Chapter 204

Lucian POV

I woke up that morning with a tight knot in my chest—not the kind of anxiety that makes you want to run, but the kind that anchors you in place, making every breath feel slightly heavier than it should. Today wasn’t just important. It was final in a way I couldn’t undo once it began.

Today was the day I couldn’t put it off any longer.

The day I was going to ask Olivia to marry me.

For weeks, I’d been planning it in silence, letting every detail fall into place without ever saying it out loud where it could lose its shape. I told the people who mattered—her parents, Ava, Kelly, Adrian, even Harper and Aiden. Everyone had been carefully looped in, everyone except Olivia herself. That part mattered most to me. I wanted it untouched by expectation, unspoiled by anticipation. I wanted it to belong only to her in the moment it happened.

The rooftop I chose sat on top of one of my newly restored buildings, overlooking the city skyline as it s