Chapter 80 - They’re After You

Chapter 80 - They’re After You
Lucia’s POV

I didn’t breathe.

Not for a second, not for a sound. Every nerve in my body locked down like a vault, as the footsteps drew closer… heavier… slower.

He moved like someone who wasn’t in a hurry, like he didn’t need to be.

I could see his boots from beneath the desk. Scuffed leather, dust-caked soles. A heavy set. The kind of man who didn’t just walk into rooms—he took them.

Then I heard it.

The soft clack of the keyboard.

He’d seen it.

Shit. Shit.

The laptop. I’d left it on.

I shut my eyes, swallowed the panic like it could drown in my throat. Every second stretched into forever as he mumbled something in Russian under his breath.. low, and sharp.

Another footstep. He was turning.

I clenched my fists, ready to run or fight or scream if I had to. If I died, I wasn’t going down quiet.

But then—

A thump. A soft, living mewl.

He turned.

It was a cat.

Grey, skinny, tail flicking like it owned the place. It leapt up onto the windowsill, knocked over a mug, and looked straight at the man like it didn’t give a damn who he was.

He cursed again.

“Fucking animal.”

And then, miraculously, he turned away.

He walked to the fridge. Opened it. Grabbed a can of something. I could hear the fizz of the tab popping open. My heart was still punching against my ribs, but I moved. Slowly. Quietly. Inch by inch.

When he moved into the hallway, just for a moment, I made my escape.

I slipped out the door, closed it with every ounce of gentleness I had in me, and ran.

——————-

By the time I got back to my father’s house, my legs were shaking. My palms still hadn’t stopped sweating.

I locked the door behind me and sat in front of the desktop in the study, the one I’d broken into a dozen times as a teenager, looking for answers I was too young to understand.

Now I wasn’t a kid anymore. And the answers I had in this flash drive were so much worse than anything I’d imagined.

I plugged it in.

Folder by folder. File by file.

Surveillance. Messages. Screenshots. Recordings.

All of it.

And then… I saw it.

The truth. The real reason behind the fire that turned Dante into the man he is now. The fire that broke him. Burned away his soul and left something sharp in its place.

It wasn’t just some rogue accident. It wasn’t even Bratva vengeance.

It was Gabriel.

He’d orchestrated everything, using a rogue Bratva member who owed him. Someone disgraced, desperate, bought. Gabriel had manipulated the hit, framed the Bratva, and lied to Dante.

And Dante believed it. He clung to it so hard, he painted every Bratva member with the same blood. Killed them all. Hunted them down in back alleys and foreign cities, chasing justice that was nothing more than a carefully constructed lie.

Gabriel had turned him into a weapon.

And that wasn’t even the worst part.

I found an email chain—dated before the fire. Gabriel had worked for Dante’s father. Until he was fired for insubordination.

Fired. Not resigned. Not transferred. Fired.

And Dante never knew.

Because just weeks after his father’s death, Gabriel returned—and years later, he burned their house to the ground, killing Dante’s mother and sister with it.

Gabriel hadn’t just wanted revenge, he wanted to finish what he started after he was cast out by Dante’s father. The fire wasn’t just payback. It was the next move in a game only he knew he was playing.

I stared at the screen, bile rising in my throat.

He had no idea who Gabriel really was.

I gathered everything. Duplicated the files. One for me. One to leave behind, just in case.

And then I stood.

My father was in the garden when I found him. Trimming roses with those ugly gardening gloves he loved so much. The ones I used to laugh at when I was small.

He looked up when he saw me. Frowned. “Lucia?”

“I’m leaving dad,” I said softly. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t ask where.”

His brows pinched. “Lucia, what’s going on—”

“I love you, Dad. I always have. Even though I hate you right now.”

His face fell. His voice cracked. “Lucia—”

But I kissed his cheek and walked away before he could say anything else. Heading to Dante’s residence.

My chest felt like it was full of dynamite.

I had the evidence. The truth. I was going to blow this entire web apart, tear the lies from his back, and give him the one thing no one else ever had:

Clarity.

Even though he had murdered half of my family.

I hated what he’d done. But I hated what had been done to him even more.

The car rolled to a stop outside the estate.
I stepped out, gravel crunching beneath my shoes, each footfall loud in the silence. My heart pounded—fast, hard, uncertain.

Was I even ready to face Dante?

I clutched the flash drive in my pocket like it was a live grenade. The truth I carried could destroy everything…. or save it.

The wind sliced across my face, sharp as the memories clawing at my chest. I crossed the last few feet, eyes locked on the iron gate ahead, breath catching in my throat.

But just before I reached the gates, my phone rang.

Unknown number.

I almost ignored it but picked up anyways. I was about to hang up when I heard the voice on the other end.

“Lucia—!”

My father.

But it wasn’t just his voice.

It was pain. Agony. Raw, unfiltered screaming.

My blood turned to ice.

“Dad?! What’s happening?!”

Another scream. A crash. Something heavy. A muffled voice said something I couldn’t hear, and then another scream followed.

“Lucia! They—they’re after you! Don’t come back! Don’t—”

And then the line went dead.

I stood few feet’s away from Dante’s gate, eyes wide. Hands shaking.

What the hell was going on?
Who knew? What did they want? Was this because I went digging? Because I found Gabriel’s truth?

I wasn’t sure what terrified me more—that my father was paying the price for my curiosity…

Or this was only the beginning of the war I’d just ignited.