#Chapter 40 - A Dark Family Secret

[Lucian’s POV] Something awful was gnawing at my heart. I truly wished that Violet would have agreed to stay with me. But no. Once more, I was forced to pull myself away from the sole person who owned my body as well as my heart. It was simply too great of a risk to even sneak her back into the palace under the shadow of night. Not when there were likely to be reporters and cameras lurking about. The media was still determined to build a story off of them. And considering that the whole court business was still fresh in everyone’s minds, the last thing I wanted was to place more unwanted attention on Violet. She’ll have much bigger issues to deal with, I thought grimly to myself. Bigger threats. I already had a faint idea as to what Violet was hoping to accomplish in this new chapter of her life. A figurehead—an active advocate for women who were more or less owned by their marital families and spouses who mistreated them. In other words, ‘change’. I knew better tha