Chapter 6
The next day, I arrived at the café early. It was the same place where Lucien and I used to sit and talk for hours back when we were still in college—back when love was simple and life hadn’t turned into a battlefield. Now, it just felt like neutral ground. A place to settle unfinished business.
He showed up on time, dressed in a dark suit like always, but his face looked drawn, tired. Not the powerful, confident Lucien the world knew, but someone else—a man weighed down by the past.
He sat across from me, and for a moment, neither of us spoke.
“You look different,” he said.
“I feel different,” I replied.
He gave a small nod, as if that’s exactly what he expected me to say.
“I spoke to Carla,” I added.
His eyebrows twitched. “I figured you would.”
“She told me the truth about the baby.”
Lucien’s jaw clenched. “I’m sorry I believed her. I should’ve seen through it.”
I stirred my coffee slowly. “You didn’t even see me.”
He leaned forward slightly. “Aurora, I was angry and lost. I thought you forced me into that marriage. I didn’t realize how much I’d hurt you until I came back.”
I looked him in the eye. “And now you regret it.”
“Yes.”
“But regret doesn’t fix anything, Lucien. It doesn’t erase the years I spent waiting for someone who left me behind like I didn’t matter.”
His voice was quiet. “I know.”
“I begged you to love me, and all you gave me was silence.”
“I was a coward,” he admitted. “I didn’t know how to handle everything. My family’s pressure, the business, my feelings… I thought leaving was better than pretending.”
I laughed softly, bitterly. “You didn’t just leave. You disappeared. And when you finally came back, you brought the one person who broke my trust the most.”
He flinched, and for once, he had no defense.
“I don’t hate you,” I said, surprising myself. “But I don’t love you anymore either. I don’t think I even know who you are now. And I’m tired of trying to figure it out.”
Lucien looked like he had swallowed broken glass. “I don’t expect you to take me back. I just… wanted a chance to tell you how sorry I am. For everything.”
I nodded. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”
He hesitated. “So, this is goodbye?”
“Yes,” I said, with a strange calmness in my chest. “This is goodbye.”
He reached into his pocket and placed something on the table—his wedding ring. He slid it across to me slowly.
“I’ll always regret what I did to us,” he said, standing.
I looked at the ring but didn’t touch it.
As he walked away, I felt something lift off my shoulders. No more unanswered questions. No more aching nights waiting for someone who would never come.
Lucien was finally out of my story.
And for the first time in a long time, I felt free.