I Was His Precious Until She Came Back Chapter 10
Victor and Nico lifted Lucia’s body and carried her away one slow step at a time.
They had been Lucia’s entire world for twenty-one years.
For the first eighteen, they treasured her beyond measure.
For the next three, they cast her into the dirt and allowed her to be tormented.
Then they searched fruitlessly for six years, only to watch her die after finding her again.
They remembered why they had adopted Clara in the first place: doctors warned that Lucia’s kidneys were weak and she might need a transplant as an adult.
They found a compatible child early and adopted Clara for Lucia’s sake.
That knowledge left them guilty, and they mistakenly transformed their own debt to Clara into Lucia’s responsibility.
They forgot that Lucia had known nothing and was the most innocent person of all.
At twenty-seven, Victor and Nico personally carried Lucia into the funeral home.
At night, Nico could not stop crying.
His eyes burned constantly, and the doctor warned he might lose his sight.
Nico wondered whether blindness would bring Lucia back to scold him for failing to protect himself.
The thought made him begin to welcome it.
They did not invite Matteo to Lucia’s funeral because he did not deserve to attend.
Matteo lost his mind with fury, and the two families waged a vicious war.
Then one day, the brothers received a text from Matteo claiming he possessed something Lucia had left behind.
They raced to the address without even grabbing coats and found an abandoned warehouse.
Victor noticed fuel cans scattered around the building.
He understood what Matteo planned but walked toward the warehouse without hesitation or fear.
Inside, Clara was bound to a chair and struggling in terror.
Matteo sat nearby smoking, holding a photograph with longing in his eyes.
Victor and Nico immediately recognized Lucia’s picture.
It came from the lost six years when strangers knew Lucia better than her own brothers did.
They moved to seize it, but Matteo was ready and drove a knife into each man’s abdomen.
“I was wrong, but so were you.”
“Amelia has already been punished. Now it’s our turn.”
“Lucia always said she didn’t fear the dark because stars and the moon filled the sky.”
“But later, I realized she kept a light burning in her room every night.”
“I thought about it until I understood.”
“Her guardian stars had fallen, and clouds had covered her moon.”
“That was why Lucia became afraid of the dark.”
“It’s so dark underground. We should go keep her company.”
Matteo set the warehouse ablaze, and soon Clara’s screams were the only sound.
As flames touched Victor’s skin, he remembered the scalding water that had once spilled during
Clara’s performance.
He had cared only about Clara’s injuries.
Yet a large part of Lucia’s dress had been soaked too.
He stood in the fire and wondered:
[Had Lucia been burned that day? How badly had it hurt?]
When the flames seared his right leg, Victor began laughing.
“So this is… how much… it hurt.”
When the fire finally died, only ashes remained.
The wind rose and scattered even those.
