Page 130 of When Night Falls

"Why do you want to kill yourself?" She avoids my request, stubborn as she is, and removes her focus from Ameliana to look back at me.

The need to grab Lucynda and kiss her is unrelenting yet the urge to keep her as far away from this as possible is just as strong. I pull my hand up to hold her cheek in my palm. She closes her eyes as I caress her soft skin.

"Lucynda, I need you to leave. I need you to leave and not ask me about what is going on here until I have dealt with it first,” I whisper to her.

"Why, Rivian? Is this what you were trying to tell me the other night? I told you I'm all in. Whatever you need, I'm here for you."

"Your devotion means a lot to me, little one. But I need you to let this go for now."

"Wait a second." The resounding chime of metal on concrete steals my attention to the captive behind me, seeing Ameliana force herself to stand. "Does she have no idea what your ridiculous act of revenge is? Have you been keeping secrets from her this whole time?" Her outburst ignites anger in me, giving me remembrance as to why I'm here in the first place.

But it’s not lost on me that I feel less inclined to rush my plans for Ameliana, the look on Lucynda’s face helps get rid of the idea in the slightest. Only because when I look at her, I seegood.

"Lucynda, you need to leave." The demand I give my wife is a little sterner as I let go of our embrace and turn to face my enemy.

"Are you serious?" Cyn grips my arms to make me face her, but I can't give in right now. "What the hell is going on?"

Ameliana recognizes my pause, allowing her to take a chance to speak up to plead for Lucynda's help.

"Cyn, he's going to kill me." She struggles against her restraints. "He thinks I'm the reason his mom was banished from the kingdom."

"Is this true?" My wife reaches out for me once more and I calm the moment her hand skates over my skin.

"You don't understand," I tell her, wondering if she feels shame or disgust by my need to act out this plan of mine.

She walks ahead to put a few steps between us, her back now to the former queen who is pathetically begging for freedom at this point.

"No. I think I do." Cyn reaches up on her toes to press a kiss against my jawline. Something feral ignites inside me as I watch the cynical look of sincerity in her belief of my dark truth wash over her.

"You wanted to bring Ameliana back to the castle after she fled, leaving you and the twins behind because she was too cowardly to face the fact that she was the reason your dad kicked your mother out on the street, only for her to take it for granted and leave everything behind."

My wife lowers her head before turning around to face the woman behind her.

"You want her to pay for the desolation she caused. Because your mother loved where this woman couldn’t. You want to avenge Troian and Travois for the trauma they had to endure growing up without a mother. And for ruining the spirit of a little boy who had no hope of knowing love because she strippedyou from that chance." She speaks at Ameliana while still talking to me. Her words bleed with traces of cruel malevolence as she recites every single thing that drove me to this moment.

Word for word, she displays her truth in understanding just how small Ameliana has made me feel. How she nearly took everything from me.

I feel prideful to see my wife stand up for me like this. Not that I need it, but my little sin wants to prove to her king that her vows aren't for naught.

"Lucynda," Ameliana whispers her name in a silent plea of reconsideration, likely sensing that she's made up her mind.

"No, I get it. I really do. I too have been through that pain." Cyn pulls her arms behind her back and clasps her hands together as she paces rather leisurely in front of Ameliana, back and forth.

Ameliana looks between me and my wife, satisfaction playing on my lips.

"Every day I used to think to myself, ‘God, I hate my mother for leaving me with the piece of shit man who abused me and broke me down. She left for a better life because I wasn't good enough.’It really shaped me to be this girl who thought that love was a ghost of an idea. I was bullied by my step-siblings, ridiculed by the kids at school because I didn't equate to their entitled ideas of perfection. Beaten down by my father and hollowed by the lack of love."

Lucynda’s tone transitions from reminiscent of her trauma and how sadness grew in her wake to a girl who feels angry for the torture she had to go through.

"What have you done to her?" Ameliana rears her head to look over at me, anger and hate twisting into a messy expression on her sweaty face.

"Me? I gave her the chance to build a life that would give her everything she is worthy of. I gave her power. A sense of hope. Afamily." Lucynda looks back over her shoulder and provides me with the softest of smiles before turning back around.

"All while stripping her of love," Ameliana says with a hint of sarcasm, yankingher chains again in hopes that one more pull might break her free. "You really believe that you are giving her a fruitful life, Rivian? She doesn't belong here. Can't you see what you're doing to her?"

Yes. I do see it.But I am the only one who has taken care of Lucynda the way that she needs, whether we end in blood the way we were born or not.

"What goes on between me and my wife is none of your business," I simply respond.

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