Chapter 6 - The Truth Buried Beneath the Empire
My mother stared at the phone screen.
For the first time since I had seen her standing alive in that doorway, I saw something different in her eyes.
Not fear.
Not sadness.
Guilt.
The message was still glowing.
"You should ask your mother who she killed to keep you alive."
A photograph was attached.
It showed all of us inside the apartment.
Me.
Elena.
Adrian.
My mother.
Someone had been watching us.
Someone had been close enough to take the picture without being noticed.
But that wasn't what bothered me most.
It was the expression on Isabella's face.
Because she knew exactly who the person was.
"Who is it?"
My voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
Everyone in that room knew what happened when I became quiet.
It meant I was no longer searching for answers.
I was preparing for war.
My mother looked away.
"Cassian..."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"I spent fifteen years believing you were dead."
My voice hardened.
"I spent fifteen years believing Adrian betrayed my family."
I pointed at the phone.
"And now someone sends me a picture and suddenly everyone knows something except me."
Nobody spoke.
"Not anymore."
The apartment shook again.
Another impact against the door.
Whoever was outside wasn't trying to hide.
They wanted us to know they were there.
Adrian moved toward the entrance.
"There's another way out."
I looked at him.
"You knew this could happen?"
He didn't answer.
That was enough.
I grabbed his shoulder.
"You knew."
His expression changed.
"I suspected."
I pushed him back.
"Don't lie to me."
"I wasn't trying to protect myself."
"Then who?"
Adrian looked at my mother.
"Her."
That answer made me stop.
Because no matter how many lies I uncovered, there was one thing becoming clear.
Everyone in this room had spent years protecting Isabella.
Even from me.
My mother walked toward the table.
She picked up the flash drive.
"This is why."
She held it between her fingers.
"Everything you want to know is on here."
I stared at it.
"The truth about my father?"
She nodded.
"The truth about Victor."
Another hit came against the door.
The frame cracked slightly.
Time was running out.
I looked at the flash drive.
A small piece of plastic that had destroyed my entire understanding of my life.
"Why didn't you destroy it?"
My mother looked at me.
"Because one day you would need to know."
I almost laughed.
"Need to know?"
I looked around the room.
"You all decided what I needed to know."
Her eyes softened.
"Cassian..."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Not this time."
I took the flash drive.
"This time, I decide."
I moved toward the old laptop sitting on Elena's table.
Everyone watched silently as I inserted the drive.
The screen flickered.
A single folder appeared.
No name.
No label.
Just a date.
The day my father died.
My hand stopped.
Because I had spent fifteen years avoiding that date.
Now it was sitting in front of me.
Waiting.
I opened the folder.
Inside were dozens of files.
Financial records.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
Documents.
Evidence.
I opened the first audio file.
Static filled the room.
Then a voice appeared.
My father's voice.
I froze.
"I know what Victor is planning."
The recording continued.
"He thinks I don't understand the game."
A pause.
Then another voice.
Victor Raines.
Even after all these years, I recognized it.
Cold.
Calm.
Certain.
"You should have thought about that before you borrowed my power."
My father's voice became angry.
"I built half of this empire."
"No."
Victor replied.
"You built the appearance of an empire."
Silence.
Then my father said something that made my blood run cold.
"If anything happens to me, Isabella takes Cassian and disappears."
My eyes moved toward my mother.
She closed her eyes.
The recording continued.
Victor laughed quietly.
"You still think you have a choice."
The file ended.
Nobody spoke.
Because for the first time, I heard my father not as the powerful man everyone feared.
But as someone trapped.
Someone desperate.
Someone afraid.
I opened another file.
This one was a video.
The screen showed my father sitting in an office.
Older.
Tired.
Behind him was the same room I remembered from my childhood.
His office.
The place where my memories started becoming nightmares.
He looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this, then I failed."
My breathing slowed.
My father was talking to me.
"Son, if you found this, it means Isabella kept her promise."
My mother looked away.
"I know what you're going to feel."
My father's voice continued.
"Anger."
A pause.
"Confusion."
Another pause.
"Maybe even hatred."
I swallowed.
Because he was right.
"I need you to understand something, Cassian."
His face became serious.
"The man you should fear is not the person who hurt you."
The screen flickered.
"It is the person who convinced you they saved you."
The video stopped.
I stared at the frozen image.
A warning.
Not an explanation.
A warning.
I slowly turned toward my mother.
"Who did he mean?"
She didn't answer.
"Mom."
The word came out before I could stop it.
The first time I had called her that in fifteen years.
Her expression broke.
"I did what I had to do."
That wasn't an answer.
"What did you do?"
Her eyes filled.
"I made a deal."
The room became silent.
"With who?"
She looked at me.
And I already knew I wouldn't like the answer.
"Victor."
My anger disappeared.
Replaced by something worse.
Betrayal.
"You worked with him?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"I worked against him."
"Then why does my father say you saved me?"
Her hands trembled.
"Because I did."
The door shook again.
The lock was almost broken.
Nobody had time.
But I needed the truth.
"What did you trade?"
My mother looked at Elena.
Then Adrian.
Then back at me.
"My freedom."
I waited.
"And something else."
The apartment went silent.
"What?"
She looked down.
"The life of someone else."
I felt my chest tighten.
"Who?"
My mother didn't answer.
Because suddenly, everyone looked at Elena.
I turned.
Elena's face had gone pale.
"No."
Her voice was barely audible.
I looked between them.
"What?"
Adrian looked away.
My mother whispered:
"Cassian..."
The door behind us finally cracked.
A piece of wood fell to the floor.
Footsteps waited outside.
But nobody moved.
Because I had just realized something.
The secret wasn't only about my family.
It was about Elena.
The woman I thought I had followed.
The woman I thought I was protecting.
The woman who had been hiding from the truth.
I looked at her.
"Who are you?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
Then the door exploded open.
May you like
And the man standing outside said:
"That's the question I've been waiting fifteen years for you to ask."
