"Such a pathetic little witch in love,"
Louis drawled, his voice thick with cruel delight.
"Love? Dewdrop, you're in *love* with that sick bastard now?"
He paused, then mimicked her past words in a high, mocking tone that twisted like a knife:
"'I'll marry him as you wish, but don't think you've won. I will never love him. I will never love his child, even if it carries my blood. I'll never love anyone connected to a man playing the same death game as you. Mark my words."
Ivana stared at him, unamused, biting down hard on her lower lip until the metallic taste of blood bloomed on her tongue. She hissed through her teeth, then lifted her chin with icy defiance.
"Not everyone is as pathetic as you,"
She said, her voice low and venomous.
"I didn't fall for him out of pity or obligation because of this child. I love him because of who he is. He doesn't just treat me like a princess, he crowns me queen in his kingdom of shadows and blood.
He would set the world on fire and smile while watching it burn for me. He doesn't love with conditions or chains. He loves with raw, obsessive possession, the kind that consumes you whole.
And I don't love him because of what he's willing to do for me. That's simply his way of loving me. He's nothing like you, a man who cares for no one but himself. He doesn't love the way you do. You mistake love for manipulation, because manipulation is the only way you've ever known how to love."
Her father's smirk faltered. But she wasn't finished. The words she had buried for years came pouring out like blood from an open wound.
"You think love is control. Manipulation. Breaking someone until they obey. You call that protection, but it's poison. You don't love Mother. You don't love me. You own. You train. And when the 'animal' you created decides to become human again, it drives you insane. That's why you're so desperate to drag me back, because I slipped the leash."
She leaned forward, emerald eyes blazing with glassy fire.
"You left scars so deep I thought no one could ever touch me without reopening them. You made me believe love was a lie, until Kacy. He didn't just show me what love was, he ruined me for anything less. He loves me selfishly, obsessively, darkly, but never cruelly. He listens when I can't speak. He sees me when I try to hide. He tears through every wall I build and reminds me that I'm wanted, chosen, and loved in a way you never understood. Your manipulation poisoned my idea of love for years. You made me believe love was control, fear, and suffering. You made me think no one could ever love selflessly, without conditions or hidden motives. But Kacy proved you wrong. He showed me what it means to love someone completely, body, mind, spirit, and soul."
Her hands trembled. Tears slipped down her cheeks, but her voice stayed strong, laced with dark, liberating power.
"I don't care about the promise I made you. It's dead, invalid. I'm in love, Father—not pathetic, just in love with a man who makes me feel alive in ways your cruelty never could. He doesn't manipulate me. He doesn't break me. He owns me, and I let him willingly, because being loved by Kacy Lillard feels like both damnation and salvation at once. The moment I understood what real love felt like, everything you taught me became meaningless. Call me pathetic if you want, but I'm not. I'm in love. And if someone can love me with that much intensity, devotion, and possessiveness, then why shouldn't I love him the same way? I won't become like you, someone who destroys the people who love him just to maintain control. I'll love him, not manipulate him."
She drew in a shaky breath, her necklace rising and falling rapidly against her chest.
"You ruined me, My career, my trust, my soul. You carved holes so deep in my heart I thought I'd bleed out. But Kacy found every shattered piece and made me whole again. I don't love him because he saved me, but because knowing him repaired what you destroyed inside me. I used to think I was nothing in anyone's eyes, but he treats me like I'm everything, his treasure above his riches, fame, achievements, and empires. He makes me feel seen. He smiles for me, softens for me, becomes gentle, almost boyish, only for me. He listens. He Fucking listens. He cares. He loves me with an intensity that consumes him, and I crave it. I love the way he smiles when he talks to me, the way his entire mood shifts from powerful, calculating man into something softer, more human. He understands me even in silence. He notices my joy and my pain. And when someone hurts me, there is no limit to how far he would go to protect me. With him, I learned what it means to be loved without conditions. With you, I only learned betrayal. Even when I push him away, he returns. Even when I shut him out, he doesn't leave. He always finds his way back in, reminding me that I am loved, whether I accept it or not."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, raw and reverent.
"He doesn't just say 'I love you.' He brands it onto my skin. Into my soul. And for the first time in my life… I believe it."
She paused to catch her breath, her chest heaving, but her emerald eyes never left her father's.
For a fleeting second, something almost like guilt flickered across his face.
She didn't bother searching for it. She knew better.
Guilt in this house was nothing more than a ghost, brief, hollow, and quickly devoured by the devil underneath.
"The way he looks at me…"
She continued, her voice softening yet laced with dangerous reverence,
"It's like I'm the only thing worth seeing in this wretched world. Those ocean-blue eyes, calm, intense, endless, don't just look at me. They devour my soul, like I matter more than anything else. Not like yours, cold, calculating, filled with schemes and decay. His darkness isn't evil. It's obsession. Addiction. Possession. Psychotic and perfectly focused all at once. He is a psychopath for me, in the way his eyes hold warmth, calm, desire, and love. It's Fucking addictive. That warmth melts the cold in my heart. When he stares at me, I feel wanted. Craved. He looks at me like I'm his drug something he can't live without, something he would burn empires for to find if it ever disappeared. You, on the other hand, look at people like tools, disposable. When they slip from your control, you drag them back just to remind them they belong chained to your will."
A heavy silence blanketed the room.
Then her voice dropped, stripped of venom, raw and honest—the same soft tone she only ever used with Kacy.
"I love him, Dad. And it's not pathetic. It's redemption. It's heaven. It's the only peace I've ever known."
The silence stretched, broken only by the ticking clock on the wall, each second loud as a heartbeat.
In that quiet, both of them knew the truth: she had spoken the undeniable. There was nothing he could say to twist it.
Louis cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair, the mask of guilt vanishing as if it had never existed. His eyes gleamed with familiar cruelty once more.
"I see,"
He said, voice smooth and mocking.
"I've received my answer through your long, touching speech. I'd be lying if I said it didn't move me, even if only for a moment. But we both know my cruel nature always wins in the end."
His lips curved into a sick, twisted smirk, the kind that promised suffering dressed as mercy.
"Since killing the baby feels too messy after your emotional performance, I'll be generous and offer you another option."
He leaned forward, eyes glittering with malice.
"Divorce him. Leave the country. Disappear somewhere far away and never come back. If you refuse…"
His smile widened, slow and venomous, revealing crooked teeth.
"…Well, what about dear Edna? Your precious best friend. Wouldn't it be tragic if she suddenly found herself sold into sex slavery? Passed around like a pretty little toy until there's nothing left of her? Such a beautiful way to say goodbye, don't you think?"
Ivana's blood turned to ice. Horror flooded her face as realization slammed into her.
Louis laughed low, manic, and utterly deranged.
"There it is,"
He whispered in delight.
"That's the face I wanted to see, dewdrop. Tick tock… Tick tock… Who will you choose? Your happiness? Or hers?"
He tilted his head, eyes cold and gleeful.
"If I were you, I'd pick the first option. After all, your happiness was never meant to last. We are the family of ruins, my dear. And ruins… we stay ruined."
Words failed her completely.
Ivana closed her eyes for a long moment, letting the suffocating silence wrap around her like chains. Inside her head, the same broken mantra repeated like a curse:
Love won't save me. Love won't help me now.
She had no idea that if she had simply gone to Kacy, laid her fears at his feet, he would have burned the world and her father with it to protect her and their child.
But her trust issues ran too deep, her scars too ugly. Foolishness and fear had brought her to a point of no return.
There was no turning back.
"Time starts now, dewdrop,"
Her father taunted, tapping his thumb and finger together rhythmically.
"Tick… tock… Tick… tock…"
The sound grated against her soul.
She cut him off sharply, the clink of her bracelets loud in the heavy air.
"I'll take the first option,"
She said coldly.
"But I have one condition."
His lips curled into a satisfied, predatory smirk.
"And that is?"
"You will not touch Kacy. You will not touch his family. You will not destroy their reputation. When I divorce him, I take all the blame. You will leave me alone after that. Forever."
Her father's smirk deepened, dark and victorious.
"Deal sealed,"
He said manically.
"Though he will still suffer when you leave him. But in time… he'll recover."
He laughed, a low, manic sound that echoed through the room like the tolling of funeral bells.
Ivana shut her eyes once, then opened them. Empty. Hollow.
She rose from the chair like a woman walking to her own execution.
Her father stood as well.
They shook hands, cold, formal, final.
"Thank you...,"
She whispered bitterly,
"for sealing my happiness away forever. I hope you're satisfied… Dad."
She had signed her soul to the devil that day.
And now, weeks later, the weight of that contract pressed down on her like a tombstone.
There was still time to undo it. All she had to do was run to Kacy, confess everything, and let him fight for her the way he always did.
But fear and shattered trust held her back like invisible shackles.
What if he gets angry? What if my silence puts him and our baby in danger?
No. She would carry this burden alone. She would protect Edna. She would protect their child. Even if it destroyed her in the process.
That decision had become her mantra, repeated in the dead of night, whispered between ignored calls and sleepless hours.
Save them. Sacrifice yourself and your happiness.
The words had rooted so deeply inside her that there was no pulling them out.
And in the quiet chaos of her thoughts, one devastating truth settled over her heart like ash:
Her father hadn't just taken a piece of her that day.
He had taken everything.
Her happiness.
Her redemption.
Her future.
Whether fate would one day return what was stolen, only time would tell. But right now, in this moment, the only mercy she could offer the man she loved more than life itself was to let him go.
Even if it killed her slowly.
Even if it tore her soul in two.
Because sometimes, the darkest form of love is walking away.