Chapter 226

Noah

I don’t remember leaving the cathedral. I don’t remember the flashing lights or the crowd parting or how Aiden guided me through the chaos with a hand on my back like I was something he couldn’t afford to lose.

What I remember is the silence afterward. The kind that rings in your ears like the echo of a scream.

We were in a private sitting room off the main hall, hours later, though time had become this weird stretched-out blur. Lexie sat on a sofa, wrapped in her mother’s arms, trembling like her body had forgotten how to stop shaking. My mom and Emily were beside me, Emily curled into my side like she needed physical proof that we had survived the last of our nightmares.

Aiden sat on a low wooden bench against the far wall, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. He looked wrecked, exhausted, still in shock. But every few minutes he lifted his head just to make sure I was breathing. Still present. Still here.

No one spoke at first. No one could.

Emily finally whispered, voice cracking, “Is it… is it over? Is he really gone?”

She didn’t say who—but we all knew.

For her, it was our father being arrested and locked away for good.

For me, it was also William, lying dead on the cathedral floor.

Both gone.

My mom pulled her closer and held her tight, whispering something soft and reassuring.

Lexie didn’t answer. She just stared at the ground like the world had dropped out beneath her feet. Her mother wrapped an arm around her, pressing her forehead to Lexie’s temple.

“He’s gone, sweetheart,” Mom murmured. “It’s over.”

Lexie nodded once, tiny, barely visible, and a quiet sob slipped out of her—not the dramatic kind, but the kind that sounds like a crack inside someone’s chest. “They both are…”

I hesitated, then moved to sit beside her. Up close, she looked shattered and painfully brave at the same time.

“I’m so sorry, Lex,” I whispered. “I didn’t know what to feel at first. I felt… relief. And then I realized he was your dad and—”

She shook her head before I could finish.

“No,” she whispered. “Don’t… don’t feel guilty for that. My father hurt so many people… and he made my life miserable for as long as I can remember. Honestly… I’m relieved too.”

She wiped a tear that kept falling anyway.

“But maybe that’s why it hurt,” she added in a trembling voice.

I frowned gently, not understanding.

She inhaled shakily. “Because I didn’t cry for losing him. I cried for the father I never had. For the little girl who once thought he was her hero. For all the disappointments, all the fear… and for the stupid apology he only gave me because he was dying. Too little, too late, and yet… I needed it so badly! How pathetic is that?”

Her shoulders collapsed, and I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight as she cried into me—really cried—not for the man, but for the idea of one.

“I get it,” I whispered. “I get it, Lexie. You deserved so much better… but he saw that in the end. And you should hold on to that.”

She nodded, tears falling, but she didn’t lose herself. She kept her breathing, her grip, her spine. Even broken, she was stronger than anyone else in the room.

My mom looked from Lexie to me, and I could see something in her eyes—confusion, grief, realization.

“Noah,” she whispered. “I don’t understand… There’s something you need to tell me, don’t you? And I think… I think that by hearing you both, I might already know.”

She deserved the truth.

For twenty years, I had shielded her. Tonight, the shield shattered.

So I told her… everything.

William. The threats. The contract. Why I agreed. How I tried to protect her and Emily. And finally… Aiden.

Her hand flew to her mouth, but she didn’t recoil. She didn’t reject. She didn’t accuse.

She cried—not because of what I was, but because of what I endured.

“Oh, baby,” she whispered, reaching for my face. “You suffered in silence to save us. You let them tear you apart so we could be free. And I didn’t even see it. I’m so sorry, Noah. I’m so sorry.”

I held her hands. “I don’t regret protecting you. I never will.”

Aiden lifted his head when I said that.

There were footsteps in the hallway, and then two officers entered. Everyone stiffened.

“We just need a few statements,” one said gently. “Anything you can remember, anything you witnessed. Then we’ll let you rest.”

Lexie’s voice was faint but steady. “What about James?”

The officer exhaled. “He’s in custody. He’ll be transferred to holding tonight. We can’t release more details, but he’ll be charged formally.”

Lexie closed her eyes. Her mother held her tighter.

The questioning began. One by one we entered the private interrogation rooms as we each told our story.

Everything was out there and in the open by the end of that night. Micah’s memory. The car trailing them. The accident not being an accident. The threat.

When it was our turn to give a statement, we both walked in together. Aiden did most of the explaining, calm and measured even though I could see his hands shaking.

He looked up sometimes—at me, at the officers—making sure the truth landed in every direction.

When the police finally left, exhaustion hit like a physical blow.

Emily had curled up against my mom, who brushed her hair gently, whispering soft prayers.

Lexie leaned against me, eyes swollen, body trembling, but her hands more steady now.

Aiden was sitting a few feet away, staring at the floor like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to be close or if our feelings were still a secret or simply inappropriate given the circumstances.

And they probably were, yet I still moved toward him.

His head snapped up as a new message from Micah lit up the screen.

I sat beside him. “Is he okay?”

“He saw the news and messaged me freaking out.” He put his phone away, and then, slowly, he let his head drop onto my shoulder.

Not desperate. Not stolen. Not forbidden. Just… needed.

I wrapped my arm around him, resting my cheek on his hair. “I can imagine…”

He whispered, “And how are you, babe?”

“I’m not sure,” I whispered back.

We stayed there, breathing, alive, shaken but whole.

No one knew what tomorrow would look like.

The world didn’t have a script for whatever came next, but for the first time in years, everyone I cared about was next to me. I wasn’t lost or alone.

Lexie wasn’t either.

My family had survived.

Aiden had stayed.

It wasn’t over—not by a long shot.

But this felt like the moment we finally began to live again.