Chapter 174: Chapter 174

“Now, cheer up!” Lucien held Brianna’s face on its sides with both hands as he stood next to the door of the passenger’s seat side of the vehicle.

Brianna still had her eyes closed while Lucien wiped his thumbs to dry the stubborn tears that kept streaming down her eyes.

“I can’t present you with tears in your eyes to my dear parents-in-law because they might misinterpret things that I made you cry,” Lucien humorously stated as he kissed Brianna’s tears away.

“What..?” Brianna asked with a raspy voice.

Then she looked up to check their surroundings.

It was already dusk as nightfall was like a vast blanket covering the whole cemetery with darkness. But there were post lamps on the paths with only about two meters apart from each one lamp post to the next, illuminating the place not so brightly but enough to see where they were going and read the writings on each tombstone.

Brianna knew the place too well because she had been here a lot of times over the years since she started her missions given by Charles.

It was part of Charles’ method of motivating Brianna to do her best in every training and especially on her every mission that he personally brought Brianna here to visit her parents’ graves.

Lucien assisted Brianna in stepping down from the vehicle.

“Let’s go! We have to tell mom and dad about the good news,” Lucien excitedly uttered as he led Brianna away from the car, only to stop abruptly.

“Wait, babe! I almost forgot,” he quickly ran to the rear of the car and opened the door to get the things he bought on their way here.

Brianna was astonished to see Lucien’s hands were full. One was holding a bouquet of an almost a hundred smaller sizes flowers of white chrysanthemum and a bottle of an expensive Whiskey.

Brianna frowned.

“I can guess about why looking at the flowers, but what’s with the Whiskey?”

“Babe, I can’t be empty-handed meeting my soon-to-be parent-in-law for the very first time, you know?” Lucien spoke nervously as if he was afraid the Peters' couple, Brianna’s mom and dad, had any chance of rejecting him or anything of the sort.

Forgetting about her undefined emotions from earlier, Brianna chuckled.

“So, you’re thinking about bringing flowers for mom and the drinks for dad?” She asked with a snort.

“Babe…? Come on! Don’t laugh at me,” Lucien kept his playful antic to interrupt Brianna’s mood and turn it brighter. “But that was actually what crossed my mind while thinking about how to present myself to your parents.”

Brianna smiled genuinely as she reached her right hand out, telling Lucien to hand her the bottle of whiskey silently.

“Here, let me help you with a few little sweet words to flatter dad as I pour the first shot for him on your account,” Brianna’s mood changed just as Lucien had hoped for. “I believe it’s indeed a thing to celebrate!”

She was now glad Lucien was beside her at this moment. It made her feel elated that after all they had been through; she saved his life, and he saved her in return, only to be together in danger and yet walk out of it still victoriously breathing- although it put them into a deal where she had to compromise and agree to tie a lifetime knot with him, Brianna was happy she reached her life goal avenging her parents’ untimely deaths.

They arrived at the tomb, and Brianna kneeled as she placed the flower in between her mom and dad’s tombstones.

“Mom, dad,” Brianna greeted her parents softly. “I got the man who took you away from me too soon,” she sniffled as she told Leith and Liz about everything she knew and found out.

Lucien wanted to give Brianna the freedom to set all her emotions free, but when he saw her starting to sob, Lucien moved closer to rub her back gently.

He wanted to remind her that she was not alone and she will never be. Lucien wanted to assure Brianna that her fights would also be his from this day onwards.

But instead of feeling calm, Brianna’s sobs turned into bawls of cry.

“I have always feared of failing to do what I was supposed to do, but now that I have made it, I don’t know how to go on with my life.”

Lucien did not say anything. He wished Anna would pour her emotions out and feel better. Empty her heart to create space for new feelings that are supposed to be in there.

Happiness for one.

Love. New beginnings. And a family of her own.

“I don’t think I am good at anything except what I have grown being trained. But I don’t wanna do it anymore. There is no reason for me to sharpen my skills even further, for I have succeeded in doing what I thought I was supposed to do before I take my last breath on earth.”

Brianna took a deep breath.

“Just to be clear, I am not blaming you for anything,” she cleared her throat as she wiped her tears away. “It’s just that I don’t know what I feel. I don’t even know what to think. I feel so lost, and as always, here I am, ranting to both of you,” Brianna chuckled, then she turned her eyes to the man patiently and warmly, rubbing her back soothingly.

“Anyway, moving forward,” Brianna humorously uttered. “I have someone here to introduce to you.”

Lucien hurriedly kneeled with Brianna on her side, facing her dad’s tomb directly, while Brianna moved a little to make them kneel both in between the Peters couple.

“Hi, mother and father-in-law!“ Lucien greeted before Brianna could say anything more about him. “Brianna promised to marry me as I asked her to, and I am very sorry to say that maybe even if you disagree, I am not letting your daughter go.”

Brianna did not expect Lucien to go direct to the point and state clearly that she is claimed.

“I love your daughter more than anything else in this world. I am willing to take a bullet for her if I need to. I will die loving her if that is what fate has in store for me, but if given a chance, I wish to make her happy for the rest of our lives,” Lucien declared with so many emotions. His fear was as if the parents of his beloved girl could deny him his wishes.