Chapter 212 - Keep Your Claws Away
Lucy didn't realize she was glaring at Nathaniel until he pointed it out.
"You do realize that no matter how angry you are at me for the things that happened in the past, we would never change them, right? They already happened. The past is gone. We are better off moving on." He scoffed.
She crossed her arms at his hypocrisy. "So, I should move on from the past even though you can't do that yourself, huh."
"I don't know what you're getting at." Nathaniel feigned ignorance.
She took a sip of her drink with a subtle shake of her head. In the past, when he followed her and found out that she had been seeing Theodore, he had grabbed her right out of his arms and dragged her home where he and her mother reprimanded her in turns for days, then they set her up with a man from a wealthy family who according to them, was better suited for her status.
Every time she snuck out to meet Theodore, they would catch her before she left the heavily guarded compound and punish her for being rebellious. It wasn't a piece of cake to finally get out and have a chance to speak to him.
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She saw him at the marketplace just as he was about to leave, and hurried to catch up to him.
"Theo!" She called when she was close enough.
He turned and glanced in her direction. She was certain that he had seen her because he frowned at her, but he didn't stop walking away from her. On the contrary, he quickened his footsteps to leave.
She ran faster and blocked his path. "Theo, please listen to me." She grabbed his hand as she heaved for breath from how fast she had run.
He looked down at her and almost felt guilty for having made her run but then again, it shouldn't be any of his business so he swatted her small hand away. "Why the hell should I do that?"
"Because you have to." She grabbed his sleeve before he could brush past her.
He looked her up and down and scoffed. "What makes you think I should listen to you just because you want me to? Do you think the world revolves around you, princess?"
She blinked sadly. He knew how much she hated that word but he had still used it. He must be angrier than she thought.
She clung to his hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie to you. I just… I knew you wouldn't want to see me if you knew my true identity but I liked you."
Her straightforwardness was almost tempting. He looked down at the hand she was holding in a vice grip, as though she would rather pull his hand out than let go of it. "What about now that your father found out that you are seeing me? Do you like someone else, who deserves you more than a pauper of my variety does?"
She knew he was being sarcastic but she buried her face in his chest. "Now, I love you. I don't know when it happened but I fell in love with you. I can't live without you, Theo."
He pulled her away from him when he heard the last part. "You have to. The last thing I want is to be a wanted criminal just because I eloped with the daughter of a tycoon. It's already bad enough that my sister has been made to lose her job."
She looked up in shock. "What?"
"Yes. So stay the hell away from me." He pushed her away.
"But you claimed to love me." She grabbed his shirt to resist his push.
"That doesn't mean I'm stupid, Lucy. I'll not put my only family in danger for the sake of love. Hell, I can fall in love with another woman and get married within a month if I have to."
….
Lucy closed her eyes. His words from that day still stung even though they had ended up getting married and even had a divorce later.
She shook her head at how shallow her father was. "If my daughter were to marry someone I didn't like, I wouldn't try to separate them anymore. Just how selfish are you, Nathaniel?"
"Enough nonsense. And how dare you call me by name? I'm your father!" He roared.
She shrugged. "Why do you have a name if you don't want it to be used? You might as well remain nameless and there won't be an actual difference."
Nathaniel glared at her and knew that if they started arguing, it would spiral out of control before he even told her what he wanted.
"I can stay away from that man and that girl." He promised but it sounded like he was about to drop an impossible condition in exchange.
"They have names. She insisted."
Nathaniel crossed his arms in frustration. "I can stay away from Theodore Williams and Zaria Williams. However, you have to do two things for me."
"What two?" She asked with a scoff, knowing deep down that she would probably not do either of them.
"One, it's about Zaria. No matter how you twist the truth and make it seem like you adopted her and dumped her when you divorced Theodore, I know that it can't be that simple. Blood is thicker than water and I knew that she is my granddaughter from the moment I first laid my eyes on her." He thought back to when he met Zaria after the auction in Luxenville.
She looked a lot like his daughter Lucinda. Instinct had told him that she was Lucinda's daughter and when he interrogated her to find that her mother's name was not Lucinda Su, it hadn't made sense.
"So what if she is or isn't your granddaughter?" Lucy asked through a scoff.
"There's such a thing as DNA tests if you don't admit it so that's not an important point. I want you to let her come over to the Su family and help with the family business." He demanded.
She scoffed even before he could add whatever was at the tip of his tongue. "She has her own career to chase."
"That's not an excuse. She could still do that while helping out her family like any other grandchild." Nathaniel argued.
Lucy shrugged. "If I don't trust you with myself, what makes you think I would entrust my daughter to you?" She didn't think it made any sense to keep denying it when Nathaniel might easily retrieve a DNA sample of Zaria. It would be troublesome to keep Zaria away from potential hair thieves. They might as well give up on it. "Why should I believe that you will not murder her to get back at Theodore and I for not breaking up when you wanted us to?"
"Did you not hear what I said?" He massaged the space between his brows. "Why would I hurt my granddaughter?"
"Why would you hurt your daughter?" She threw the question back at him in a way that irritated the hell out of him.
"What's the second condition?" She asked and chuckled immediately after. "On second thought, tell me if it's something I'm going to say no to. It will save us both a lot of time."
Nathaniel let out a breath. "It's about your son. The first grandson of the Su family, who you hid from the world as well as your own family." He looked like he wanted to reprimand her for it.
She stretched her limbs. "Yeah, I'm going to say no to whatever you are planning to propose. My son will not be subjected to any kind of insanity."
"Lucinda!" He roared. "Aren't you afraid that I'll keep attacking you?"
She shrugged. "You can go ahead and try. I'm not the naive, powerless girl I used to be, Nathaniel Su."
After telling him off, she took out a few bills from her bag and slapped them onto the table. "Enjoy the rest of your short life, Nathaniel."
He glared up at her and she knew that he had not fully understood her words, so she leaned over to clarify. "If you can't keep your old claws away from my family, I'm going to have to chop them off and I won't necessarily do it without hurting other parts of your body."
As he watched her saunter off, he pursed his lips.. She was more heartless than he expected.
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