Chapter 31 A Dying manipulator
He was awake when they entered, propped up on pillows, looking skeletal. But his eyes were sharp and Alert.
“You told them,” he said to Marcus.
“You’re dying. They deserved to know.”
“They deserved to know six years ago!” Aiden’s voice shook the room. “You let me think Mom’s death was random. You let me carry that guilt, thinking if I hadn’t called her, if I hadn’t been weak…”
“You were twelve. I was trying to protect you.”
“By lying? By using me as a pawn in your revenge fantasy?”
“By keeping you alive!” Richard tried to sit up, but failed. “Winters would have killed you. Would have killed Lily. I made the only choice I could…I buried my grief, buried my rage, and spent six years building a cage strong enough to trap him.”
“And me? What am I in this plan? Just another weapon?”
“You’re my son. Everything I’ve done has been to protect you.”
“Bullshit.” Aiden’s voice was cold. “You used me. You orchestrated this entire marriage contract knowing it would force me into a position to fight your war. You manipulated Ariella’s family, used her brother’s death…”
“I gave her family a way to survive!”
“You gave her guilt, trauma, and tied her to a battle she never asked for!” Aiden was yelling now. “You’re a monster. You’re no better than Winters.”
“Aiden, please…”
“Is it true?” Ariella’s voice cut through. “Did James Winters have my brother killed?”
Richard looked at her. For the first time, she saw genuine remorse in his eyes.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “Ethan found evidence of the embezzlement. He was going to report it. Winters couldn’t risk another investigation. So he…” Richard’s voice broke. “I’m so sorry, Ariella. If I had known your brother was looking into those files, I would have warned him. Protected him. But by the time I found out, it was too late.”
“You knew,” she whispered. “For six months, while I thought it was my fault, while I was drowning in guilt…you knew he was murdered and you said nothing.”
“I couldn’t tell you without exposing the whole plan. Without putting you in danger. I was trying to…”
“You were trying to use me. Just like you used Aiden. Just like you used your own wife’s death.” Ariella felt something cold and hard settle in her chest. “You’re not a hero. You’re just a man who’s spent six years turning his grief into ammunition.”
“Maybe I am.” Richard looked at both of them. “Maybe I’m exactly what you say. A manipulator. A monster. A man who weaponized his own children’s trauma. But I’m also a man who’s about to die knowing he did everything he could to stop the person who destroyed his family.”
“Did you though?” Aiden asked. “Because Winters is still out there. Still free. Still powerful. And all you’ve done is set up your children to finish your fight.”
“Because I won’t live long enough to finish it myself!” Richard’s shout dissolved into coughing. Marcus rushed forward with water, but Richard waved him off. “I’m dying. Days, maybe hours. And I need to know, will you do it? Will you expose Winters? Will you get justice for your mother? For Ethan?”
Aiden looked at Ariella. She looked back.
Two people who’d been manipulated, used, pushed into a marriage that had become real somewhere along the way. Two people who now had to decide whether to fight someone else’s war or walk away.
“I don’t know,” Aiden said finally. “I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking. I don’t know if it’s worth destroying everything…my life, Ariella’s life, Lily’s life, for revenge.”
“It’s not revenge. It’s justice.”
“Justice for who? The dead? They don’t care anymore. They’re gone. This is just you trying to win before you die.”
Richard’s face crumpled. “It’s me trying to protect you. If Winters isn’t stopped, he’ll come after Frost Industries again. He’ll destroy everything. And eventually, he’ll come after you. After Lily. This doesn’t end until one of you destroys the other.”
“Then maybe I should just sell the company. Walk away. Let someone else deal with it.”
“And let your mother’s death mean nothing?”
“Her death means nothing either way! She’s dead! Destroying Winters won’t bring her back!”
“No. But it will stop him from killing anyone else!”
The words hung in the air like smoke.
Ariella found her voice finally. “How many? How many other people has Winters killed?”
Marcus answered, voice heavy. “We’re not sure. But there have been three other Frost Industries employees who died in ‘accidents’ after asking questions about financial irregularities. Two car crashes, one house fire.”
“Five people,” Ariella whispered. “He’s killed at least five people. That we know of.”
“And he’ll keep killing,” Richard said. “Unless someone stops him. Unless you stop him.”
Aiden turned to leave. “I can’t think about this right now. I can’t…” He looked at his father, and his expression was devastated. “I don’t know if I can forgive you for lying, for using us, for turning our grief into your weapon.”
“I don’t need forgiveness. I need you to be safe. And you’ll never be safe while Winters is free.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with danger.”
He walked out.
Ariella started to follow, then stopped. Looked back at Richard.
“For what it’s worth,” she said quietly, “I understand why you did it. Why did you lie? Why did you manipulate us? You were trying to protect your kids. That’s what parents do, they make impossible choices and hope they’re right.”
“But?”
“But you should have trusted us with the truth. We’re stronger than you think. And maybe, if you’d asked instead of forced we would have chosen to fight anyway.”
Richard’s eyes filled with tears. “I was so afraid of losing anyone else. I thought if I controlled everything, I could keep you all safe.”
“You can’t control everything. And trying to just hurt the people you love.” She paused. “I’m sorry you’re dying. I’m sorry you lost your wife. I’m sorry Winters took so much from you. But you don’t get to take our choices away just because you’re scared.”
She left him there, crying in his sick bed, surrounded by the evidence of his lies and his love and his terrible, desperate attempts to protect the children he’d hurt trying to save.