Lucien stared at her as if seeing a ghost… or a miracle… or the cruelest twist of fate the universe could offer.
Something inside him snapped. The door swung open violently, the little bell above it clanging in protest.
The entire shop seemed to freeze.
Elena jumped, spinning around to face the sound and met Lucien's eyes.
The bouquet still in her hands.
Her lips parted as her gaze locked onto the man standing just inside the door. Tall. Impossibly sharp. Jaw clenched. Eyes burning. He looked like he had clawed his way out of hell and brought the storm with him.
Lucien removed his sunglasses slowly, revealing those wild, tormented eyes.He took one step forward. Then another.
His voice came out in a breathless rasp.
"…Tessa?"
Elena blinked, confusion and tension rising in her chest. "Excuse me?"
His voice was louder now, shaken with disbelief and something darker. "Say your name."
Elena took a half step back. "I—I'm Elena. Elena Maren."
Lucien's world slowly fell apart.
"No," he said, shaking his head slowly. "No. You're lying. This isn't funny."
Lucien's voice dropped to a whisper, eyes still locked on hers.
"Your face… your eyes… your voice…"
Elena's heart pounded . "Who is Tessa? Why are you looking at me like that?"
The silence between them was electric. Heavy. Elena could feel the stranger's eyes devouring every inch of her face — not with lust, but with something deeper. Desperation. Madness. Recognition.
She took a step back, voice trembling. "Sir… I don't know who you think I am, but you need to—"
He stepped around the counter with deadly calmness, ignoring her warning as she instinctively reached to stop him.
"Don't come any clo—!"
Before she could finish, his hand caught her cheek, warm and firm, and he kissed her.
Softt. Controlled. But fierce. Elena froze, her mind spiraling.
He smelled like cedarwood and rain. His touch was both terrifying and intimate. She wanted to scream, to slap him, to run but her body wouldn't move.
He pulled away just enough to whisper, still holding her face between his hands.
"It's really you…" he breathed. "You're real."
Elena's breath hitched, heart pounding like thunder in her chest.
"I—what… what the hell was that?!"
Before she could say more, Lucien took her hand firmly, his grip surprisingly gentle, but commanding. He turned, pulling her from behind the counter, ignoring her shocked protests.
"Wait! Let go of me!"
Across the room, the driver took a step forward, stammering.
"Sir—Lucien, please—what are you doing?!"
Lucien turned his head slightly and shot him a look—icy, wild, lethal.
The driver froze mid-step. The color drained from his face he was totally getting fired.
He'd seen many sides of the Thornes.
But this Lucien? This was something else entirely.
He followed, silent and stiff, as Lucien pulled Elena out of the flower shop and toward the waiting car.
"Let me go!" she cried, panicked, breathless. "Who ARE you?!"
Lucien didn't answer. He opened the car door and helped her in not too rough, not violent but with a feeling that hr won't loose her again.
He slid in beside her.
"Drive," he ordered coldly.
The driver obeyed. Hands trembling slightly on the wheel.
As the car pulled away from the curb, the flower shop disappeared behind them and Elena, still in stunned silence, was left questioning reality.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The car cruised through the roads, the city fading into distant blur. The silence inside was thick, broken only by the hum of the engine and the occasional flicker of wind against the glass.
Elena sat pressed against the car door, her chest rising and falling rapidly, eyes focused on Lucien.
Her voice finally broke through the stillness.
"Let me out," she said, sharp and trembling. "This isn't okay. You kidnapped me!"
Lucien didn't look at her. He stared straight ahead, jaw tight, fingers clenched together on his lap.
Elena slammed her palm on the glass. "I said, LET ME OUT!"
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly looking straight.
She laughed bitter, nervous. "You think that makes this better?! You kissed me, dragged me out of my shop, and now I'm locked in a car with a stranger who keeps calling me some girl's name!"
Lucien flinched at her words. He turned slowly, eyes locking onto hers.
She's not just some girl. She's you. You're Tessa."
"I'm not Tessa!" she snapped. "I don't know who that is, and I don't know you!"
Lucien stared at her for a long, tense moment.
Then he said softly, "I loved you. You were mine. They took you from me."
Elena's lips parted in disbelief, unsure if she was talking to a man in pain… or a man completely unhinged.
The driver, tense in the front seat, kept his gaze forward, knuckles white on the wheel.
Lucien leaned closer, voice low, almost broken.
"I searched for you for ten years. Ten years, Tessa. I heard your voice every night. I died with you that day."
Her breath caught.
Something about the way he said it the agony behind his words made her chest tighten, even as fear screamed for her to run.
"I'm not her'' she whispered. Lucien sat back slowly, gaze unreadable.