Chapter 57 “The Meeting”

Chapter 57 “The Meeting”

Scarlett’s POV

The road was slick with rain, glinting like glass beneath the headlights.

The time on the note haunted me — 9:00 p.m. — as if every second closer was another heartbeat stolen. I shouldn’t have gone alone, but Damien’s warnings had only made me more certain. If Maria was alive, I needed to see her with my own eyes.

The car’s wipers dragged across the windshield in a slow, rhythmic scrape. Every sound felt too loud: the hum of the engine, the whisper of the tires, the pulse in my own throat.

The coordinates led to an abandoned shipyard on the city’s edge. Steel cranes towered like rusted skeletons, their shadows slicing across the wet asphalt.

I killed the engine and sat for a moment, staring through the fogged glass.

No movement.
No light.
Just the storm, and the ache of my own heartbeat.

I stepped out, my boots splashing into a shallow puddle. The air smelled of salt and iron, thick and metallic. Somewhere in the distance, a chain clinked against metal, carried by the wind.

“Maria?” My voice barely carried.

Silence.

I moved deeper into the yard, flashlight cutting through the mist. Rows of shipping containers loomed on either side like walls closing in. My chest tightened, breath shallow.

This felt wrong.

And yet, I couldn’t turn back.

Because a small, desperate part of me still wanted her to be alive to explain, to fix, to make everything that shattered between us mean something.

A shadow flickered at the edge of the light.

I froze.

Then a soft, familiar voice drifted through the dark.

“You shouldn’t have come alone, Scarlett.”

My breath hitched.

Maria stepped into the light. Her coat was black, rain-slick, clinging to her like a second skin. Her hair was damp, but her face looked untouched by time.

Alive. Perfectly alive.

For a moment, I couldn’t move. My throat closed, words trapped behind the weight of disbelief.

“You’re—”

“Alive?” She smiled faintly. “You sound surprised.”

Tears burned my eyes before I could stop them. “I saw you die. The fire—”

“Was necessary.”

“Necessary?” My voice broke. “You let me believe you were gone. You let me mourn you!”

Her expression didn’t soften. “I had to disappear. It was the only way to keep control.”

“Control?” I took a shaky step forward. “You call that control? You destroyed everything!”

Maria’s gaze flickered. “Not everything.”

She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small device sleek, silver, humming faintly.

“You think this was about family, Scarlett?” she said quietly. “It was always about power. About survival.”

I shook my head, rain dripping down my face. “You’re lying.”

“I will never lie to you.”

She took another step closer, her eyes glinting like glass in the dim light. “But I wasn’t the one keeping secrets.”

My heart stopped.

“What are you talking about?”

Maria tilted her head, almost pitying. “Did you really think Damien found you by accident? That his protectiveness was love?”

I felt the ground tilt. “No.”

She smiled sadly. “He worked for me, Scarlett. Before the fire. Before you. He was meant to keep you close to make sure you stayed obedient. And when I died, he took my place.”

The world blurred.

Damien.
All the nights he held me when I couldn’t breathe.
All the times he swore he’d never betray me.

Lies.

“No,” I whispered. “He wouldn’t—”

“Wouldn’t what? Betray you? You think you’re the first girl he’s used to getting what he wants?”

Maria’s words were knives, slicing through every memory I had of him.

I stumbled back, shaking my head. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” She held up a flash drive between two fingers. “Everything’s on here. Transactions. Messages. Orders. He reported to me, Scarlett right up until the night of the fire.”

I stared at the drive, the world spinning around me.

“Why are you telling me this?” I whispered.

“Because,” Maria said softly, stepping close enough that I could smell the faint trace of smoke on her skin, “you’re not my enemy. You never were. You’re my heir.”

Her words cut through me.

“I built everything so you could take it one day. Damien was never supposed to love you, only guide you. But he fell. And now he’s weak. You’re not.”

I shook my head violently, tears stinging my eyes. “I’m not you.”

Her lips curved. “You could be.”

Before I could answer, a voice cut through the storm.

“Scarlett!”

Damien.

I turned sharply, a flashlight beam catching his silhouette at the edge of the yard.

Maria’s smile faded. “He followed you.”

“Scarlett, get away from her!” Damien’s voice was raw, desperate.

“Still playing the savior,” Maria murmured. “Old habits die hard.”

Damien stepped into the light, gun raised, rain dripping down his face. “It’s over, Maria.”

She laughed softly. “It’s never over. Not for us.”

Scarlett’s mind spun. “Damien… tell me she’s lying.”

His eyes, those eyes I once trusted without question, met mine. And the silence that followed told me everything I needed to know.

“Scarlett…” he started, but the truth was already there, between us.

He had worked for her.
He had lied.

And now, I didn’t know who to believe or who I hated more.

Maria lifted the flash drive, her expression calm. “Take it, Scarlett. The truth is yours now. Use it, or burn it. But remember blood always wins.”

Then she tossed the drive into the air.

Gunfire split the night.

I screamed as the world erupted, the flash of a bullet, the sound of impact, the rush of rain against metal.

When the smoke cleared, Maria was gone. Again.

Damien was bleeding, his gun on the ground, his expression twisted in pain and regret.

And the flash drive the only proof left was at my feet.

I picked it up with shaking hands, staring down at him.

“Scarlett,” he gasped. “Please. Let me explain—”

But I turned away, my voice barely a whisper through the storm.

“You already did.”