Chapter 156 When the past bleeds into the present
Chapter 156
RAVENNA
My eyes widened as I watched Richard slump to the floor.
Blood was spreading across his shirt, dark and wet, soaking through the fabric in seconds. His breathing was ragged, his face twisted in pain.
Darius stepped back, his entire body rigid, his eyes locked on my father like he could not register what had just happened. Like his brain refused to process the fact that Daniel had actually pulled the trigger.
Richard groaned, his voice rough and furious. "Darius! Do something! Do not just stand there looking like some fool!"
Darius snapped.
He grabbed a gun from one of the guards standing nearby, yanking it free with enough force that the man stumbled.
Then he turned and pointed it directly at my father.
"No!" The word ripped out of me before I could stop it. "Darius, do not do it!"
"Your father just shot mine," Darius bit out, his voice shaking with rage. "It is only mutual if I do the same."
"You do not have to do this!" I shouted back, struggling against the hands holding me in place. "They started all of this first when Richard tried killing my father!"
Darius's jaw clenched. "Your father stole a million-dollar contract from us!"
"The contract belonged to us initially!" I yelled, my voice breaking. "Richard was trying to steal it!"
The truth sat there between us, raw and ugly.
My father stepped down from the platform.
He bent slowly and threw his gun to the floor. It clattered loudly against the stone, the sound echoing through the silence.
Then he started walking toward Darius, his hands loose at his sides, his expression calm.
"Dad, stop!" I screamed, trying to pull free from the men holding me back. "Do not go any further! Please dad! Don't do this, please!"
But he did not listen.
He kept walking, deliberately towards him and stopped only when his chest was pressed directly against the barrel of the gun Darius held.
"Shoot me," my father said quietly. "If you are man enough."
Darius's hand trembled. The gun shook in his grip.
My father leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping lower. "This was thirteen years ago, was it not? Me on that bed, you pointing a gun at me and missing."
Darius flinched.
"You were not man enough to hurt me then," my father continued, his tone steady and cutting. "So do it now. Kill your mate's father over your own father's foolishness. Prove you are no different."
"Dad, please!" I was crying now, tears streaming down my face. "Please do not do this!"
Richard groaned from the floor, his voice desperate and commanding at the same time. "Darius, end them. Now."
Darius's eyes flicked toward him.
"Kill Daniel," Richard rasped, blood staining his teeth. "Kill Ravenna. Kill Theodore. Do it, and I will love you as my son. I will treat you better than I ever have. I swear it."
My father cocked his head, his gaze never leaving Darius. "What is it going to be, boy? Go back to being daddy's puppet? Or finally be a man?"
Darius's breathing was harsh, his entire body shaking.
"You do not get to say that," he whispered. "You do not get to talk to me like this just because you are Ravenna's father."
My father moved before I could blink.
He grabbed the gun from Darius's hand and pointed it directly at him instead.
"I fucking have a say in this," my father snarled.
"No!" I screamed. "Dad, do not kill him! He never did anything to you! He was just a frightened kid back then! He wanted to be in his father's good book!"
My father turned sharply, his eyes blazing. "Keep quiet, Ravenna. You do not know what you are saying."
"I do know!" I shouted back, my voice breaking. "I have seen the other side of him! I can vouch that Darius is different from what you think!"
"He tried to kill me—"
"It was Richard who shaped him into the cold monster he pretends to be!" I cut him off, my chest heaving. "Darius made a mistake. He was a child. You cannot punish him for that forever."
Darius made his move then.
He lunged forward, striking out at my father while his attention was divided.
But my father was faster.
He grabbed Darius by the arm, twisted sharply, and threw him straight into the platform stairs.
Darius hit the stone hard. The impact echoed sickeningly through the hall. He groaned, his back arching in pain as he tried to push himself up.
My father pointed the gun at him again.
"If anyone moves," he said coldly, "I will kill him."
No one moved.
My father crouched slightly, his eyes locked on Darius. "I have a fucking say in this because not long after your father's attack, he framed everything up with my younger brother. Your father denied me the right to be a father to my daughter. Denied me the right to be a husband to my wife."
Darius stared at him, his face pale. "That is a lie. I told my father you were dead. He could not have known you were alive."
My father turned sharply and pointed the gun at Richard instead.
"Tell him," he demanded. "Tell your son the truth."
Richard glared at him, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Do your worst."
My father fired.
The shot rang out, deafening and final.
Richard screamed, clutching his leg where the bullet had torn through.
"Tell him!" my father roared. "Right now!"
Darius pushed himself up slightly, his eyes wide. "Did you know? Did you know he was alive all this time?"
Richard's jaw clenched. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Yes."
The single word hung in the air like a blade.
Darius went completely still.
"I discovered a week later that you had not killed him," Richard rasped, his voice strained. "You only grazed his shoulder. When I wanted to punish you for failing, your mother took the punishment instead. She did something to protect you. That is why I never brought it up."
He stopped, breathing hard.
My father stepped closer. "And then what did you do, Richard? Tell him the rest."
Richard said nothing.
My father's voice turned ice cold. "After my father's death, Richard connived with my younger brother. He manipulated him into believing I was a threat to the pack. He convinced him to have me arrested even though I was banished from the pack already and had me locked in the dungeon like an animal. I was treated worse than a rogue. Worse than dirt."
Darius's face was unreadable now, but his hands were shaking.
"As if that was not enough," my father continued, his voice rising, "he kept influencing my brother. Advising him to be a tyrant to the pack members. To rule with fear and cruelty. The council saw that my brother was never going to change. So they turned to the banished forbidden fruit. Me."
He paused, his chest heaving.
"The elders coming to me in secret was how I escaped the dungeon after six years. I spent the next seven years searching for my daughter. And then I saw a news article about a mysterious red-haired girl trending in an academy hockey male team."
Darius stared at him, his voice barely a whisper. "How could you do that?"
Richard laughed bitterly from the floor. "I did all of that to protect you."
"Protect him?" My father's voice was venomous now. "This is not protection. You tried to kill my daughter twice. Twice. And thankfully, she was strong enough to survive. She never broke, even after everything you and your son put her through. She came out strong and I am fucking proud of her."
I felt tears streaming down my face, but I could not speak.
My father turned back to Darius. "Just for the record, Theodore is not my son. He is my nephew. My brother's son. And Richard is the cause of my brother's death. His father's death. If he had not brainwashed him, my brother would not have been killed. He would not have turned into a tyrant. He would not have threatened the pack members until they turned on him."
Darius looked like he had been struck.
Richard groaned, his voice weak now. "I am sorry for everything."
My father shook his head slowly. "Sometimes sorry does not fix everything."
He raised the gun again, pointing it directly at Richard's head.
"You are going to go dine with my brother in the ancestral world," my father said quietly. "Say hello to my father and brother."
His finger moved to the trigger.
A slow clap broke through the silence.
"Pause," a voice called out, light and mocking. "I have something I want Richard to hear before he goes to the afterlife."
I turned.
Asteria was standing at the edge of the platform, her arms crossed, a smirk playing on her lips as she stared directly at me.