Chapter 150 The Truth Unveiled
Third Person POV
Sophia’s smile turned vicious. “And oh…should I tell you a little story?”
Jason’s head snapped up. “Sophia, stop.”
“Don’t talk back to me again,” Sophia snarled. Her pleasant mask slipped. Showing the madness underneath.
She turned back to Melissa. Her smile returned. Wider now. Cruel.
“Do you know who pulled the trigger that day on your dear papa?”
Melissa stumbled slightly. The world tilting.
“What do you mean?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Sophia laughed. The sound was pure delight. Pure malice.
“Oh, this is so good. This is SO GOOD.” She clapped her hands again. “Yes, Gavin pulled the first bullet.”
She took another step closer. Close enough that Melissa could smell the champagne on her breath. The madness.
“But Jason finished the job.”
The words hit like a blow. Melissa’s vision blurred. Her knees buckled.
Kane caught her and held her upright.
“What?” The word came out strangled.
“Zeus always knew Gavin had a soft heart in there somewhere,” Sophia continued. Her voice was almost sing-song now. “So when Gavin hesitated…when he shot your father but couldn’t finish it…Jason stepped up.”
She looked at Jason with something like pride.
“He was only a young boy. But he picked up the gun. And he put two more bullets in Michael Hayes. And made sure the job was done.” Sophia’s smile was radiant. “He ensured that his father couldn't. And he sealed his position in this family.”
Melissa couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think. Couldn’t process what she was hearing.
Jason. Had killed her father.
She blinked rapidly. Fighting back tears. Fighting to stay standing.
“Jason,” she said. Her voice was breaking. “Is that true?”
Jason stood perfectly still. His face was stone. Unreadable.
But his hands were shaking.
“Jason, please. Tell me she’s lying.”
Slowly…so slowly…Jason turned his face away.
He couldn’t look at her, he couldn’t meet her eyes.
And in that gesture, Melissa found her answer.
It was true.
All of it. Jason had killed her father. A child, raised by monsters, had been turned into a killer before he’d even learned about the world properly. .
The tears came now. Silent. Streaming down her face.
Not just for her father. But for Jason too.
For the child who’d been destroyed before he’d had a chance to be anything else.
For the boy who’d never had a choice.
Sophia was laughing again. “Look at you! Crying! It’s beautiful! Is it for your dead daddy? Or for the boy who killed him?”
She walked back toward her throne. Sat down with the mantle spread around her.
“This is what power looks like, Melissa. This is what it means to be part of the families. We own everything. Everyone. We make children into killers. We turn love into weapons. We are GODS.”
Her voice rose to a shriek on the last word.
Then she smiled. Calm again. Terrifyingly calm.
“And now you get to choose.”
She gestured to Gavin’s body. To Aria on the floor. To Kane standing beside Melissa.
“I’ll let two of them live. You pick which two.” Sophia’s eyes glittered. “Gavin and Aria? Kane and Gavin? Kane and Aria?”
She leaned forward. “But someone dies. Right here. Right now. You choose.”
Melissa stared at her.
At the mad queen on her stolen throne.
At the empire of blood and cruelty and broken children.
At Jason, who couldn’t meet her eyes.
At Aria, bleeding and broken on the floor.
At Kane, ready to die to protect her. At Gavin, lying in a pool of his own blood, barely clinging to life.
And something inside her snapped.
Not broke.
Snapped into place.
Like a bone setting. Like pieces finally fitting together.
She’d been afraid. Been broken. Been used.
But she was done being those things.
Done being a pawn.
Done being weak.
“No,” Melissa said.
Her voice was quiet. But it carried through the hall with absolute certainty.
Sophia’s smile faltered. “What?”
“I said no.” Melissa took a step forward. Then another. “I’m not choosing. I’m not playing your game.”
The guards around Gavin tensed. Sophia raised her hand.
“Stop or they shoot him.”
Melissa didn’t stop. She just kept walking forward.
“Then they shoot him. And I keep walking. And when I reach you, I’m going to kill you with my bare hand.”
Her broken arm hung useless at her side. Her body was battered and exhausted.
But her eyes burned.
“You think you’re a god?” Melissa’s voice was rising now. “You’re not. You’re a scared little girl who’s afraid of being alone. Who thinks a crown and a gun make you powerful.”
Another step.
“But real power isn’t about who you can hurt. It’s about who you protect. What you’re willing to sacrifice. What you stand for when everything is burning down around you.”
Another step.
Sophia stood. The gun in her hand now. Pointed at Melissa.
“Stop! I’ll kill you!”
“Maybe,” Melissa said. “But I’m done being afraid of you. Of any of you.”
She looked at Jason. Really looked at him.
“You were a young boy,” she said softly. “You didn’t have a choice. I understand that now.”
Jason’s eyes finally met hers. It was red and wet.
“But you have a choice now,” Melissa continued. “Right now. In this moment. You can keep being what they made you. Or you can be something else.”
She looked back at Sophia.
“We all have that choice.”
Then she took the final step.
Put herself directly between Sophia and everyone she loved.
“So here’s my choice,” Melissa said. “You want to kill someone? Kill me. But you let them go.”
Sophia’s gun was shaking now.
“You’re insane,” she whispered.
“No,” Melissa said. “I’m just done. Completely and utterly done with all of this.”
She spread her arms.
“So pull the trigger, Sophia. End it. Prove you’re the god you think you are.”
The hall was silent.
Everyone was watching.
Waiting.
Sophia’s finger tightened on the trigger.
And somewhere behind Melissa, barely audible, came a sound.
A groan.
Gavin was waking up.