Chapter 80 Demanding the Truth
When the meeting finally adjourned, the air in the executive room lingered with tension. Board members gathered their papers with stiff movements, murmuring among themselves as auditors and Authority officers stepped out to cross-check security footage. Deborah remained seated for a moment longer, letting the weight of everything that had been said settle on her shoulders like an invisible cloak she couldn't remove.
Knight stood near the door, jaw tight, posture rigid, his eyes fixed on her with a mixture of exhaustion and restrained frustration. He didn’t speak until everyone was gone, until even the faint echoes of footsteps had disappeared down the hallway.
“Luna,” Knight called sharply.
The secretary, who had been hovering nervously outside the door, peeked in, clutching her tablet with both hands.
“Yes, sir?”
“Give us a moment,” he said without looking away from Deborah. “Deborah and I need to discuss something privately. Do not let anyone enter this floor unless it’s an emergency. Even if it's a Valmere. Don't let them in.”
Luna glanced between the two siblings, clearly sensing the gravity in the air, and nodded. “Of course, sir. I’ll be....... I'll be downstairs if you need anything.”
The door closed behind her with a soft click.
Silence stretched for a beat, heavy, suffocating, and almost alive.
Then Knight spoke.
“I told you to stay away from him, Deborah! Look what happened now!”
His voice wasn’t raised, but the sharp edge beneath every word made Deborah inhale slowly, forcing her heartbeat to steady. She lifted her eyes to meet his, and the simmering storm there hit her harder than she expected.
“I know what you told me, I already.....stay away!” she said, trying to keep her tone level, even though her chest tightened as she said it.
Knight stepped closer, not intimidating her, but overwhelming in the way only an older brother could be, someone who had carried the Valmere name long before she ever understood what it meant. “No, Deborah. You don’t know. You don’t understand what you walked into. What you’ve been hiding from them! From the Valmere any everyone! Be thankful I am the only one who knows your fucking relationshil with that Cain.”
Deborah opened her mouth to object, but Knight’s frustration cracked through before she could speak.
“You think saving you in that room was easy?” he demanded, voice low but trembling with held-back anger. “Do you have any idea what would’ve happened if I hadn’t stepped in? Those Authority officers were seconds away from pinning you into a corner you wouldn’t escape from and pull out their companies into ours.”
She stood, her fingers curling around the table’s edge as she met his eyes with a flare of defiance. “Knight, I wasn’t hiding anything—”
“Yes, you were!” Knight snapped, and the force of it pulled the air straight from her lungs. “You were with him. You were with Luther Cain. You....had sex with him! And you know exactly how that looks. You know what it means when a Valmere is caught alone with a Cain before a coordinated attack!”
Deborah felt something tighten painfully inside her. “It wasn’t like that, knight,” she whispered, though the words felt thin, fragile, like paper in the rain.
Knight exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair as he paced in front of her. “Then what was it? Because I’m trying to understand why you would put yourself in danger with a man whose entire bloodline has been at war with ours. I’m trying to understand why.....despite every warning, every threat, every history lesson you grew up hearing you still ended up alone in a private room with him, minutes before the entire place went up in flames.”
Deborah stiffened, her pulse beating loudly in her ears. She turned her gaze toward the window as she said, “You don't know everything that happened that night.”
“And whose fault is that?” Knight shot back, his voice dropping to a colder tone that made the room feel smaller. “I learned today.....from footage, from witnesses, from the Board, that something happened between you two. Not from you. Not from my own sister. From strangers.”
Her throat felt tight. “Knight… it wasn’t supposed to happen. Nothing that night was planned. I didn’t expect Luther to be there. I didn’t expect him to—”
“To what?” Knight cut in, taking another step toward her. “To drag you into whatever disaster he’s surrounded by? To pull you into the same darkness that killed half his family? Deborah, he’s dangerous. Whether he cares for you or not doesn’t change the fact that everything around him leads to violence.”
Deborah flinched, not because of the harshness of his tone, but because she knew he was speaking from fear, not hatred. The fear of losing her. The fear of failing to protect her the way the Valmere brothers always swore they would.
“I didn’t choose him,” she whispered, her voice raw and small. “But I didn’t run from him either. I don’t know what that makes me.”
Knight’s expression cracked, just barely revealing something vulnerable beneath the anger. He looked at her for a long moment, the weight of a hundred unspoken fears sitting in his eyes.
“You should’ve told me,” he said finally, quieter now, the anger slipping into hurt. “I could have protected you better if you didn’t shut me out.”
Deborah felt her own frustration rise not loud, but cold and firm. “You can’t protect me from everything. You can’t decide who I speak to or where I go or how I breathe, Knight. I know you’re trying, but I’m not a child. I already grew up, Knight. Not all the time I will follow all your commands.”
“You’re my sister,” he countered instantly. “That’s the whole point.”
Deborah swallowed hard. “And what if the truth is that I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid you’d react like this? Ready to burn the entire world before listening to your own sister?”
Knight’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t deny it.
“And what if,” she added quietly, “I didn’t tell you because a part of me… didn’t want him to be the enemy?”
The room froze.
Knight stared at her, stunned, not just by the words, but by the truth behind them.
Slowly, painfully, he spoke. “Deborah. If you’re not careful… someone will use that against you. Against us. Your love with that Cain is forbidden, Please debs, listen to me.”
She looked down at her hands, the silence between them heavier than any accusation.
Knight stepped closer again, softer this time. “I saved you today. But I can’t keep saving you if you keep choosing silence over us.”
Deborah’s breath trembled. “I didn’t choose silence. I chose confusion. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel.”
“Then figure it out,” Knight said gently, but firmly. “Before someone else does it for you.”
Deborah lifted her eyes to her brother, protector, the shield she both depended on and resented.
Knight held her gaze, his own expression strained with worry. “Whatever is happening between you and Luther Cain, I told you to stop it. Luther is already engaged with Alaina. And... stop it before it destroys you.”