Chapter 28: I’d Been Watching You for a long Time

Chapter 28: I’d Been Watching You for a long Time Seraphina’s POV I went straight to the living room once I was done. Lucien was waiting for me there. "Come here," he said gently. I had never heard him speak like that before. Ever since last night, he’d been acting strangely softer and easier with me. I nodded and walked over without saying anything, trying to block out the thoughts in my head. "Since you refused medical help, I decided to take care of it myself," Lucien said, pointing to the medical kit in front of him. "Before you panic, let me explain..." He paused as I sat across from him. "I’m a multi-talented person. I was interested in this field, so I studied and trained a bit. I just never got officially certified," he added. I could see the slight shine in his eyes when he spoke, like he actually enjoyed talking about it. He looked too young to know this much. Then again, how old was he? "You must be really old to know all this," I blurted out without thinking. "I’m twenty-six," he answered, even before I realized what I’d said. "I’m not that old!" I blinked. Twenty-six? That wasn’t old at all. I didn’t respond. I just watched him open the medical kit like he’d done it a hundred times before. His hands moved with this quiet confidence." "Your arm first," he said as he sat right beside me. I hesitated. My body tensed without meaning to. Lucien noticed it and looked up at me. "I won’t hurt you." His voice was too charismatic that it made me believe in him, despite the smell of disinfectant, I didn’t feel threatened at all. I slowly held out my arm. His fingers brushed against my skin, and I flinched, just slightly. He didn’t react or pull away either. Instead, he cleaned the cut carefully, as if he were afraid to hurt me. "You should’ve let someone help you sooner," he said quietly. "It might have festered if I hadn’t treated it on time. I looked away. "There was no one to help me before," I muttered. The few seconds silence after that felt too long. Lucien didn’t say anything at first. Just kept working. His touch stayed steady, but I could feel his eyes on me every now and then as if he was watching my every move and studying me. When he finished wrapping my arm, he finally spoke. "You do know that’s not normal, right?" I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t want to. Because I didn’t know what counted as normal anymore. He set the bandage down, leaned back slightly. "You walk around like pain is nothing." "It isn’t," I said before I could stop myself. Well, I wasn’t wrong either. I had been through a lot in my past life, even in the present, that little pain like this felt like nothing to me. Lucien tilted his head like he was trying to figure me out. "No one gets used to pain. They just get good at pretending they are." That made me pause. I looked at him. There was something in his eyes I hadn’t noticed before. As if he had been through the same pain as I at some point in his life. "What are you planning to do from here on?" he asked as he gently treated the wounds on my wrist. "I’m not sure yet, but..." I paused for a moment, then said quietly, "I know one thing — I can’t stop now. Not after all this." "Do you know who was behind it?" he asked, his voice calm but firm with his glint of coldness in his eyes. I didn’t answer right away. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him yet. He had helped me in more ways than I could count, but sharing something that only I knew... felt dangerous. Still, something inside me whispered that I could trust him — that he wouldn’t betray me. And that feeling of certainty felt quite strange — I’d never felt anything like it in either of my lives. "I have some idea who might’ve orchestrated everything," I said softly. "If I’m connecting the dots right... the ambulance incident and what happened the day before — they’re linked. It wasn’t coincidence, right?" I knew this man was smart. He could tell things—connect the dots—and I also knew that if he really tried, he could easily find out who was behind it all. "You’re right," I said finally, deciding to tell him—not everything, but what mattered. "It was Melissa. The so-called heiress of the Lancaster family. She was behind it." "Excuse me?" Lucien’s eyes widened as he stared at me in disbelief. "That little girl... how could she be so cruel?" The moment those words left his mouth, I froze. I turned to look at him, my eyes locked on his face. I didn’t blink. I didn’t move. How could he believe me so easily? If he knew the Lancasters, he would’ve known her—the sweet, well-loved little princess of the family. The most doted-on sister of the Lancaster brothers. So how was he believing everything I said... just like that? He didn’t even question it and asked for proof. Didn’t ask why I suspected her or how I knew. He just... believed me. That unsettled me more than if he had doubted me. I swallowed hard, my hands clenching in my lap. "Why do you believe me so easily?" I asked quietly, not hiding the tension in my voice. Lucien didn’t answer right away. His gaze was fixed on me, unreadable, cold—but not cruel. Just calm. Too calm. "Because," he finally said, "I trust what I see with my own eyes more than what I hear from others." He sat back slightly, still treating the wound on my other wrist with a kind of patience I didn’t expect from someone like him. "And I saw you, Seraphina," he added. "Not just today. I’ve been watching for longer than you think." He’d been watching me? For a long time? What did he mean by that?