𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐑 || 𝐋.𝐌 ✓

➢Chapter 21- Everything I never told you

Not knowing what else to do, Y/n had come home from the L/n, laced up her athletic shoes, and gone for a jog. She'd wanted to pound something, may as well be the ground.

Fifteen minutes later, she gave up trying to run off her disappointment—both in herself and for trusting Lucius, the dirty liar.

She'd slowed to a walk, holding her aching side while watching her shoes cut through the plush grass when she heard his voice.

"You look like you need a break." Lucius was dressed in his suit from work, tie knotted at his neck. The article of clothing she couldn't wait to take off him had become the one she wanted to strangle him with.

"I'm more of a stationary bike kind of girl." She blew out a breath and walked to the cooler outside, getting herself a bottle of water. "At the gym at the L/n."

"So why are you running?"

The back patio faced the lawn surrounded by trees, and she took a seat on a cushy chair beneath the awning, tugging her sagging ponytail free. He sat next to her.

"I thought it would calm me down," she answered truthfully. One of them may as well be honest. "Seeing that picture of you..." In the end, she couldn't lay herself open. She let her voice trail off.

Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, though there was enough ambient light—some from the gardens surrounding the house, most from the interior of the mansion—so that it wasn't pitch black.

Lucius remained quiet. Evidently, he wasn't going to broach the subject if she didn't. Y/n wasn't feeling as magnanimous.

"It was serious between you two," she said. "You and Narcissa."

He stared into the distance for a minute before leaning his elbows on his knees.

"Four years," she said when he said nothing.

"Is there something you'd like to say, Y/n?" It was a question he didn't want answered. She could tell by every tense line on his face. "I don't have the patience to let you poke me with a stick until I respond the way you'd like."

Okay. Fair enough.

"You were in love with her."

If she thought he looked angry before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. It made her heart sink to her stomach. If ever there was a time she didn't want to be right, it was now and about Narcissa. Y/n had believed he'd confided in her the night at his father's house when she'd asked about his past, but he'd been hiding from her the whole time.

"Why did you let me believe she was just a girl you dated for a handful of months?" She was angry now, the questions coming at a rapid-fire pace. "Did she live here with you? Is that why you never came back to the mansion? Did she sleep with you in the bedroom you refuse to talk about?" She pointed to the room where sliding patio doors overlooked the pool.

"I see that you're under the assumption we're talking about this." Lucius stood from the chair, scraping the legs on the concrete as he did. She didn't like when the cold crept in, when his shutters slammed down. When he refused to deal with messy feelings, namely hers.

"Why won't you tell me the truth? What is it you're so desperate to hide?" She stood also, fists curling at her sides. She'd kept her cool in an effort to do as Grace had suggested since this was supposed to be "rolling off her back." Well, f**k that. Narcissa wasn't rolling off her back.

"I'm not hiding anything from you. I just don't want to talk about it." His tone was so controlled. Did he not regret lying to her?

"Why don't you trust me? I'm sleeping with you for God's sake..." Then she laughed, a humorless sound, and added, "Not that sex means anything to you."