Chapter 277 We don’t have any bad blood, do we?

Chapter 277: Chapter 277 We don’t have any bad blood, do we?

Aria’s POV

Lucas was here to fulfill his promise.

When he walked into my office that morning, I barely recognized him.

Gone was the polished, put-together heir I’d seen at family gatherings. His usual designer suits had been replaced by a simple black hoodie and jeans. A baseball cap sat low on his head, obscuring most of his face. Even his scent was different—muted, almost undetectable, like he’d deliberately masked it.

"Lucas?" I stood from my desk, genuinely startled. "What happened to you?"

He pulled off the cap and gave me a tired smile. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his jaw was covered in stubble. He looked like he hadn’t slept properly in days.

"Long story," he said, dropping into the chair across from me. "Let’s just say I’m keeping a low profile these days."

I frowned, studying him more closely. There was tension in the way he held himself, a wariness I’d never seen before. Lucas had always carried himself with the easy confidence of someone who knew exactly where he stood in the world.

Now he looked like a man on the run.

"Does this have something to do with your father?" I asked carefully.

His jaw tightened. "Dad and I had a fight. A bad one. Bad enough that I walked out of pack territory afterward and haven’t been back since."

That caught me off guard. "About what?"

"About Emily." He let out a short, humorless laugh. "He doesn’t approve. Says she’s not... suitable, given everything else going on with the family right now. I told him I didn’t care what he thought, that I was staying with her whether he liked it or not. It got ugly from there. Things were said that shouldn’t have been said. So I left."

I winced. "What?"

He shook his head. "And Sylvia’s been aggressive lately too. Ever since the inheritance got finalized and you took control of the pharmaceutical division, she and Victor have been at each other’s throats. And now that Dad and I are estranged."

My stomach tightened. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means Sylvia’s not just angry, Aria. She’s dangerous when she doesn’t get her way, and right now she’s desperate." He leaned forward, voice dropping.

"She can’t move against Victor directly—he’s too senior, too well-protected. But me? I’m an easier target. If she gets her hands on me, she’s got leverage over him. A bargaining chip to force him back in line, whether he and I are on speaking terms or not."

The weight of what he was saying settled over me like a cold blanket.

"So you’re hiding from your own aunt."

"I’m being smart," Lucas corrected. "I’m staying at a place Emily rented under her name. Sylvia has no idea where I am. As far as the family knows, Emily and I had a falling out and aren’t speaking.So you know,I am safe."

"I’m sorry," I said quietly. "I never wanted to cause this kind of division in family."

"Don’t." Lucas’s tone was sharp, but not unkind. "This isn’t your fault. Sylvia made her choices. She treated you like garbage when she thought she could get away with it. Now she’s dealing with the consequences. And Dad and I—that’s on us. That would’ve happened with or without you."

He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times before sliding it across the desk to me.

"I’m here because I keep my promises. The 5% stake in the export division—it’s been transferred to your name as of this morning. You should see the confirmation in your email."

I stared at the transfer documents on his screen, my mind racing. Five percent didn’t sound like much, but in a company the size of V&A Group, it represented a significant amount of power and profit.

"Lucas, you didn’t have to—"

"Yes, I did." He sat back, something almost like pride flickering in his tired eyes. "You saved Emily. You didn’t have to get involved, but you did. And honestly?" He gestured around my office. "I need someone like you on my side right now."

I raised an eyebrow. "Someone like me?"

"Someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to Sylvia. Someone who actually knows how to run a business instead of just throwing money at problems and hoping they go away."

He smiled slightly. "Besides, Dad’s been saying for years that the family businesses need to work together instead of competing with each other. This is a start."

That made sense. The Smith family empire was massive, but fragmented. Each branch operated independently, sometimes even working against each other.

It was inefficient and, frankly, stupid.

If we could start consolidating resources, coordinating strategies...

"You’re thinking about the bigger picture," Lucas observed, reading my expression. "Good. That’s exactly what we need."

We spent the next hour going over the details of the partnership.

Lucas’s export division handled international shipping and distribution—a perfect complement to the pharmaceutical manufacturing I now controlled.

There were synergies we could exploit, markets we could expand into together.

By the time we finished hammering out the initial framework, I felt a cautious optimism building in my chest.

Maybe I really could make this work. Maybe I could take what Vincent left me and turn it into something even stronger.

"There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about," I said, once we’d covered the business side of things.

Lucas tilted his head, waiting.

"I’m flying to Italy next week to meet Grandfather." Even saying it out loud made my stomach flip with nerves. "I wanted to ask you about him. What he’s like, what I should expect..."

"Ah." Something flickered across Lucas’s face—guilt, maybe, mixed with something more tender. "My father."

"Victor already gave me some advice—tea, art pieces, things like that. But I want to know about him as a person. His personality, his... preferences."

Lucas exhaled slowly, gaze dropping to his hands. "He’s strict. Old-fashioned. Big on respect and protocol—show up on time, address him properly, don’t waste his time with nonsense.

But underneath all that, he’s fair. He’s never gone out of his way to make things difficult for me or Nathan. "

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Just don’t try to bullshit him,He can smell a lie from a mile away."

I made a mental note of that. Honesty. Respect. Competence.

I could do that.

"One more thing," I said, hesitating slightly. "The Smith family and the Blackwoods... we don’t have any bad blood, do we?"

Lucas looked surprised. "The Blackwoods? You mean Alpha Damian?"

I nodded.