Chapter 69 I Want To Confront Him

Chapter 69 I Want To Confront Him
Eva's POV

I didn't sleep at all that night.

I kept staring at the ceiling of my room, my mind replaying everything over and over again. My father, THE FIRM…All of it kept swirling around in my head, refusing to let me rest even for a second.

How could someone who looked so calm, so kind, so gentle every single time he spoke to me, actually be running one of the most dangerous organizations in the country? How could the man who tucked me into bed as a child, who checked on me after every difficult mission I never told him about, be the same man capable of such darkness?

I thought back to every small moment I had brushed off over the years. The way he sometimes disappeared for days without explanation. The way certain people would stiffen the moment his name came up in conversation, even people who claimed to be his close friends. I had noticed all of it before, but I never once let myself connect the dots properly... I suppose part of me didn't want to.

I turned over in bed for what felt like the hundredth time, staring at the window as the sky slowly began to lighten outside. Sleep never came. Only questions, one after another, none of them with any real answers.

By the time the sun finally rose properly, I gave up trying to rest altogether. I got up, splashed cold water on my face, and got dressed quickly, my mind still heavy with everything from the night before.

I walked downstairs slowly, my thoughts still tangled, and found Ethan and Lyra already in the sitting room. They were deep in conversation, their voices low and serious, their expressions tight with something that looked like concern.

They both looked up when they heard my footsteps.

Ethan's eyes widened slightly the moment he saw my face properly.

I wasn't wearing any makeup. No foundation covering my real features, no contacts changing my eye color, nothing hiding who I actually was underneath the mask I wore every single day as Eva.

"You're not covering your face," Ethan said slowly, clearly caught off guard.

"There's no point anymore," I said, walking further into the room. "He already knows who I am. What's the use of hiding it now?"

Ethan and Lyra exchanged a quick glance, the kind that told me they had probably been discussing exactly this before I even came downstairs.

Lyra's frown deepened as she studied me carefully.

"Are you seriously thinking about confronting him directly?" she asked. "Because if that's what's going on in your head right now, I need you to slow down and think this through properly first."

"I've done nothing but think, Lyra," I said, sitting down across from them. "All night. I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about it."

"And what did all that thinking get you?" she asked, her tone sharp but not unkind.

I sighed, rubbing my temple. "I'm certain he already knows that I know. Everything about how easily Paige found that information, how the trail just conveniently led us straight to him. That wasn't an accident…He wanted me to find out."

Ethan leaned forward slightly. "Why would he want you to find out something like this? It doesn't make him look good."

"I don't know yet," I admitted. "Maybe he's testing me. Maybe he wants to see how I react. Maybe he's just tired of hiding it and wants it out in the open now that it's convenient for him. I don't have all the answers, but I know he didn't accidentally let this slip."

Lyra crossed her arms, clearly not fully convinced. "Or maybe he wants you close to him for a reason we haven't figured out yet. Have you thought about that possibility?"

"I've thought about every possibility there is," I said quietly. "None of them make me feel any better."

The room fell quiet for a moment, all three of us sitting with the weight of everything unsaid.

Then suddenly, quick footsteps came rushing down the stairs.

Paige appeared in the doorway, her laptop clutched tightly in her hands, her face pale and urgent, her breathing slightly uneven like she had run the whole way down.

"You need to see this," she said breathlessly, already crossing the room toward us.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, straightening up immediately, his earlier calm completely gone now.

Paige set the laptop down on the table in front of us, her hands slightly shaking as she turned the screen toward me.

"Breaking news," she said. "The Ricci family mansion caught fire last night. Nobody survived."

My stomach dropped instantly.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket without even thinking and pulled up the news myself, my fingers moving fast across the screen. Article after article popped up, all reporting the same devastating story. Photos of the mansion completely burned to the ground, smoke still rising from the wreckage in some of the images. Videos from local news stations showed firefighters standing helplessly around the charred remains, the flames having already consumed everything before they could even arrive properly.

I stared at the screen, my chest tightening.

Michael. Madam Ricci. Magnus. All of them, gone in a single night. Whatever anger or hatred I once carried for that family, seeing it end like this still made something twist uncomfortably in my stomach. I hated them, but I never imagined they would all disappear so completely, so quickly.

Lyra leaned over to look at the screen as well, her expression hardening the more she read.

"Do you think Benjamin did this?" she asked quietly, glancing up at me.

I set my phone down slowly, my mind working through everything at once.

"If he really did this," I said carefully, "it means there's something he desperately needed to hide. People like my father don't waste resources cleaning up messes that don't matter to them. If he really burned that entire family alive in one night, it's because whatever they knew was dangerous enough to be worth silencing permanently."

"What could they have possibly known that was worth burning down an entire mansion?" Paige asked, her voice quiet.

"I don't know," I admitted. "But it has to be connected to everything else. Michael was the one who raised me before I disappeared and became someone else entirely. If anyone outside of my father knew the full truth about who I used to be, it would have been him."

"That's exactly what worries me," Lyra said. "If he's willing to go that far to protect a secret, what do you think he'd be willing to do to you, now that you know the truth as well? You're not exactly safe just because you're his daughter."

I didn't answer right away. The question hung heavy in the air between us.

I stood up slowly; my decision already forming clearly in my mind, firmer than anything I had felt all night.

"I'm going home," I said.

Ethan's head snapped up immediately. "Eva, wait. Think about this properly before you do anything rash."

"I've been thinking about nothing else all night," I said.

"That's exactly my point," he said, standing up as well. "You're exhausted, you haven't slept, and you're about to walk straight into a house owned by a man who might have just burned an entire family alive to protect a secret. This isn't safe, Eva…Not even a little bit."

"I understand the risk," I said calmly, meeting his eyes without flinching.

"Then stay here," Ethan said. "Let us figure out the next move together instead of walking in there alone and unprepared, before we know exactly what we're dealing with."

I looked at him, then at Lyra, then back at Paige, who was still standing near the table, watching the exchange with worried eyes.

"What if it's a trap?" Paige finally spoke up, her voice quiet but firm. "What if this fire, and everything he's letting you find out, is all designed to pull you in exactly like this?"

"Then let it be a trap," I said. "At least I'll finally know what I'm dealing with instead of sitting here jumping at every possibility. I can't keep living like this, wondering what he knows, wondering what he's planning, wondering if every conversation we've ever had meant anything at all."

Ethan ran a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. "There has to be another way to handle this that doesn't involve you walking straight into his house."

"There isn't," I said simply. "Not one that gets me real answers, anyway."

"I'm done guessing," I said firmly. "I'm done sitting here trying to piece together what he's thinking, what he's planning, what he might do next. I want answers, and the only person who can actually give them to me is him."

"Eva…" Ethan started again.

"I want to confront my father.”