A proposition for Lucia

Lucia

Lucia’s voice cracked on the single word.

“Be… better?”

Her eyes were locked on her mother’s bare chest. Valeria’s breasts hung heavy and full, nipples dark and stiff from the cool air and whatever lingering arousal still hummed through her blanked-out body. They rose and fell with each slow breath, the skin still flushed from earlier spankings. Lucia couldn’t look away. Her own nipples tightened under her shirt. Between her legs she felt the unmistakable slick heat spreading, soaking into the cotton of her underwear. She hated it. Hated how wet she was getting just watching her mother kneel there, disarmed, compliant, empty-eyed, owned.

Chase’s thumb kept tracing slow circles on Valeria’s cheek. He didn’t rush.

“Yes,” he said. “Better.”

Lucia swallowed. Her throat clicked.

“Not the naggy bitch who can’t even deal with her own daughter being a lesbian,” Chase went on, voice calm, almost kind. “Someone who loves you. For who you are. No judgment. No distance. Just… acceptance.”

Lucia’s head jerked up.

“No.” The word came out louder than she meant. “I don’t want you to mess with her mind again. Just, just let her leave with me. Right now.”

Chase tilted his head. One corner of his mouth lifted.

“Let her leave?” He looked down at Valeria like she was a mildly interesting pet. “I can do that.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“What would you do,” he asked her, “if I let you leave with your daughter?”

Valeria’s voice came out flat. Monotone. No inflection.

“I would hate her even more, Master. I love being with you. I would fight her. Strangle her if I have to. But I would return to you.”

Lucia’s stomach lurched.

“She’s just saying that because you fucked with her mind!” she shouted. “Return her to normal, undo it and she’d kill you herself. She’d rip your fucking throat out.”

Chase nodded once. Like he was agreeing with the weather report.

“I guess that’s true.” He paused. “But you’re doing this out of love for your mother, right? Let’s ask Dr. Rivera herself.”

He raised his voice just enough.

“I know you’re still in there, Dr. Rivera. Answer me truthfully. If I let you go right now, undid every suggestion, every change, would you love and respect your daughter?”

For a second nothing happened.

Then Valeria’s eyelids fluttered. Not fully back, just enough. Her voice lost some of the robotic flatness. Became quieter. More human. Still distant.

“I would love her,” she said. “And I’d be thankful. But…”

“But?” Chase prompted.

“I wouldn’t respect her.” A pause. “Because she’s a lesbian. I’ve seen how she looks at me. I will never be comfortable having her around me. It’s unnatural.”

Lucia’s face crumpled.

A single tear slipped down her cheek. Then another. She didn’t wipe them away. Just sat there, chest heaving, staring at the carpet between her boots.

She’d always known.

Deep down.

But hearing it out loud, from her mother’s own mouth, even if it was filtered through Chase’s control, felt like someone had reached inside her ribcage and twisted.

Chase watched her for a long moment.

Then he reached across the gap between them and laid one hand on her shoulder. Not hard. Not gentle either. Just there.

Lucia flinched at the contact but didn’t pull away.

“I can make her better,” he said quietly. “All you have to do is do as I say.”

Lucia lifted her head.

Looked at her mother’s empty face again, still kneeling, still serene, still waiting.

Then back at Chase.

His eyes were steady. Patient.

She dragged the back of her hand across her wet cheek.

“Do it,” she said. Voice raw. Barely above a whisper.

“I’ll do as you ask.”

Lucia watched Chase’s grin spread slow and sharp across his face. The same grin he’d worn when he first snapped his fingers and turned her mother into a blank doll. She should have felt something, anger, disgust, panic. Instead she just felt empty. Done.

She didn’t care about the bitch who’d never really loved her. Didn’t care about the brother she’d never asked for. As long as she got what she’d wanted all these years, the rest could burn.

Chase leaned close to Valeria’s ear. Whispered something too quiet for Lucia to catch. Valeria stayed perfectly still, eyes fixed straight ahead, face slack, while he spoke. It took maybe three minutes. Maybe four. Then he pulled back, satisfied and snapped his fingers once in front of her face.

Valeria blinked. She lifted one hand and rubbed her cheek like someone waking from a long nap on the wrong side of the couch.

Chase looked straight at Lucia. Motioned toward the kneeling woman with both hands, palms up, like he was presenting a gift.