Chapter 31
Leda
Well, that was a little far-fetched, but maybe it was the love he had been discovering for me that had saved his life. Regardless, he was whole in front of me, and that was all that mattered.
Lucas put the shattered pieces back into the bag and placed them on the table beside the bed before he took my hand in his. “I knew then that I had made a mistake,” he said, his thumb rubbing over my knuckles lightly. “I knew that I needed you in my life. I was coming for you, Leda. I was coming to bring you back to me.”
His words struck my very soul. Lucas hadn’t been sending me away. There was a good chance that even if he hadn’t, we would have been attacked at the house, but that was all over and done with.
We were together, and that was all that mattered.
“You see,” he continued, clearly in a mood to unload his soul to me. “There is only one woman I’ve ever been in love with, and she’s sitting next to me. That woman is fearless and has the biggest fucking heart on the planet. She cares about her family and is willing to do anything for those she loves.”
That was me. Maybe not so much the fearless piece, but I did care about my family. That was why I wanted to kill my father.
“But that woman isn’t the same one who stood down there and said she wanted to be the one to kill her father,” Lucas finished softly, touching my chin so I would be forced to meet his worried gaze. “That’s not the woman I fell in love with, the one who has given me so much shit that I really didn’t know what to do about it.”
I drew in a tortured breath, his words striking a chord deep inside.
“I don’t want to lose her,” Lucas whispered. “This new Leda terrifies me. This new Leda may look like the one that I fell in love with, but when she speaks, it’s her father’s words that I hear.”
A sob escaped me. Those were practically the same words that Rory told me, with concern in her eyes. You may have your brother’s heart. But when you speak, all I hear is your father’s voice.
Lucas wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me against his hard body. “It’s okay,” he said, pressing his lips against my temple. “It’s going to be okay.”
His soft voice only made me cry harder. Lucas was right. If I killed my father with my own hands, I would never be the same. I would become a person I didn’t know anything about, someone who would likely be haunted by his death for the rest of my life.
Either that or I would be forced to look over my shoulder, wondering if anyone was going to come after me for what I had done.
I would become my father.
I couldn’t live like that. As much as I wanted to end my father’s life, I wasn’t that type of person. I had allowed my anger to get the best of me and almost made a life-altering decision as a result.
“I’m sorry,” I got out between the sobs. “I don’t want to be anyone other than Leda D’Agostino.”
Lucas held me close, drawing in a heavy breath. “Well, I was kind of hoping you would want to be Leda Valentino one day, but if you want to keep your last name, that’s fine.”