Chapter 48 Chapter 48
"Your father?" The words barely made it past my lips. "But you said he was dead. You said he died when you were sixteen."
Damien stared at the screen like it was showing him a ghost. His hands gripped the edge of the counter so hard his knuckles went white. "I thought he was. He disappeared after my mother died. Left me with nothing but debts and enemies. I spent years believing he had gotten himself killed."
"Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe it is someone who looks like him."
"No." His voice was hollow. "That scar above his left eye. He got it in a knife fight when I was twelve. I watched him get stitched up in our kitchen because he could not go to a hospital. That is him."
I put my hand on his arm, but he pulled away. The warmth between us from moments ago had vanished, leaving something cold and dangerous in its place. I watched him pace the small kitchen and saw the shift happening inside him. Saw the man I loved disappearing behind walls of rage and betrayal.
"He has been alive this whole time," Damien said. "Alive and building an empire while I clawed my way up from nothing. While I fought and bled and killed just to survive. He was orchestrating wars and manipulating people and watching me like I was just another piece on his board."
"Damien, please sit down. We need to think about this."
"Think about what? My father is the head of The Syndicate. The organization that kidnapped you. That tortured you. That has been trying to destroy everything I built." He slammed his fist on the counter, and the laptop jumped. "He used me. He used Victor. He probably planned this entire war from the beginning."
My heart broke watching him unravel. The control he always maintained was cracking, and underneath I saw the hurt boy who had lost his mother and been abandoned by his father. "What are you going to do?"
"What do you think I am going to do? I am going to find him, and I am going to make him pay for every lie. Every manipulation. Every life lost because of his games." His eyes were dark and empty. "I am going to kill him."
"No." I stood and blocked his path. "That is exactly what he wants. Can you not see? He is baiting you. Waiting for you to act on emotion instead of logic. If you go after him now, you will walk right into his trap."
"I do not care."
"Yes, you do. You care because you are smarter than this. You are better than this." I grabbed his face and forced him to look at me. "The man I love does not let his enemies control him. He thinks three steps ahead. He wins by being patient and strategic."
"The man you love does not exist, Lisa." He pulled my hands away. "I am a killer. A criminal. Someone who has done terrible things to terrible people. You fell in love with a version of me I showed you, but this is who I really am. Someone who solves problems with violence."
"Stop it. Stop pushing me away."
"I am not pushing you away. I am showing you the truth." He walked to the window and stared out at the city. "My father made me what I am. Every choice I made. Every line I crossed. It all leads back to him. To the day he left, and I had to become something hard just to survive."
I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He was stiff and unyielding, but I held on anyway. "Your father does not define you. What he did to you was wrong, but you get to choose who you become. You get to choose how this ends."
"He needs to die."
"Maybe. But not like this. Not when you are angry and hurt and not thinking clearly." I rested my cheek against his back. "We take him down the right way. We expose what he has done. We dismantle his organization piece by piece. And then, when he has nothing left and nowhere to run, you look him in the eye, and you show him that you survived despite him. That you became something he could never destroy."
Damien was quiet for a long time. I felt his heart beating against my hands, and slowly the tension in his body started to ease. He turned around and pulled me close and buried his face in my hair.
"How do you do that?" he asked quietly.
"Do what?"
"Make me believe I can be better. Make me want to be better."
"Because you already are better. You just forget sometimes." I looked up at him. "Promise me you will not go after him alone. Promise me we do this together."
He kissed my forehead. "Together."
We spent the next hour going through more files on the flash drive. Every document painted a clearer picture of The Syndicate's operations and of Damien's father's role in them. He had been planning this for years. Setting up conflicts. Recruiting people from both organizations. Creating chaos so he could profit from the aftermath.
"He knew about Victor before we even knew about each other," Damien said. "Look at this. He was feeding information to both of us five years ago. Small things at first. Then, bigger conflicts. He built our rivalry from the ground up."
"Why, though? What does he gain from this?"
"Control. Power. Money." Damien scrolled through financial records. "Every time Victor and I fight over territory, the Syndicate moves product through the gaps. Every time we lose men, he recruits them. We have been funding his empire while thinking we were building our own."
My phone buzzed on the counter. Unknown number. I almost ignored it, but something made me answer.
"Lisa Chen?" A man's voice. Rough and familiar.
"Who is this?"
"Someone who wants the same thing you do. To take down The Syndicate." There was a pause. "This is Victor Russo."
My blood went cold. I looked at Damien and mouthed Victor's name. His expression hardened.
"How did you get this number?"
"I have my ways. But that is not important. What is important is that we talk. You and Damien. Face to face."
"Why would we do that?"
"Because I just found out who is really behind this war. I know about The Syndicate. I know about Damien's father. And I know that if we keep fighting each other, we both lose." Victor's voice was steady. Serious. "I am proposing a truce. An alliance. We work together to take down the real enemy."
I covered the phone. "He wants to meet. He says he knows about your father and The Syndicate. He wants to form an alliance."
Damien's jaw clenched. Working with Victor went against everything he believed. Everything he had fought for. But the look in his eyes told me he was considering it.
"When?" Damien asked.
I uncovered the phone. "When do you want to meet?"
"Tomorrow night. Neutral ground. I will send you the location." Victor paused. "And Lisa? Come alone with Damien. No men. No weapons. Just talk. Can you do that?"
I looked at Damien, and he nodded slowly.
"We will be there."