Chapter 23 Twenty Three

Chapter 23 Twenty Three
IDALIA SOLENE

The round table in the high-end restaurant suddenly felt like a flat sheet of ice. The loud sounds of the New York lunch crowd faded into a dull, heavy hum in my ears.

I stopped breathing as I stared at Cassian, looking at his face. I searched his features, looking for the specific Devereux traits I had somehow missed for five long years. And that's when I saw them . I saw the height. I saw the exact way he stood. He carried the exact same heavy, arrogant grace that Thane possessed.

A massive wave of hot nausea hit my stomach.

This man saved me. He taught me how to hold a sharp scalpel without shaking. He helped me build my new life, my new bank accounts, and my new name. And all this time, he carried the exact same blood as the people who tried to kill me. I felt like a massive fool. I felt completely exposed.

Thane did not notice my internal panic.

He looked pleased. He wanted to prolong the lunch. He reached out and touched the white tablecloth, his large fingers resting just an inch away from my hand. Then his icy blue eyes were dark with a heavy mixture of intense curiosity and raw physical hunger. His presence was electric and terrifying, a sharp contrast to the calming safety I always felt with Cassian.

I pulled my hand back immediately, locking my spine and shutting his advance down with cold, absolute finality.

"The afternoon just started, Doctor," Thane said. His deep voice vibrated across the table. "We haven't even finished the wine."

"I have a surgery to prep for, Mr. Devereux," I said smoothly. I stood up. I picked up my expensive leather bag. "And quite frankly, I have had enough surprises for one meal."

Thane frowned. He stood up slowly, using his massive height to cast a shadow over me.

"You are running away. Again."

"I am working," I told him, looking directly into his blue eyes. "Something you should try. Goodbye, Thane."

I did not look at Cassian, instead I turned on my high heels and walked out of the restaurant where I waited on the cold concrete sidewalk. The freezing New York wind whipped my hair around my face as I watched Thane’s heavy black SUV pull away from the curb and merge into the busy city traffic.

Cassian walked out the glass doors a minute later, stepping onto the sidewalk. I turned on him instantly. My gray eyes were blazing with absolute, violent fury.

"You are a Devereux," I said. My voice was a low, hard hiss. "You are his cousin. How could you keep that from me? What the fuck?"

Cassian looked around the busy street.

"Solene, keep your voice down. This is not the place."

"Do not tell me what to do," I snapped.

I took a step toward him, pointing a sharp finger at his chest. "I trusted you with my life. I trusted you with my children. And you are one of them."

Cassian did not flinch. He looked down at me with dark, serious eyes.

"I am the one who kept you alive when 'they' wanted you in the ground," Cassian said. His voice was completely steady. "My father is the reason you are breathing right now. Come with me. I will tell you everything."

I stared at him. The anger burned hot in my chest, but I knew he was right. I followed him to his private, black car parked down the block.

Once we sat in the back seat, the heavy doors clicked shut, sealing us in complete, quiet privacy.

Cassian turned to look at me and then he began the story.

He told me his father was Silas Devereux. Silas was Thane’s uncle. He was the outcast of the massive, wealthy family. Silas hated Julian. He hated Kimberly. He hated the entire corrupt bloodline. And on that dark, freezing night five years ago, Silas was conducting private business near the river edge.

Cassian kept talking, but his voice faded away because soon the memories hit me like a physical blow. The flashback dragged me completely under.

The water was freezing. It felt like liquid ice.

I remembered the violent impact. The heavy truck hit the back of my car. The metal crushed with a loud, deafening scream before the glass shattered into a million sharp pieces.

The car rolled over the cliff and hit the dark river water with a massive, brutal crash.

I remembered sinking. The heavy water rushed through the broken windows. It was pitch black. The water hit my chest. It hit my neck. It covered my face. I opened my mouth to scream, and the freezing, dirty river water rushed straight down my throat. It burned my lungs. It burned like hot acid. I was dying. I felt the absolute, crushing weight of the water pulling me down into the deep mud.

Then, I heard a splash. A heavy shape moved in the dark water. Large hands grabbed my broken shoulders. The hands pulled me hard. They dragged me through the broken window.

The jagged glass sliced the side of my leg, but I could not feel the pain. I only felt the freezing cold. The hands pulled me up. We broke the surface of the water. I gasped. I coughed up dirty river water and thick, red blood.

The man dragged me onto the muddy riverbank. I smelled heavy gasoline. I smelled thick, black smoke burning from the ruined car.

Then I looked up and saw the face of an older man. He had icy blue eyes. He looked like Thane. It was Silas.

I passed out after then.

I woke up three days later. I was not in a hospital. I was in a private, sterile room. The bright white lights blinded me. The room smelled heavily of sharp bleach and cold antiseptic. Every single bone in my body felt like it was crushed into powder. My chest was wrapped in tight, heavy white bandages. My leg was stitched together with thick black thread.

Cassian stood over my bed and he was wearing a white doctor’s coat, holding a small cup of water.

"You have to eat, Idalia," Cassian said. His voice was strict. "If you do not eat, you cannot heal."

I looked at him. My vision was blurry. My throat felt like sandpaper. "Why are you helping me?" I whispered weakly. "Who are you?"

"I am someone who hates my family as much as you do," Cassian answered. He sat down on the edge of the hard mattress and looked directly into my tired eyes. "My father saw what they did to you. He saw the hitman. We decided that night: the girl who died in that river stays dead. Solene is the one who lives."

The recovery was absolute, brutal agony. I remembered the physical therapy. Cassian forced me to walk. My broken bones ground together. The pain made me scream. The pain made hot tears pour down my face. I fell onto the hard floor. I sweat through my clothes. But Cassian did not let me quit. He picked me up. He made me take another step. He made me walk until the weakness left my body entirely.

Then came the medical school.

Cassian hid me in Europe. He gave me a new name. He gave me heavy, thick medical books and I stayed awake for three days at a time. I studied the human heart. I studied the arteries. I studied the valves. Cassian was a brutal, demanding mentor. He did not accept failure. He did not accept tears. He demanded absolute perfection.

I remembered my first mock surgery. We stood in a cold, stainless steel laboratory. A dead pig’s heart sat on the metal table.

Cassian handed me a sharp, silver scalpel. My hands were shaking. The memory of the hitman’s gun made my fingers tremble violently.

But Cassian stepped behind me. He placed his large, steady hands directly over mine. He guided the sharp blade down.

We cut the flesh, watching as the dark blood pooled on the metal table. The smell of raw meat and copper hit my nose. Cassian let go of my hands. I held the scalpel alone. My hands stopped shaking. I made the next cut perfectly. I made the third cut flawlessly.

Cassian was not just my teacher. He was my architect. He tore down the weak, terrified girl, and he built a cold, unyielding weapon in her place.

The flashback ended. The memory of the pig’s blood faded into the dark leather of the car seat.

I looked at Cassian. We were back in the present.

I realized the absolute truth. Cassian and Silas did not use their massive wealth to hide me just to be kind. They hid me because it was the only way to strike back at Julian and Elena. I was their revenge.

"We did not hide it to hurt you," Cassian said quietly. He watched my face. "We hid it so you could become a weapon they never saw coming."

I looked down at his hands resting on his lap. They were perfectly steady. I realized he was my only real ally in this entire city. He was the only person who knew my exact pain. The anger was still burning hot in my chest, but the mission was much more important.
I raised my chin. I looked at him with hard, stormy gray eyes.

"We are going to ruin them," I said simply.
Two hours later, I walked into my modern, high-security mansion. The heavy steel front door locked automatically behind me.
The massive living room was bright and warm. The children were playing on the expensive floor rug. Zara sat on the couch, reading a book.

Cassian walked in right behind me.

"Uncle Cassian!" Leo and Mia yelled.

They dropped their toys. They ran across the room and threw their small arms tightly around his legs. They loved him. He was the only father figure they had ever known. I watched them hug him and felt a massive, heavy weight settle deep in my chest.
Cassian smiled. He kneeled down and hugged them back. "Look how big you two are getting."

Leo let go of Cassian. He ran over to the glass coffee table and picked up a piece of white paper. He ran back to me, holding the paper high up in the air. He had a massive, proud smile on his face.

"Look, Mommy!" Leo said loudly. "It is the tall mister from the hospital. He is nice. Can he come over for cookies?"

I froze.

My blood stopped moving entirely. A heavy block of pure, freezing ice dropped into my stomach.

I looked down at the piece of paper. It was a drawing done in heavy crayon. It was a drawing of a man. The man was very tall. He wore a dark suit. But the most terrifying detail was the eyes. Leo used a bright, heavy blue crayon to color the eyes.

The resemblance to Thane Devereux was absolutely unmistakable.

I could not breathe. The silence in the large living room was heavy and suffocating. It felt like a dark horror movie. The monster was not outside the house. The monster was already inside my walls. The father they never knew was already living inside my children's heads.
I slowly lifted my eyes. I looked across the room at Cassian. His smile was completely gone. He stared at the blue crayon eyes on the paper.

THANE DEVEREUX

The heavy double doors of my mother’s private sitting room flew open.

I walked inside, clenching my jaw at the sharp smell.

The room smelled exactly like fresh white lilies and heavy, suffocating floral perfume. It was an expensive, over-decorated cage.

Kimberly Devereux was standing in the center of the room. She wore a dark red silk dress. Her face was flushed with pure, dark anger. She held a glossy tabloid magazine in her shaking hand.

She threw the magazine onto the glass coffee table. The paper hit the glass with a loud slap.

I looked down at the cover. It was a clear, high-definition photograph. It showed me standing on the New York sidewalk. I was holding the paparazzo by his jacket collar. Dr. Lia Solene stood perfectly still behind me, watching me with her cold, stormy gray eyes.

"You are spending your time with that woman while Camilla is at home crying!" Kimberly screamed. Her voice echoed sharply off the high ceiling. "Have you completely lost your mind, Thane?"

I did not flinch. I kept my hands at my sides. "I do not care about Camilla’s tears, Mother. I care about the truth."

Kimberly took a step toward me. Her eyes were wide with fury. "What truth? She is a doctor! She is a complete stranger who insulted our family!"

"Then why does she have the exact same mole on her neck as my dead wife?" I fired back. My deep voice shook the room. I did not yell, but the heavy, brutal force of my words hit her hard. "Why does her four-year-old son look like he could be my exact twin? There is a massive, bleeding hole in my life where Idalia used to be, and this arrogant woman is standing right in the absolute middle of it."

Kimberly stared at me. Her mouth opened, but she could not find a lie fast enough to cover the truth.

"I am tired of being the perfect son," I said. I stepped closer to her. "If living a lie is the price of this family business, I want absolutely nothing from you. I want nothing from the board."

I turned my back on her and walked out of the sitting room without another word, making my way down the long, carpeted hallway of the estate with my large hands curled into tight, heavy fists.

I thought about the lunch at the restaurant. I thought about the way Solene looked at me before Cassian interrupted us. She looked at me with a hate so incredibly deep, it felt exactly like love. The line between wanting to kill me and wanting to touch me was completely blurred in her eyes.

I stopped walking and placed my hand flat against the cold wall. I noticed my own heart. It was beating fast. It hammered heavily against my ribs.

I was not just curious anymore. I was completely obsessed. I felt a dark, violent hunger burning in my blood. I knew there was a massive, dark secret hiding right behind her cold gray eyes. She built a fortress of ice to keep me away. But she did not know the monster she was dealing with.

I was going to tear the absolute truth out of her, even if I had to break both of us into pieces to do it.