CHAPTER 89 — BLOOD TIES AND BROKEN VOWS

CHAPTER 89 — BLOOD TIES AND BROKEN VOWS
DONOVAN’S POV

My father’s voice cut through the chaos surrounding us and every eye in the church turned to him. 
He stood at the back of the nave, he's flanked by his security men.

“You’re wrong,” he repeated, his voice sounding across the silent church. 
“Power without purpose is just destruction and the purpose of this organization was never supposed to be just control, it was supposed to be protection for our family first and foremost.”

The emphasis on our didn’t escape me. I saw Violet stiffen beside me, and I tightened my grip on her hand. 
My father had always been manipulative, always playing games to ensure the Einstein name remained on top.

Alessandro Volterra laughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth where Damien had struck him earlier.
“Protection? Your family has been hoarding power for generations, Einstein. You talk about unity but you’ve always planned to keep everything for yourselves.”

“Maybe we were once,” my father said, moving forward until he stood just feet from Alessandro. 
“But now we have a chance to make the Gray Circle truly ours, no Morettis, no Lancasters and no Volterras to dilute our control. And Violet here,  she’s the key to making that happen.”

Violet pulled her hand from mine as if burned.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.

My father turned to her with a smile that made my skin crawl, it's the same smile he’d always use when he was about to reveal exactly how he’d been playing us all along.

“You see, my dear,” he said, moving closer to her despite the way she backed away. 
“Your bloodline makes you the perfect figurehead. With Lancaster  and Moretti blood running through your veins, you can unite all the factions under one banner, our banner that is. The Einsteins will pull the strings from behind the scenes, and you’ll be the face of our new empire.”

I stepped forward, placing myself between Violet and my father. 
“That’s not going to happen,” I said firmly. “We’re not using her as a pawn.”

“Using her?” My father laughed, a cold sound that echoed off the church walls. 
“She’ll be given more power and wealth, more than she could ever imagine. She’ll be protected, cared for with everything you boys claim to want for her, but it'll be done properly this time without sentimentality getting in the way.”

Violet looked at me, then at Alistair and Damien, her eyes wide with realization. 
“Is this what you all wanted?” she asked quietly. “To use me to take over the Gray Circle?”

“Never,” Alistair said immediately, moving to stand beside us.
“We care about you, Violet and not what you can do for our family.”

“Then why haven’t you stopped him?” she asked, her voice breaking as she looked around the church. 
“All these men, they’re his men and they’ll do whatever he says.”

My father clapped his hands together once, and the church doors burst open. More of his security team flooded in, all surrounding us with their weapons raised.
Even the men we’d thought were loyal to us had switched sides.

“I told you, boys,” my father said, his voice cold and triumphant. “Sentimentality is a weakness. I’ve been planning this for years and using you to bring Violet into our fold, using Marco and Alessandro to eliminate the competitions.”

Laura stepped forward from where she’d been standing by the altar, her face pale but her eyes hard. “He promised me I could have you all if I helped him,” she said quietly, looking at me, then at Alistair and Damien. 
“He said once Violet had served her purpose, things could go back to how they were.”

I felt a surge of anger so powerful erupt from inside of me. 
“You knew about this?” I asked Laura, my voice low and dangerous.

“I had no choice,” she said, tears streaming down her face. 
“He had evidence of the accident he staged, he deepfaked the video and made it looks like I stage it and even evidence that would have destroyed everything you’d built. He said if I didn’t help him, he’d release it and let the world think I’d betrayed you willingly.”

“Lies,” my father said dismissively. “She knew exactly what she was doing. Just like Violet's mother, Eleanor, she knew exactly what she was doing when she married Marco Moretti, when she let you all believe she’d abandoned her daughter.”

Eleanor stepped forward, her face set with determination despite the guards surrounding her. “I did what I had to do to protect Violet,” she said firmly. 
“Your father threatened to have her killed if I didn’t play along with his plan. He said he’d make it look like an accident, like she’d never existed at all.”

Violet staggered back as if she’d been struck. 
“All of you,” she whispered, looking from my father to her mother and then to Laura. “All of you have been lying to me, using me for your own gain.”

“Not us,” Damien said, moving to stand beside Violet with his hand on his weapon.
“We never lied to you, sweetheart, everything we’ve done to protect you, it’s all real.”

“Is it?” My father laughed again. 
“You boys think you’re different, but you’re just like me. You want her because you knows she’s connected to powerful families, even if she doesn't know it, because she can help you achieve what I’ve always wanted and gain complete control of the Gray Circle. The only difference is you’re too weak to admit it.”

I could feel the truth in his words like a physical blow. There had been moments, since I have control know about her her family, when I’d thought about how Violet’s bloodline could strengthen our position, how having her by my side could help me finally surpass my father and make the Gray Circle something better.
But those thoughts had always been overshadowed by how I felt about her as a person and how she made me want to be better, not just more powerful.

“Get out of here,” I said to Violet, keeping my eyes on my father. 
“Alistair, Damien, get her out of this church right now.”

“Not so fast,” my father said, his men moving to block the exits. 
“She’s not going anywhere. And neither are you boys, not until you understand that the Einstein name comes first, always. Any feelings you have for this girl are secondary to our family’s legacy.”

The tension in the church was so thick you could cut it with a knife. 
I could see my men, the ones who were supposed to be loyal to me  shifting nervously, torn between their loyalty to our family and their respect for me as their leader.

“Let’s make this simple,” my father said, pulling out a gun and pointing it directly at Violet. 
“Either you boys swear to put our family first and help me use Violet to take control of the Gray Circle, or she dies right here and right now. And then I’ll have to find another way to achieve what’s rightfully ours.”

Violet stood still despite the gun pointed at her head, her eyes never leaving mine. 
“Don’t do it,” she said quietly. “Don’t let him turn you into something you’re not.”

I looked at my brothers, Alistair’s face was set with determination, Damien’s hand was already moving toward his weapon. 
We’d been trained our entire lives to put the Einstein family first, to do whatever was necessary to protect our legacy. But standing here, watching the woman we Iove face death because of our father’s greed, I knew I couldn’t follow that path anymore.

“I choose her,” I said firmly, moving to stand directly in front of Violet, shielding her with my body.

“Me too,” Alistair said, moving to stand beside us.

“Always,” Damien added, his hand resting on his gun as he faced down our father’s men.

My father’s face hardened with fury. 

“Then you leave me no choice,” he said, his finger tightening on the trigger.

Before he could fire, Laura moved faster than anyone could have imagined. She’d moved silently without anyone noticing and had been standing just behind him, and she slammed the butt of her gun into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious before he could pull the trigger.

“Go,” she said, her voice urgent as my father’s men stared in shock at their fallen leader. 
“I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Get her out of here before more of his men arrive.”

We didn’t need to be told twice. Damien led the way through a side door while Alistair helped Violet over the church’s stone wall into the alley behind. I paused for just a moment to look back at Laura, who stood with her gun raised, facing down dozens of armed men without flinching.

“Why?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“Because even though I hate her for taking you from me,” she said, her eyes meeting mine one last time, 
“I love you more than I hate her. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you.”

I nodded once, then turned and ran after my brothers and Violet into the Milan streets.