I Was His Precious Until She Came Back Chapter 08
When awareness returned, the scent of disinfectant filled my nose.
I opened my eyes to a silent hospital room.
The door moved, and I looked up to see Clara standing there with red eyes.
Six years had passed, and for a moment I struggled to connect this radiant woman with the sister I
remembered.
She wore a beautiful dress and jewelry, and even her hair seemed to shine.
My brothers had clearly given her every comfort, luxury, and protection during those six years.
I felt pride that they had kept their promise to someone, followed by a small ache of grief.
In a blurred memory, my brothers lifted me high and promised:
“When Lucia grows up, we’ll make her the happiest, most beautiful princess in the world.”
My brothers had indeed raised a princess.
It was only unfortunate that the princess was not Lucia.
“Why did a curse like you come back?”
“Victor and Nico fought Matteo because of you, and the partnership between their companies
collapsed.”
“The company is in chaos, and both of them were hospitalized. Are you satisfied?”
My brothers were hurt?
My fingers closed into fists, and the sting of my nails grounded me.
Lost and frightened, I slipped back into the obedient habits of six years earlier and apologized.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“What good is another apology? If you truly considered Victor and Nico family, you would die.”
“And Matteo acted ready to kill for you last night.”
“This morning, he heard Amelia was leaving the country and bought the earliest flight to follow her without even visiting you.”
“You hurt Victor and Nico for him. Don’t you see how pathetic that is?”
I said nothing.
Clara grew angrier, and her accusations became vicious.
“You already fell into the ocean. Why didn’t you just die instead of returning to destroy this family?”
A sharp slap cracked through the room, and I looked up to see Victor standing behind Clara.
She stared at him in disbelief.
“Victor, you hit me?”
Regret flashed in his eyes, but he still answered:
“You shouldn’t have said those things to Lucia. We only just found her…”
“Was I wrong when she came back, made you hit me, sent you and Nico to the hospital, and proved
she was a curse?”
Crying, Clara shoved Victor away and ran out.
Victor followed instinctively.
“Clara, that’s not what I meant. You’re not well, so don’t run.”
The room became empty again.
I expected sadness, but the familiar warning before tears never came.
I touched my face and found no salty, bitter tears.
When I placed a hand over my heart, the old pressure had miraculously vanished.
Nico entered then, and I smiled excitedly.
“Nico, Lucia finally learned to be generous!”
Nico froze before tears suddenly filled his eyes.
I could not remember exactly when it happened, only that Clara had been with us about three years.
At the birthday party Victor and Nico held for me, she abruptly began sobbing.
She said her old life had been empty, she had no family, and no one had ever loved her fiercely.
No one had ever planned such a grand, elaborate birthday for her.
I still wore my birthday crown, my knife suspended above the cake, when I saw pity in my brothers’
eyes.
Just like that, the celebration planned for me became Clara’s instead.
Victor stroked my head.
“Be generous, Lucia. Clara has had less than you, so you should yield to her.”
Nico lifted the crown from my head and set it on Clara’s.
“We’ll celebrate Clara today. Lucia already had eighteen birthdays, so missing one won’t matter’
I touched my bare head and looked at Victor and Nico.
One fastened the crown onto Clara while the other guided her hand through the cake.
Sadness settled into my chest until I could no longer contain it, and tears began to fall.
Before my brothers could react, Clara cried even louder.
I never made a sound when I cried, but Clara’s sobs filled the room.
She collapsed at my feet, begging and pressing her forehead to the floor.
“I’m sorry, Lucia; I never meant to upset you, so please don’t be angry or hurt me.”
“I had never celebrated a birthday before. I was only jealous.”
“I’ll return the crown and the cake. Please don’t hit me.”
She tore at the crown so violently that it pulled out strands of bloody hair.
Her sleeve slipped down, revealing an arm covered in injuries.
Her screams and frantic movements made me believe I had somehow become dangerous without
knowing it, and I stepped backward.
Victor slapped me.
His whole body shook as he looked at me as though the sister he loved had become a stranger.
“When did you become this vicious, Lucia? How could you beat her in secret?”
“You’ve disappointed me.”
Victor carried Clara upstairs, leaving me alone with Nico.
Instead of touching my slapped cheek, I covered the place where a far deeper pain had begun.
How strange. If my face had been struck, why did my heart hurt so badly?
I did not understand, so I asked clever Nico.
“Nico, Lucia hurts so much here; why?”
Nico had always solved every problem for me.
This time, however, his familiar smile vanished as he kicked over the three-tier cake.
Frosting and fruit burst across the floor in bright, tear-shaped drops, splashing my beautiful dress
I stared at the sudden destruction in confusion.
Nico’s lips curved, but the expression held mockery instead of comfort.
“Your heart hurts because you’re selfish, Lucia.”
Was that true?
So that was the answer.
My heart hurt because I was selfish.
I forgot how the incident ended, but Nico’s explanation became a rule I carried with me for years.
I tried to become generous.
I carried every birthday gift my brothers had given me to Clara and presented them proudly as proof that I had learned generosity.
Clara screamed, and my brothers scolded me.
She said I was humiliating her, while they accused me of throwing another tantrum.
They believed giving their gifts to Clara was my way of showing jealousy.
My brothers were strange. I disliked sour food and had never enjoyed jealousy either.
The pressure in my chest remained.
Generosity was so difficult. What did Lucia have to do to become generous?
At eighteen, I failed to learn, and the next three years brought no’success.
Lucia’s heart continued hurting year after year.
At twenty-seven, however, I believed I had finally mastered the lesson everyone demanded of me.
I touched the place that no longer ached and nodded firmly at Nico.
“It’s true. Lucia is finally very generous.”
I pointed at my heart.
“It doesn’t hurt here anymore.”
Nico’s trembling arms closed around me, and his grief became louder and more desperate than any
tears Clara had shed.
“No, Lucia; Nico was wrong, we were wrong, and you never needed to be generous.”
“You don’t have to give anything away.”
I patted his back, trying to comfort him without knowing what had broken his heart.
“Don’t cry, Nico.”
“If Lucia is generous, Nico can’t kick over cakes anymore.”
“My teacher said wasting food is wrong.”
From his arms, I saw Victor returning with Clara and smiled broadly.
“Victor can give all of Lucia’s future birthday crowns to Clara.”
“Don’t be angry anymore, Victor. The doctor said anger is bad for you.”
“Lucia doesn’t want Victor sick, and she doesn’t want to be hit.”
“Now that my heart doesn’t hurt, my face does. Mommy said in my dreams that a girl’s face is important.”
Why had Victor started crying when I had finally learned to make everyone happy?
Clara was sent away the day after my medical test results arrived.
I heard she fought and screamed, but neither Victor nor Nico softened.
The doctor kept sighing and shaking his head at me, his eyes filled with a sorrowful tenderness that no one would explain.
Matteo also returned from overseas. On the day he brought Amelia back, he had their divorce finalized.
Matteo wanted to see me, but Victor and Nico refused.
Without telling me, they posted guards outside the estate with orders to beat Matteo whenever he appeared.
My awareness started slipping loose from the present without warning.
Sometimes I lost track of which year I occupied and whose face I was seeing.
In the haze, I looked at Victor and Nico and called them Matteo.
“Matteo, Lucia’s stomach hurts.”
Nico held me and sobbed harder than I did.
“It doesn’t hurt, Lucia; Nico will find a way because there has to be one.”
Victor stood silently nearby, his nails cutting so deeply into his palm that blood fell to the floor.
Then I would jolt awake and push them away in tears.
“No, I don’t want you; I want Matteo, so where is he?”
I had survived, so Victor and Nico must have believed I had failed the one request they ever made. I
could not face them.
