Nico

I heaved out a deep sigh as I called Alaric again, only for the line to cut abruptly before a cold automated voice informed me that his phone had been switched off.

I stared at the screen for several long seconds afterward, irritation slowly settling inside my chest.

Why the hell had he called me if he was not going to speak afterward?

Dramatic princess.

The thought crossed my mind almost immediately as I tossed my phone carelessly onto the marble counter beside me before heading toward the terrace of my penthouse.

The cool Monaco wind hit my skin the moment the glass doors slid open.

I was dressed in nothing except a loose pair of dark joggers hanging low against my hips while my upper body remained bare, exposing skin still slightly damp from the shower I had taken earlier.

The city glittered beautifully beneath the night sky beyond my terrace, expensive yachts floating quietly across the harbor while golden lights reflected against the dark Mediterranean like shattered pieces of glass.

Usually, I loved nights like this because they made the entire world feel far away from me.

I pulled my vape from the pocket of my joggers before bringing it slowly toward my lips. The sleek black device glowed faintly the moment I inhaled deeply from it, cool watermelon mint flooding instantly across my tongue before the smoke settled heavily inside my lungs.

For a few seconds, I held it there.

Then I exhaled slowly into the night air, watching the pale smoke disappear into the Monaco wind.

"Your grandmother’s memorial service will be held next month in Japan."

My mother’s voice echoed unpleasantly inside my head again, immediately souring my mood further.

"The entire family will be there, and maybe if your race happens during the same week, we will all come to support you, my dear son. Just make sure you attend because you have already missed it two years in a row, and your grandfather is not pleased about it."

Family.

The word itself felt meaningless and empty to me.

People loved throwing that word around as though sharing the same blood automatically meant loyalty, safety, or love, but my family had never felt like any of those things.

Most of the time, being around them only felt suffocating. Every conversation was carefully calculated. Every smile hid judgment beneath it. Every gathering felt less like family and more like a performance where everybody silently pretended not to notice the rot underneath our name.

Knowing all of them would be gathered together in one place again was enough reason for me to avoid the memorial service entirely.

"Will Uncle Geum Ho be there?" I had asked quietly earlier that evening while already knowing the answer.

My mother had answered warmly over the phone, completely unaware of the way my stomach tightened at the mere mention of him.

"Yes, of course. The whole family is attending, which is exactly why you need to come this time. All your cousins who never show up will be there too. It has been twenty years since your grandmother died, so naturally it is going to be a grand memorial service, Nico. Please attend and invite that girlfriend of yours as well."

I had immediately rubbed tiredly at my eyes afterward because she was not giving me room to refuse.

"Fine," I muttered eventually. "I will be there, but if the dates clash with race weekend, I am not attending."

The conversation should have ended there, yet the irritation lingered unpleasantly inside me long after the call was over. Even after setting my phone down and trying to distract myself, my mother’s words kept replaying endlessly in my head, pulling me back toward memories and people I had spent years trying not to think about.

I barely remembered my grandmother anymore. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Most of my memories of her had faded with time until they became nothing more than brief fragmented moments that no longer felt completely real. Sometimes I remembered the scent of her perfume lingering faintly through the house whenever she visited. Other times, I remembered her soft voice speaking quietly in Japanese while serving tea in the garden during summer gatherings. But beyond those small pieces, everything else felt distant now, blurred away by years, grief, and everything that happened afterward.

Andrew Park, my father’s younger brother, had been the only person in our family allowed to exist exactly as he wanted without shame attached to it. He lived openly with his husband now somewhere in Langose, completely detached from the suffocating expectations of the Park family.

Sometimes I envied him for that.

Then there was Geum Ho.

Just thinking about him was enough to make my chest tighten painfully.

My grip around the vape stiffened instinctively while an uncomfortable feeling crawled slowly beneath my skin. Even after all these years, his name alone still had the ability to drag me backward into memories I had spent most of my life trying desperately not to think about.

"Do not tell anyone. We are supposed to be family."

The words echoed sharply inside my head again, clear enough to make my stomach twist.

I could still remember exactly how his voice usually sounded every night. It was as if he thought he was genuinely protecting both of us instead of destroying me piece by piece.

I hated him so much, hated the way the feel of his hands had affected me all those years because Geum Ho had not been violent. Instead, he had always spoken softly afterward, always acting like whatever he did was normal.

I was still a child the first time it happened. Then years passed, and somehow it never truly stopped until I ran away from home.

And the worst part was that everybody loved him.

Geum Ho, the bastard son of the Park family, smiled easily during dinners. He spoke politely and looked composed and respectable beside the rest of the family while I sat there feeling sick every time he walked into a room.

Then my grandfather found out, or maybe he had only discovered enough to realize something was wrong.

To this day, I still did not know exactly how much he knew because nobody ever spoke about it directly afterward, but what I do remember were the heated conversations between them and the way the issue had died down.

Nobody spoke about it again. Ever since then, my grandfather had become nicer toward me and let me do whatever I wanted.

My uncle lived his life like nothing had happened, and I was left with the secret that could destroy the prestigious Park family.

A secret that had been a burden on me for years.

That silence alone destroyed whatever remained between the three of us afterward.

I inhaled deeply from the vape again, the cool watermelon mint smoke burning faintly against my lungs before I tilted my head back toward the night sky, desperately trying to force those memories back into the darkest parts of my mind where they belonged.

When Alaric called earlier, I had stupidly expected hearing his voice would somehow ease the pressure sitting heavily inside my chest tonight.

What I felt was loneliness and the exhausting feeling of never quite belonging anywhere no matter how successful I became.

Instead, he had switched off his phone after calling me first.

"Seriously, what the hell is his problem?" I muttered beneath my breath before exhaling another slow stream of smoke into the air.

The worst part was that I had spent all day trying to get him out of my head. I tried so hard to ignore the way my cock hardened at the thought of him.

I wanted to fuck him again, and the growing boner between my legs only proved how badly I needed a release. Yet the only thing I could think about was going to his apartment.