Chapter 240: Justice Over Love

"Alaric was one of the four, Lucien," Aveline said quietly. "And I’m not letting him go."

She didn’t want to stay there, and turned and walked away. Lucien’s eyes followed her. He understood what Aveline had done. She was giving him a choice.

He could choose his family. Or he could choose justice.

Behind him, Leone stared at the way he watched Aveline leave. Her lips trembled in anger. It was the same way he used to stare at Leveret, as if she were his entire world.

"You can never take your eyes off her, can you?" her voice dripped with venom.

Lucien slowly turned.

Leone’s voice trembled. "I’m here. I’ve been here all these years. I’ve worked for this family for decades. I gave everything to it."

Her eyes glistened. "And you’ve never looked at me."

Lucien stared at her.

The woman standing before him was the same woman he had loved more deeply than anyone else in his life. She was the only woman who had ever made him willingly bend his principles. She was the only woman for whom he had chosen, again and again, to grit his teeth and tolerate injustice because he believed protecting her was worth the cost.

And now, as he looked into her eyes, he saw something painfully familiar.

She was looking at him the same way she had four decades ago, with the same distrust, the same accusation, and the same look that had once haunted him after Leveret’s disappearance—as though he were somehow responsible for the horror that had befallen her, that he had hurt Leveret in such a cruel way.

After all these years, nothing had changed.

His heart broke.

Lucien stared at his wife for a long moment. There was no anger in his eyes now. Only exhaustion, the kind that came from carrying the same wound for far too many years.

"You will never trust me, will you?" he asked quietly. "After all these years... you still cannot believe that I am trying to save our family too?"

Leone’s expression hardened.

"Save us?" she repeated bitterly. "You call this saving us? You spent years hiding in your laboratory while I was left to make the choices that kept this family standing."

"I know what you have done."

"Do you?" Her voice trembled. "Then perhaps you should remember why I had to do it."

Lucien closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, something inside him seemed to have finally broken.

"None of this is worth it, Leone."

She fell silent.

"Not the titles. Not the alliances. Not the land. Not even the name you have spent half your life protecting."

His voice was quiet, but there was an unshakable finality beneath it. "I will not allow what happened in the past to happen again."

Leone’s face changed.

"Lucien, we cannot stand against the King!"

"No." He shook his head. "I will not stand by while another woman is made to suffer for the sake of this family. I will not watch you repeat what you did to Leveret."

Leone stared at him. "You think I had a choice—"

"We always have a choice." The words came softly. "And I am making mine now." His gaze never left hers.

"I choose justice, Leone."

A long silence followed.

"Once again, I will not choose our family over what is right."

His expression crumpled with quiet despair. "And I wish, with all my heart, that you had understood that sooner."

He turned to leave. He took one step. Then another. But something made him stop.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Leone struggling to walk. She had regained her footing, but her legs were still trembling, and each step looked unsteady.

Lucien stood there for a moment. He could leave. Perhaps he should. He had just chosen justice over his family. He had finally drawn the line he had spent decades refusing to draw.

But he could not simply walk away from her.

Not after forty years. Not from the woman he had loved for almost all of them.

Lucien exhaled slowly and turned back. He walked toward Leone without saying a word.

She looked at him, startled. Lucien reached out and placed a hand gently on her shoulder, steadying her. Leone stiffened.

He did not look at her. He simply helped her take the next step. Then another.

There was no forgiveness in the gesture. No surrender. Only the quiet remnants of a love that had survived far longer than it should have, and perhaps had survived precisely because, despite everything, neither of them had ever truly learned how to stop caring.

Leone lowered her eyes. And Lucien walked beside her in silence.

-----

Edric Vantaris waited outside the Oracle’s sanctum, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

Ingrid had visited the King that morning, pleading with him to intervene and save her son. The King had given her no answer. Instead, he had come here.

Edric couldn’t understand why the King wasn’t acting already. He had always wanted to silence Aveline. He had erased Theron’s memories to keep her away from his son, and when that had failed, he had tried to reason with Aveline herself. Surely, with the kingdom already becoming unstable, this was the moment to finally get her on their side and not let her join the rebels’ side.

Yet the King had chosen to seek the Oracle’s counsel.

That alone unsettled Edric.

The situation in the capital was becoming dire. What had happened to Lydia had ignited outrage among the people and created a dangerous divide among the nobility. Some demanded justice, while others were already scrambling to protect the sons of powerful houses.

And the court was already fractured over the Crown Prince’s handling of the cotton crisis.

Now this.

Edric’s hands curled into fists. This was the same Oracle who had warned them of the coming calamity.

Aveline Willowgrave.

Perhaps the prophecy had been clear all along.

She truly was a calamity.

And if no one stopped her, it seemed she would not rest until she brought the entire royal family down with her.

The doors to the sanctum finally opened. The King stepped out. Edric straightened immediately. But one look at the King’s face made him hesitate.

The King looked troubled.

"What did the Oracle say, Your Majesty?" Edric asked.

The King did not answer immediately. He looked back at the closed doors of the sanctum. Then, slowly, his gaze returned to Edric.

"She is not the calamity."

Edric’s brow furrowed. "Who?"

The King stared at him. "Aveline."

A chill ran through Edric. "Then... what is?"

The King was silent for a moment. And when he finally spoke, his voice was quieter than Edric had ever heard it.

"The calamity is what comes after her."