Lucien's POV,
"I told you," Mireya says as soon as she enters my office, and we all turn to look at her. Mireya is not one for sudden outbursts, so this was a surprise.
"You told us what?" Nikolai voices our questions, and she snatches the bottle of alcohol from his hands.
"Hey, come on–"
"I told you that Solis was a bad idea." She looks directly at me, and I perk up from the document I was reading. Adrian gives me a confused look, which I return.
"You spoke to my wife?" I ask, placing a hand under my chin, and she plops her ass on the couch beside Nikolai.
"She spoke to me." She corrects, then exhales through her teeth. "I told you, she's bad news."
"What do you mean, she's bad news?" Adrian asks, and I lean forward to hear her reason. She looks at me and shakes her head.
"She knows about you, Lucien. About us." She says, waving her hand about. I slowly stand up with a frown on my face.
"I don't understand." I say, because I really don't.
"What I'm saying is…" She sinks further into her chair. "She knows you're a Don, and she knows we're involved. She knows everything."
My eyes twitch, Adrian whistles under his breath, and Nikolai groans, running his hand down his face.
"What?" I whisper, refusing to believe.
How on earth does she know? She's never been to my room, so she couldn't have searched around. I know because I personally installed a motion-activated camera for her.
She has never gone to the basement or my study. Same reason I know why she hasn't. The only people she's met from my world are Isolde, Seraphina, and my mother.
I know she's not met any other person because I had given a law for all of them to stay away from the mansion.
Even when I come back with blood on my hands and clothes, I ensured she's nowhere around.
I never wanted her to know because of how rash and reckless she was. If she realized, she would do everything in her power to escape with Asher.
And possibly get her and her son killed.
So how the fuck did she find out?
"...So she just said that, and you think she knows?"
Of course, Nikolai was skeptical. Mireya throws him a pillow.
"You realize I'm the smartest one here, right?" She grits her teeth. "Do you really think I'd say all this if I wasn't sure?"
"Well, it doesn't make sense that she started throwing words!"
"I was about to kill her, dammit!" She raises her voice, and my eyes flare a bit. What? "I was ready to kill her, and she didn't even flinch. She looked at my fucking dagger and smirked! What kind of a woman does that? An idiot…"
She looks at me. "...Or a woman who's seen worse?"
I clench my jaw, and she continues.
"She knew my name. She has never met me, yet she knew my name." She had started to demonstrate with her arms now. "She said she asked around, but why would she ask around if she doesn't know us in the first place?"
"I'm telling you, Lucien. You have no idea who you married."
She didn't even have to tell me.
"I personally believe you."
"Thank you, Adrian."
"Pfft. Bunch of simps." Nikolai turns to me. "Do you believe her, Lucien?"
They all look at me, waiting for my verdict. I sit back down on my chair and lean into it, looking at the ceiling.
"I believe her."
"What?!"
"Good." Mireya nods, then gives Nikolai a look. "But I suppose you already suspected."
I purse my lips. She's not wrong. I always suspected something about Elara Solis. It amazed me how a random woman could somehow keep my child under my radar for five whole years.
How did she survive? How did we even meet to conceive Asher? I am not even surprised that she knows; rather, I am intrigued.
Elara has never behaved like a woman who didn't understand danger. I remember when she broke Seraphina's wrists. I remember the time she met my mother. Most people would be scared; hell, even Seraphina, the daughter of a mafia lord, is scared of her, but Elara has actually poured her water.
I know what fear looks like. I've seen it in the eyes of my enemies a lot of times, but I never saw it in Elara.
I've seen irritation, defiance, and control. Never fear.
"She didn't ask any questions?" I ask, and Mireya shakes her head. "Just started talking?"
Mireya nods, and Nikolai raises his hands above his head. "See how crazy that sounds!"
I nod slowly. It's confirmed. She knows.
Must have been all the stress of her school, my mother, Seraphina, and maybe other things that made her reveal that she knows.
She probably wanted me to see her as a threat. And to be honest, it's worked.
I don't know her, but she knows me. Somehow, she's twisted the whole thing around, and I am the prey.
She's no longer a pawn, now a fucking queen. I smirk.
Now, my queen.
"Look at him," I hear Adrian whisper. "He's gone crazy."
"We should kill the bitch!"
I immediately glare at Nikolai, who senses it and avoids my eyes. For some reason, I didn't care that she knew.
"No one touches her." I say, looking at each of them. "She's mine to think about. My soon-to-be wife. The mother of my child."
Elara Solis is mine.