CHAPTER 75 — THE FACE OF THE REAL ENEMY
CHAPTER 75 — THE FACE OF THE REAL ENEMY
VIOLET’S POV
I was standing in Donovan’s father’s study while staring at the photos on the desk.
It's a photo my mother smiling as she shook hands with men who’d just ordered hits on Donovan’s security team. Men who’d killed Carlo and five other good people who’d never done anything to hurt anyone.
I felt like it's difficult to breath because every breath burned my throat. All those years I’d spent wondering why she left and all along she’d been working with the man who wanted to destroy everything.
“Is that all?” I asked him quietly, even though my hands were shaking so bad I had to stuff them in my pockets.
Donovan’s father pulled out another folder, this one is thinner, he slid it across to me.
“Your father knew,” he said flatly.
“He’s known where she was for years, he just never told you because he thought it would keep you safe.”
I opened the folder with trembling fingers. Inside were letters written from my mother to my father, dated all the way back to when I was seven years old.
George, one read.
I have to do this. Marco says if I help him get what’s ours, he’ll leave Violet alone when she’s older. I can’t let anything happen to her.
Another one, from just eight months ago, The time is coming. Tell Violet I’m sorry and that I loved her more than anything in this world.
I dropped the letters like they’d burned me.
“He knew?” I looked at Donovan, my voice cracking.
“My dad knew where she was this whole time and let me think she was gone forever?”
Donovan stepped closer but didn’t touch me.
“I'm sure your father was protecting you,” he said softly. “Maybe he thought if you didn’t know, you’d never be a target.”
“Protecting me?” I laughed, but it came out sharp and bitter.
“He lied to me my entire life, everyone lies to me.”
I turned and walked out of the study before anyone could say another word. I didn’t know where I was going, just that I couldn’t stay in that room another second.
The house felt like a cage now as if the walls are closing in on me from every side.
I found myself in the kitchen, where Rosa was making coffee even though it was almost three in the morning. She looked up when I came in.
“I know you’re angry,” she said, pouring me a cup without asking.
“But they both thought they were doing the right thing.”
“Right thing?” I took the cup but didn’t drink it.
“People died tonight, Rosa. Good people. And my mom was part of it.”
She sat down across from me, pushing a plate of lemon cookies toward me.
“There’s more to it than you know,” she said quietly.
“Your mother didn’t just work with Marco Moretti. She married him.”
I stared at her, my mind going blank for a second.
“Married him? But, she was married to my dad.”
“Your parents separated years before you thought they did,” Rosa said, her voice low.
“They just kept it secret so you wouldn’t get caught up in the family fighting. Marco Moretti is your stepfather, Violet and he’s been grooming you your whole life to take over the Gray Circle for him.”
I felt the floor tilt under me.
“Why?” I whispered, finally taking a sip of coffee just to feel something in my hands.
“Because you’re the only one who can legally take over both families’ holdings,” Rosa said.
“Your father is Lancaster, while your mother is now Moretti. Marco thinks if he can get you to lead the Gray Circle, he can control everything from behind the scenes. He’s been waiting for this moment since he married your mother.”
Before I could process any of it, the lights in the kitchen went out. Complete darkness. Then I heard the sound of glass breaking from the dining room, followed by heavy footsteps moving through the house.
“Stay here,” Rosa said quietly, standing up and moving toward the door.
But I was already on my feet, I’d had enough of being protected and hidden away. I needed to know what was really happening.
We crept through the dark house, following the sound of voices to the library. Donovan, Damien, and their father were standing by the window, looking out at something in the grounds. I pressed myself against the wall and peered around the doorframe.
A black SUV was parked in the driveway, and two men were unloading something from the back, it looks like a large wooden crate wrapped in chains. Marco Moretti Sr. stood beside it, talking to someone on his phone.
Then the crate door swung open.
My breath caught in my throat. Inside, tied to a chair was my ex-husband Justin.
And standing right beside him, looking completely calm and unharmed, was Laura.
Donovan tensed beside his father, his hand moving to the gun at his waist. “What is she doing here again?” he asked, his voice so low I could barely hear it.
Marco looked up and saw us watching from the window. He smiled and raised his hand in a mocking wave. Then he said something to Laura, and she nodded before walking toward the house.
The front door opened without anyone touching it, one of Marco’s men must have unlocked it from the outside. Laura walked into the library like she owned the place, her eyes scanning each of us in turn before landing on me.
“Violet,” she said, her voice just as I remembered it – calm and steady. “I know you have questions.”
“Where have you been?” Donovan asked, taking a step forward.”
Laura looked at him, and for just a second I saw real sadness in her eyes. “I had to disappear and that accident that happened was planned by your father,” she said.
“Your father made me a deal. He said if I stayed away from all of you, he’d kill me but Marco found me six months ago. He said if I didn’t help him, he’d kill everyone I care about.”
“Lies,” Donovan’s father said sharply. “You’ve been working with him this whole time.”
“Have I?” Laura pulled out a small USB drive and set it on the table. “This has everything, this had the recording of our conversation on that day before the fake accident happened.”
Damien stepped forward, his hand already on the drive. “Why should we trust you?”
“Because I love you all, it's twisted I know, but I love you,” she said, looking straight at Donovan, then at Damien.
“I always have and I’d never let anyone hurt you guys or the people you cares about.”
Just then, we heard a loud explosion from somewhere on the grounds. The lights flickered back on, and through the window we saw Marco’s SUV speeding away, the crate with Justin still inside in the back.
“Dammit!” Donovan cursed, running for the door. “He used her as a distraction!”
But when we got outside, Marco was already gone. All that was left was tire tracks in the wet grass and a single envelope taped to the front door.
Donovan ripped it off and opened it. Inside was a single photo of my father, awake and sitting up in his hospital bed. Standing beside him was my mother.
“Meet me at the old Lancaster warehouse at noon tomorrow,” the note read.
“Come alone, Violet, if you bring anyone else, your father dies. If you don’t come, everyone you love dies one by one.”
I took the photo from Donovan’s hand, staring at my father’s face. He looked tired, but his eyes were clear. He was awake, after all this time, he was finally awake and my mother had him.
“I’ll go,” I said firmly.
“No,” Donovan said immediately. “It’s a trap. He’ll kill you the second you walk in.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I said, looking at each of them in turn.
“He has my dad and if what Rosa said is true, if Marco’s been planning this my whole life then it’s time I faced it head-on.”
Donovan’s father put a hand on my shoulder. For the first time since I’d known him, his touch was gentle.
“He’s not just after the Gray Circle,” he said quietly. “He wants to merge the Lancasters, Morettis, and Einsteins into one family... his family and he believes that you’re the key to making it happen.”
I looked at the photo again, at my mother and then at my father’s tired eyes.
My life for the last six months has been caught between two worlds, my family I’d lost and Donovan who’d taken me in. Now I was about to face the man who’d been pulling all the strings, the man who wanted to turn me into a puppet for his own power.
“I’ll go,” I said again, my voice quiet.”