The Day I Walked Away My Empire Began novel Chapter 20

“Tsk, tsk. Your standards have really gone downhill. Open those nearsighted eyes of yours. Soes he even come close to my level of hotness?”

He swaggered right up to Steven, leaning in with a cocky grin as if daring him to compare.

Steven’s face twisted with outrage, his glare sharpening. He’d heard of Elio—who hadn’t?—but had never met him. The man was infamous: a mystery wrapped in wealth and power. He was raised overseas and forbidden by his father to return until the age of twenty-seven.

No one really knew where Elio came from. He’d taken his mother’s surname, Pitts, and his maternal grandfather was the wealthiest man in Elmridge. Only a handful knew anything about his father—a man whose slightest cough could send tremors through the entire city.

Lucie felt her breath catch, her heart thudding. She stared at Elio, disbelief and a thousand memories swirling in her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Elio’s lips curled in a lazy, flirtatious smile that made no effort to hide the warmth in his gaze. “Came to play hero, of course.”

“You were about to get steamrolled. As your ex, I couldn’t just sit back and watch the show.”

A nervous laugh bubbled out of Lucie, prickling down her spine. He was still the same—wild, unbothered, reckless, always with a sharp tongue and no filter.

“Don’t start,” she warned softly.

He shot back, “Start what? I’m here to save you.”

Steven’s jaw clenched. Jealousy and frustration churned in his gut. He could flirt, stray, and do as he pleased. But Lucie? She was supposed to be faithful, loyal, the very image of a devoted wife.

“Lucie, who is this man? What’s he to you?”

Elio barely spared Steven a glance, his voice dripping with disdain. “Name’s Elio Pitts. Second son of the Pitts family.”

The tension broke. The police chief turned to Elio, speaking quietly with the utmost respect.

One of Elio’s men hurried to his side, murmuring urgently in his ear. Elio’s playful mask slipped, his gaze turning cold and sharp. His grandfather was ill. His mother needed him back in Elmridge now.

“We’re leaving,” he said, voice clipped.

A line of luxury cars revved to life at the curb. A sleek black Maybach slid to a stop beside him. The door swung open, held by a bodyguard.

Just before slipping inside, Elio glanced over his shoulder at Lucie, a wicked, teasing glint in his eye.

“I’m out, sweetheart. I’ll be waiting for you—once you’re single again.”