CHAPTER 86: WHEN HOPES MEET REALITY

"So what’s the story?"

Edmund finally broke the silence as they drove away from Salvatore’s party. The night air rushed through the half-opened window while he lit a cigarette and settled into the back seat.

Adrian drove, Silas sat beside him, and Edmund remained alone in the back, separated by both space and distrust.

Lunox was full of snakes. He trusted these two far more than anyone inside his own organization, even if they were only "freelancers" for now.

"Accept us and you’ll know," Silas replied.

"I will, depending on the story behind all this." Edmund exhaled a slow stream of smoke. "I heard Lucien had a twin as a childhood friend. Was it the two of you?"

Silence filled the car. Not defensive, not confused. Just heavy. That was answer enough.

"Why join Lunox instead of Lucero?" he continued.

"If your friend forgot you after everything you did for him, wouldn’t you be furious?" Silas asked. His tone was soft, but the resentment beneath it was sharp.

Edmund chuckled. "Maybe. But I’m not a child, so I wouldn’t be that petty."

"Before he died, Cesare came to recruit us," Adrian said. His voice carried bitterness like a second skin.

"But when he saw us, he froze. Then he warned us to stay away from Lucien forever."

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "He said our faces would only bring Lucien pain. That we should stay dead, just like everyone believed."

The car rolled down the hill and the glow of the city spread beneath them, painting the windshield in warm colors that clashed with the cold inside the vehicle.

"So you want revenge through Lunox?" Edmund asked without looking away from the window. "If that’s the case, I’m not interested."

"No." Silas shook his head. "We want to get close to him. Tell him we’re alive. But seeing how he looks at us now... maybe watching from afar is enough."

"Good. Don’t get greedy, Twinster. He’s mine," Edmund said. "Mine alone."

Silas snorted. "Then let’s see you get him without us. You’d already be dead twice over if we weren’t around."

Adrian added, "So here’s a deal. If you survive a year without dying, you share him."

Edmund’s jaw tightened as he shot them a cold glare. "And if I fire both of you?"

"You’ll be dead meat," Adrian answered with absolute certainty.

Silas added with a smirk, "And Lucien will be ours when you are six feet under."

***

"I think both of you should go for now. Let Lucien rest first," Edmund decided. Adrian immediately stepped forward, ready to argue.

"You cannot do that. He will want to see us when he wakes up."

"But what if his headache returns the moment he sees you? What if his condition becomes worse? What would you do then?"

Edmund’s tone was calm, almost gentle, and his logic left little room to fight.

"This is not an attempt to monopolize him. I only want what is best for Lucien."

Silas understood faster than Adrian. "We get it. We will leave for a while."

He grabbed Adrian’s arm and guided him toward the exit before the argument escalated.

Once the door closed behind them, Adrian yanked his hand away. "What is the point of making him remember if we cannot even be by his side in the end?"

His voice cracked and frustration flooded his expression. "Do you really think he is so fragile that he will faint every time he sees us?"

"He will not," Silas said quietly.

"But he needs time to adjust. Everything is too sudden for him." He stared at the floor, his voice low and heavy.

"This is why I never wanted him to know. Cesare said our existence would only hurt Lucien. What if he was right?"

Adrian grabbed Silas by the collar, his eyes trembling. "Of course he was wrong. You saw how happy he was with us. You saw it with your own eyes. He loved our time together. We brought joy into his life."

"And also pain," Silas replied. He turned his head, unable to meet Adrian’s eyes. "Nothing can erase that part."

"Then what are we even doing?" Adrian’s voice broke. "Why did we train until our bones felt like they would snap? Why did we fight for our freedom? What was the point? Was all of it useless?"

Tears gathered, and he tried to hide them with a hand pressed against his mouth, but they still fell. He had always been the more emotional one, ever since they were children.

The old man who helped them didn’t do that out of kindness. He was known as Gold, the ex-leader of Blackshore that loves gathering intel and recruiting people to join.

In their case, they were ’helped’ by him but they needed to work with them as they ’owned’ life to the organization.

Every mission they accepted, every scar on their bodies, every sleepless night was shaped around a single hope. They imagined the reunion countless times.

Lucien ran to them, arms around their shoulders, the three of them crying together like they used to, and finally believing the world could be kind again.

Instead, the moment came and it was colder than the champagne in their glasses. Lucien had looked at them with unfamiliar eyes, confused and distant.

The rejection hurt more than any beating they had ever endured during training. It felt as if their entire world had tilted and cracked, leaving only the pieces of a dream that no longer made sense.

They had felt this kind of despair in the Red Light District, back when they believed hope was a luxury meant for other people.

Lucien had been the one who taught them to dream. Yet somehow he had also become the one who shattered that dream without even knowing it.

Silas pulled Adrian into a tight embrace. It was the same way he had always held him whenever the world felt too heavy, back when Adrian cried in the dark and Silas covered his ears from the noises outside.

"We still have each other," Silas whispered, his voice softer than before. "And we still have whatever part of Lucien remains in our lives."

"Shouldn’t that be enough? People like us cannot ask for everything. If we try to take too much, we will lose even the little we have."

The words were meant for Adrian, but they were really for himself. He kept his expression steady, but his thoughts were unraveling.

If he had known their long awaited reunion would end like this, he would have chosen ignorance.

He would have preferred the small, fragile bubble of hope where they still believed Lucien loved them, where they still believed the future held a place for all three of them.

Anything was better than this aching truth.