Chapter 72 I Don't Know Him Anymore
Chapter 72 I Don't Know Him Anymore
Bella's POV
I left the organization's base with my blood boiling, my mind set on only one thing.
Answers….I need answers!!
I grabbed one of Ethan's cars from the garage without asking permission and drove straight toward the Monroe estate, pushing the speed limit the entire way.
Every second that passed only made the questions in my head louder.
Why would my father run something like THE FIRM?
Why would he burn an entire family alive and then let me find out about it so easily?
Did he know about me all these years?
My hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, to the point that my knuckles turned white. I barely noticed the streets passing by, my mind too consumed with everything that had happened over the last twenty four hours.
Every kind word he had ever said to me now felt like it needed to be picked apart and examined for hidden meaning.
By the time I reached the estate, I barely waited for the car to fully stop before throwing the door open and stepping out onto the driveway.
I expected the guards to stop me immediately as I wasn't wearing my usual disguise. I had no makeup covering my real features,no contacts changing my eyes, and nothing hiding who I actually am. Just my bare face, exposed publicly for the first time in months.
But none of them moved to stop me, they acted like they couldn't see me.
I frowned and my steps slowed slightly as I scanned the guards positioned around the entrance. That's when my eyes landed on a familiar face standing near the far end of the driveway.
My whole body went still and a cold chill ran down my spine.
I recognized him instantly. Five years ago, during a mission in Australia, I had crossed paths with him briefly. We had both been sent after the same target, though for different clients, and things had nearly turned messy between us before we each decided the job wasn't worth the trouble of fighting one another.
He is an assassin, one of the most feared and respected in our world. Seeing him standing here, dressed in my father's guard uniform like some ordinary security personnel, sent another cold chill down my spine.
I glanced around at the rest of the guards and noticed that none of them were familiar. Every single face was new and there was no trace of the previous guards.
And something about the way they stood and carried themselves, told me immediately that none of them were ordinary men either. There was an oppressive aura that ordinary security guards simply didn't have. It was the same aura I recognized in myself whenever I prepared for a job.
My father hadn't just replaced his staff…He has surrounded himself with cold blooded assassins.
I pushed the thought aside for now, as there would be time to process all of that later. Right now, I needed answers more than I needed to understand his new army of guards.
I rushed toward the front entrance and pushed the heavy door open.
The moment I stepped inside, Haley's loud and shrill voice entered my ears, and it was echoing through the hallway.
"I'm telling you, it was Eva! She's the one who set me up! She drugged me!"
I walked further inside and found her standing beside the sofa where my father sat, her face twisted with frustration as she continued her rant.
They both turned at the exact same moment when they heard my footsteps.
“Ahhhhh!!”
Haley's scream tore through the room the second her eyes landed on my face.
Her skin drained of all color instantly, turning almost as white as the walls behind her. Her hand shot up, trembling violently as she pointed a shaky finger straight at me.
"Ghost," she whispered, her voice cracking in the process.
"Ghost! It's a ghost!" Then she screamed loudly and became hysterical.
She grabbed onto our father's arm, her whole body shaking as she kept repeating the word over and over, like saying it enough times would somehow make sense of what she was seeing standing right in front of her.
Her wide and unblinking eyes never left my face, as if looking away for even a second would make me disappear or worse, come closer.
I didn't say a word and just simply looked at her for a long moment before continuing forward, my steps calm and unbothered despite her hysteria.
I stopped directly in front of her and she became even more panicked.
“Ghost!!...Stay back…stay away from me!!!” She screamed loudly.
Her face had gone impossibly paler now, her breathing coming in short, panicked gasps.
Slowly, I raised my hand and reached out, touching her arm gently.
The second my fingers made contact with her skin, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the floor.
I looked down at her crumpled body and I felt a strong wave of disgust. Somewhere deep inside, a small part of me almost enjoyed the sight of her sprawled out on the floor like that, terrified out of her mind by nothing more than my presence.
After everything she had done and schemes she cooked up with Sasha and Lucas, seeing her reduced to a heap on the marble floor felt almost satisfying. But I didn't let myself linger on it, as my eyes lifted back up to my father's face instead.
He hadn't moved an inch since I entered or even when Haley was panicking. He hadn't said a word and didn't even bother calling a guard to carry Haley off to her room, despite her lying there unconscious just a few feet from him.
He simply stared at me, and slowly a smile spread across his lips.
"Sit down, Eva," he said calmly, gesturing toward the empty seat beside him.
"I'd rather stand," I said flatly.
His smile faltered slightly at my refusal, but he didn't push the matter further. Instead, he leaned back into the sofa, folding his hands together in his lap, studying me with an expression that was far too calm for someone whose secrets had just been exposed. He looked almost relieved, like a weight had finally been lifted off him now that the pretending was over.
"I know you have a lot of questions," he said quietly. "And I imagine, by now, you already know everything."
My mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
I had prepared myself for a fight, as I expected him to deny and make up excuses, maybe even tell more lies to cover up. I had spent the entire drive here rehearsing exactly what I would say once he tried to talk his way out of it, imagining every possible way he might attempt to justify himself or twist the truth into something more palatable.
But he wasn't denying anything at all…
He was calmly confirming it, like we were discussing something as ordinary as the weather instead of a criminal empire he has been hiding for years..
I stood there for a moment, completely stunned into silence, trying to process the fact that he wasn't even bothering to pretend anymore. Somehow, the absence of a fight felt more unsettling than if he had screamed and denied everything the way I expected.
I studied his face carefully, searching for any trace of guilt, or a flicker of shame hidden somewhere behind his calm expression. But there was none and all I saw was just calm acceptance, like he had been waiting for this exact moment for a long time now.
"You're not even going to deny it," I said slowly, my voice lower than I intended.
"Would it change anything if I did?" he asked, tilting his head slightly. "You already have the proof. Denying it now would only waste both our time, and I've never been one to waste time as it is very valuable to me."
I clenched my fists at my sides, my nails digging into my palms, the sting grounding me somehow in the middle of everything spinning through my head.
Behind me, Haley's unconscious body remained sprawled across the floor, completely forgotten by both of us. Neither of us so much as glanced her way, as if her presence in the room had already become irrelevant compared to the conversation unfolding between us.
I looked at my father, searching his familiar face for the man I thought I had known for the past three months. The man who claimed, over and over, that he loved me more than anything. Every memory I had of him now felt tainted, twisted into something I couldn't quite recognize anymore.
None of it made sense anymore….
"Why?" I asked him.