were already streaming down my face. The metallic ratcheting of the handcuffs behind me was the loudest thing I had ever heard. The cold steel bit into my wrists, a sharp contrast to the warmth of Lucien's hand just seconds ago.
"Lucien!" I called out, but a car door slammed, cutting off the sound of my own name. I looked back as the cruiser drove off. He was shouting into the phone, his face a mask of desperation I had never seen before.
The ride to the precinct was a blur of shadows and the rhythmic clicking of the turn signal. The terror that had gripped me when the police first appeared had transformed into a heavy, cold clarity-For over a year, I had been breathing borrowed air.
Every kiss from Lucien, every moment of peace, had been built on the hope that the past would stay dead.
At the precinct, the process was a series of humiliations. The removal of the ring Lucien had placed on my finger in Vienna felt like my soul was being ripped.
They ushered me into a small, windowless interrogation room that smelled of stale coffee and cigarettes. Two detectives sat across from me.
"Ms. Sterling, I'm Detective Miller. This is Officer Morris. We'd like to ask you some questions," the woman detective, Miller, turned her laptop to face me.
I looked down, and the video started playing. It was the night Clara had sold me, the exact footage from when I stabbed Victor to when I ran. It didn't show that he tried forcing himself on me, and it didn't show me bumping into Ronan at the door.
How was this possible when we cleared everything?
Ronan was in maximum security. Nadia had been paid off. Who could have possibly had this? Not Rafael. Not Maya. Certainly not Lucien.
Rhys.
The name echoed in my mind. He was a tech genius. He could have been in my phone and our systems. That bastard had been watching me and collecting the rope to hang me with.
And what exactly was my offense? Refusing his advances? No, it didn't make sense for him to go this far.
"Ms. Sterling," Miller leaned forward. "You stabbed a man and fled the state. Is this you in the video?"
The silence stretched.
Don't say anything, Lucien had warned.
"Yes," I said. "That's me."
Miller blinked, raising a brow. "You're admitting to the attempted murder of Victor Hayes?"
"I'm admitting I stabbed him," I corrected, my gaze never wavering. "He tried to rape me, and I defended myself."
I saw the door's reflection in the glass. The fake relationship, the lies to the media, and the crushing fear that one day, someone would find out who about what we tried to bury. I was tired.
'Let's not run from this anymore, Camila.'
Lucien would be furious. He would say I'd just handed the DA a win on a silver platter, but as the detective started scribbling notes, a strange, terrifying sense of peace settled over me.
Only the truth could make me free.
\--Lucien's POV--
"Where is she?" I slammed my hand onto the precinct's front desk. "If you don't bring me to my fiancée right now, I will ensure every single one of you is walking a beat in the Bronx by sunrise."
"Mr. Hayes," the officer behind the glass stammered. "Where's the lawyer? The detectives are still-"
"I don't care what they're doing!" I roared.
My phone rang in my pocket. It was Rosalind Park, texting to tell me she was close to the station. I was pacing the hallway like a caged tiger. Rafael had called me back ten minutes ago after the brief I sent in a text. He promised to be on the next flight from Vienna.
Damon had arrived shortly after me, his face pale and eyes red, looking less like a model and more like a man watching his world collapse.
"Lucien, breathe."
"Don't tell me to breathe," I snapped, shaking his hands off me.
Finally, Rosalind showed up. They let her speak with Camila, then she returned to me after a few seconds.
"Can I see her?" I demanded.
"She's in Interrogation Room B," she said, adjusting her bag. "But Lucien, you need to know... she didn't wait for us."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying, she confessed."
"She... what?" My world tilted.
"And they have it on the record. She's claiming self-defense, but the confession makes bail nearly impossible with the new flight risk evidence they have."
I pushed past her, my heart a lead weight in my chest.
Camila... what did you do?
I burst into the room, my eyes finding Camila immediately. She looked so small sitting at that metal table, her wrists bare, her auburn hair falling over her shoulders.
"Camila," I breathed, crossing to her in two strides. I took her face in my hands, searching her green eyes for some sign that this wasn't true. "What did you do? Why would you talk to them without me?"
"I told them the truth, Lucien," she said softly, her hands coming up to cover mine. Her touch was cold.
"The truth is for people who don't have enemies like mine!" I pulled back. My frustration boiled over. "We could have suppressed that video. We could have claimed it was a fabrication. You just gave them everything they needed to lock you away!"
"It was the right thing to do," she argued, her voice gaining strength. She stood up, meeting my gaze with a stubbornness that usually made me proud, but right now, it made me want to scream. "I don't care who leaked it. All I know is I can't be your 'Fiera' if I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for the next person to find the evidence."
"I would have protected you! You know I would have. I have the power, the money-"
"I don't want a crown of lies, Lucien! I want to stand in front of a judge, tell them what Victor did to me, and take whatever sentence they give me. Only then will I be truly free to be with you."
"No. Fuck, no! I won't accept that. I'm not letting you go to a cell for a man like Victor. I'll hire every hacker, every fixer, every mercenary in this city. I'll buy the jury. I'll buy the judge. If I have to break you out of the transport van myself, I will."
"Respect my wishes, Lucien," she pleaded, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "For once, stop trying to control the outcome. Let me do this the right way."
"The right way leads to a cage!" I lunged forward, gripping her shoulders. My vision was blurring, a hot, stinging sensation building behind my eyes. It was a feeling I hadn't known in decades, something I had buried under layers of steel and gold. "You're being selfish! You're leaving me out here to drown while you sit in a cell feeling 'pure'!"
"I'm doing this for us!" she sobbed.
"There is no 'us' if you're behind bars!"
The silence that followed was suffocating. I stared at her, the woman who had become my entire world, and for the first time, I felt utterly powerless. A tear broke free, trailing a hot path down my cheek. I didn't wipe it away. I couldn't. My chest was being crushed by an invisible hand.
"Camila..." My voice broke. I looked at her, my lip trembling as I realized she was serious. She was really willing to walk away from me to satisfy a conscience I had spent my life ignoring.
"You really want to do this? You want to leave me all alone in this world?"