Friend or Foe?

Scarlett's POV - One Week Later

It's been a week since John and Vivian’s rescue. I’ve moved into Klaus and Liam's apartment, and our relationship was solid, which even helped when playing out our scenes. The way we surrendered to each other was absolutely phenomenal.

With their help, we bought two smaller apartments on the lower floors, one for John and another for Vivian and Cristiane. The three of them were undergoing therapy, and I could see that they were all doing much better.

John started training with Roman, and was now in charge of security, his team having joined Keenan's, as it was virtually impossible and quite complicated to follow all three of us all the time.

The gossip magazines soon announced that I was moving. They had taken photos of the moving truck, but that wasn't a problem for us. However, we did try to keep our relationship with Klaus under wraps and away from the cameras and reporters as much as possible.

As I sat in my office at the apartment, tablet in hand, working on a new collection, which I was trying to design with something that would bring out a little history of the pack’s community, a notification came through on my phone.

As I picked up my phone and opened the message, I raised an eyebrow when I saw that it was from Jonah.

With everything that has happened lately, I completely forgot about needing to talk to him so I opened the app.

Jonah: \[I know many things have happened during the last few days, but I would like to know if we could have dinner tonight. I have a few business proposals I would like to discuss with you.\]

I took a deep breath and stood up. Liam was working in the office next door with Klaus. I went to their door and knocked before entering. They were sitting at the desk with various papers scattered around them. There were also piles of documents and contracts.

When they saw me, they smiled, which I appreciated, but my expression soon became serious.

"Jonah wants to meet me tonight." I informed them and showed them the message I just received from him.

Neither of them were pleased with this.

"I thought about meeting at Casa Santo Antônio. It's a busy place, and we can reserve a VIP area." I suggested.

"That's a good option." Liam agreed. "Besides, I don't think we need to worry too much. According to Oliver, they also benefited from the leadership change in the Black Claw Pack."

I looked at Klaus; he was more reserved right from the beginning as he didn't like the way I dealt with Alicia's situation.

"Scarlett, I don't think you should meet him. I think Jonah is planning something, and this is just a trap." Klaus expressed his opinion.

"That's why I want to meet in a crowded place. It has high status, is renowned, and has many high-class patrons. We would still be able to have a little privacy if needed though." I said and put my phone away.

"Honestly? I believe Jonah can be many things, but I doubt he wants to mess with you, Scarlett... Not after what he saw happen in the Black Claw Pack. Especially after he came to know how you managed to bring down their leader." Liam spoke seriously. "He knows you have many strong and powerful people standing by your side and has your back. Jonah isn't stupid. So I think it's good for you to invite him for dinner without major problems. I doubt that  he isn’t aware that you are now living with us. He won't risk putting the Harveys’ companies against ours."

Liam's analysis made sense, and I smiled. I hoped Klaus would say something like that, but since I moved in, I realized that not everything was black and white. Liam and Klaus could easily and did often switch positions, even though Liam was almost always the more cheerful and fun one, and Klaus always remained the one who was more reserved... But at times like this, they would switch, with Klaus being a bit more sentimental while Liam was more analytical.

"In any event, Roman will be with you and that makes me feel a little calmer about the situation." Klaus took a deep breath.

Once the decision was made, I picked up my phone and sent Jonah a message informing him of the time and place, to which he immediately agreed.

...

I arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled time, went to the reserved VIP table with Roman by my side, while Gabriel was walking the internal perimeter of the restaurant, and Jasmine was in the security room, watching the cameras.

These were obviously benefits that not everyone had access to, but with Klaus and Oliver's influence, and a generous contribution to the owner, it wasn't difficult to turn his arm to agree. It seemed as though Jonah wasn’t planning anything out of the ordinary.

I heard Jasmine, advising me that Jonah had arrived. He was also accompanied by two bodyguards, which was also nothing out of the ordinary. He soon arrived at our reserved VIP table.

"Good evening, Miss." Jonah greeted. “Roman.”

I stood up and shook his hand, which was merely a gesture of politeness.

"Good evening, Mr. Harvey." I used the most polite tone I could muster.

"This is one of my favorite restaurants." Jonah said as he took his seat. "I love Italian food."

"I prefer Japanese, but it's almost impossible to go wrong with Italian." I smiled politely.

A waiter came over to us to hand us the menus and we placed our orders while Roman quietly moved away to stand in a corner.

"I know you have every right not to trust me or my family." Jonah began. I liked that he preferred to get straight to the point. "But I think the information I have is very important."

The waiter brought us some wine and I took a sip, tasting sweet aromatic flavor of the grapes.

"I intend to maintain a friendly relationship with you." Jonah said as he also took a sip of his drink. "I never thought I would see the Alpha of the Black Claw Pack fall by the hands of a woman."

I remained quiet, just observing Jonah's actions and paying attention to his words.

"Many wanted this change, but no one wanted to take the first step. When I found out that Oliver had launched an attack and that Roman was involved, I immediately knew that it had something to do with you." Jonah spoke, watching me intently.

There was a touch of disbelief, together with a healthy dose of admiration.

"Of course, many people benefited from the change. Oliver was one of the biggest beneficiaries since the new owner is one of his friends." Jonah continued.

I already knew all of this.

"The fact is though, that I have my own problems with Rifle, not so much as I had with Bullet, but Rifle is someone I am hunting... Yesterday, some of my men raided a warehouse, which contained many of his things. It was a place that was marked as his general location, but when the raid was initiated, all that was found was a bunch of old boxes and documents of transactions with drug trafficking and other illicit activities."

Jonah was looking at me more attentively now, as if expecting some kind of reaction from me, but what he had told me so far was all common knowledge. Everyone knew that the owner of the Black Claw Pack ran more than just drugs.

Then Jonah reached into the inside front pocket of his jacket  and took out a yellow, aged envelope. I raised my eyebrow looking at it, curious to know what was held inside, as he wouldn't have brought it if it wasn't important.

"Do you know who your biological family is?" Jonah asked, and I just shook my head.

It wasn’t something that matters to me anymore. I've been an orphan for as long as I can remember.

"Well, your mother was an interesting person. She was the consort of the owner of the Black Forest Pack."

I blinked a few times, not fully understanding. Jonah opened the envelope and placed a photo on the table in front of me. It was of a woman with long hair. She had an elongated face and was wearing a formal dress. She had different colored eyes as well. Standing next to her, was a man who stood slightly taller than her. He had an athletic build, and was also wearing formal clothes, holding a cigar in one hand. The two looked more like a mafia couple than an Alpha pair.

My heart started racing as I picked up the photo with a trembling hand. I could see the remarkable resemblance between myself and this woman. Her gaze appeared fearless and she had the look of someone who didn't care about anything, while the man gave off a cold and distant air. His eyes seemed to be nothing more than two black dots, devoid of all emotion.

"This was your mother... Her name was Katya Petrov." Jonah stated the obvious. "And the man is Wesley 'Heartless' Oliveira, but he was not your father."

I briefly looked up from the photo to look at Jonah.

"Your father was someone from the Black Claw Pack... He was sent by Bullet to be a spy in the Black Forest Pack. From what I could understand from what I had read, your father was your mother's lover. When Wesley discovered this, he hunted them both down. The last news recorded, was that your mother's body was found with yours in an abandoned house near Congonhas Airport. As far as we know, your father is dead... I was unable to find his name; when I did find it, it was crossed out in black ink." Jonah left the envelope on the table. "I brought just one of the letters of when Rifle was hunting your parents, I can send everything I found about this to your apartment if you like." He offered generously.