Chapter 8
For three days, Bella was a prisoner in the master suite of the Drake estate. It was a gilded cage, filled with silk sheets and catered meals, but the guards stationed outside her door made the reality clear.
On the fourth night, unable to sleep, Bella wandered into Lucas’s private dressing room. She was looking for a sweater, anything to ward off the chill, when she bumped into a small velvet display case. It tipped over, spilling a collection of watches onto the carpet.
Among the gleaming Rolexes and Pateks lay the cheap, worn leather watch she had seen on his nightstand the morning after they met.
Bella picked it up. The back of the watch face was loose. As she pressed her thumb against it, the metal casing popped open. Inside, etched into the gold plating, was a crest: a lion intertwined with a rose.
Bella gasped, dropping the watch. She ran to her purse, pulling out the only item she had kept from her biological parents—a small, tarnished locket Helen had given her. She snapped the locket open.
The exact same crest. A lion and a rose.
“You shouldn't be snooping.”
Bella spun around. Lucas was leaning against the doorframe, his white button-down shirt unbuttoned at the collar, a bruised knuckle on his right hand.
“Where did you get this watch?” Bella demanded, holding it up.
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“It belonged to the man who pulled me from the burning car,” Lucas said quietly. “My mentor. Marcus Thorne.”
“Marcus Thorne,” Bella breathed. “He didn't pull you out to save you, Lucas. He pulled you out to use you. This crest… this watch belonged to my father.”
