Chapter 66 He Knows Your Past

Chapter 66 He Knows Your Past
Bella's POV

For a second, I thought I heard her wrong.

"What did you just say?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Lyra didn't hesitate as she met my eyes again, steady as always, and repeated it slowly, like she wanted to make sure every word landed properly this time.

"The leader of THE FIRM," she said, "is your father. The Mayor. Benjamin Monroe."

The room felt like it tilted slightly. I actually had to plant my feet firmly on the floor just to steady myself.

"That's not... that can't be right," I muttered, shaking my head. "Why would he do something like this? He's the Mayor. He has everything. Money, power, respect. Why would he need to run something like THE FIRM in the shadows?"

"We double checked everything before saying anything to you," Ethan said gently. "We didn't want to come to you with something like this unless we were completely sure."

"And you're sure?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly. "You're absolutely sure it's him and not someone using his name, or setting him up somehow?"

"We're sure," Lyra said, no hesitation in her voice at all. "The documents, the transfers, the meeting records. Everything points back to him directly. There's no mistaking it."

I pressed my palm against my forehead, trying to steady my breathing.

"This doesn't make any sense," I whispered. "He's supposed to be one of the good ones. People vote for him because they trust him. I trusted him."

"I know," Ethan said softly. "That's exactly why we didn't want to rush and tell you before we were certain."

I let out a shaky breath, trying to hold myself together, even though everything inside me felt like it was slowly unraveling.

Nobody answered right away. I looked around the room, searching each of their faces for something, anything, that would tell me this was some kind of mistake.

Paige stepped forward slowly, her arms wrapped around herself like she was cold.

"When I found the information connecting him," she said quietly, "it wasn't hard to find at all. It was almost too easy. Like someone wanted me to find it."

I frowned at her. "What do you mean, too easy?"

"I mean exactly that," Paige said. "Usually, when we dig into something this big, we hit walls everywhere. Fake trails, dead ends, locked files. But this time, everything just... lined up. Like someone left it there on purpose for us to find."

"Why would anyone want you to find this?" I asked, more to myself than to her.

"That's what worries me too," Paige admitted. "It means someone out there already knows we're looking. And they wanted us to know the truth for a reason, which honestly scares me more than the truth itself."

"Do we know who left it for you to find?" I asked.

"Not yet," Paige said. "But whoever it was, they clearly knew exactly what they were doing. This wasn't an accident, not even close."

I swallowed hard, my mind already racing ahead, trying to make sense of everything. Every dinner. Every conversation. Every single time my father looked at me with those soft, worried eyes and told me he loved me.

Had all of it been fake?

I thought about how I've never once considered properly investigating him. He always seemed so kind and understanding. The type of father who worried more about his daughter's feelings than his own political image, or at least that's what I always believed.

I used to brush off the small things. The late-night calls he took behind closed doors. The way certain people around him would go quiet the moment I walked into a room. The way his smile sometimes didn't quite reach his eyes when he thought nobody was watching closely. I told myself it was just politics, just the usual pressure that came with being the Mayor.

But now, thinking back on tonight, on the way he chose to protect Haley the second things got difficult, on the way he refused to let Gabby show her evidence in front of everyone... Maybe that side of him wasn't an exception.

Maybe that was who he really was all along.

The warm, gentle father act might have just been the mask, and the cold, calculated man who buried the truth to save his own reputation, was the real face underneath it.

My knees felt weak just thinking about it.

Ethan must have noticed, because he walked over without saying anything and pulled me into a hug. I didn't hug him back. I just stood there, stiff, staring blankly over his shoulder at nothing in particular.

I couldn't even process how I was supposed to feel. Angry? Betrayed? Numb? All three at once, maybe.

"I know this is a lot to take in," Ethan said quietly, his hand rubbing slow circles on my back. "Take your time."

I didn't say anything. I just stood there, letting the silence stretch on, trying to breathe through the tightness in my chest.

A few minutes passed like that before Naomi spoke up, her voice hesitant.

"Eva," she said carefully, "there's something else you need to know."

I stiffened immediately.

Something else? Hasn't tonight already given me enough to process for a lifetime? First Haley's scandal, then my father shutting down the truth in the car, and now this, finding out the man who I've come to trust, was secretly running one of the most dangerous organizations in the country and the biggest threat to me and those I care about.

How much more was there?

I slowly pulled back from Ethan's hug, wiping my face even though I hadn't realized I'd been crying. I turned to look at Naomi, forcing myself to stay calm.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice steadier than I actually felt.

Naomi hesitated, glancing quickly at Ethan before looking back at me. Ethan gave her a small nod, like he was silently telling her it was okay to continue.

"It looks like Benjamin knows your identity," she said finally.

My frown deepened instantly. "What do you mean he knows my identity? Does he know I'm an assassin? Has he had someone following me?"

My mind immediately jumped to every mission I had ever taken. Every face I had ever erased quietly, without a single trace left behind. If my father knew about that side of me, it meant he had been watching me far longer than I ever suspected, maybe even before I ever came back into his life as Eva.

Naomi shook her head slowly. "It's not that, Eva."

"Then what?" I asked, my patience thinning by the second. "Naomi, just say it."

She took a breath before answering. "He knows you're an assassin.But that's not even the biggest part of it, Eva."

My stomach dropped. "There's more?"

"There's more," she confirmed quietly.

I looked at her, waiting, my heart pounding harder with every passing second. Lyra shifted slightly beside the window, and Paige lowered her eyes to the floor, like neither of them wanted to be the one to say the rest. Even Ethan stayed quiet behind me, his silence somehow louder than words.

"Naomi, tell me " I said, my voice shaking now.

She looked at me for a long moment, like she was bracing herself before speaking.

"He knows about your past."

My eyes widened as my mind blanked for a few seconds.

My past?

There was only one part of my past I had buried so deep, so carefully, that even I tried not to think about it most days.

"What about my past?" I asked slowly, even though some part of me already knew the answer was coming, and I wasn't ready for it.

The room felt smaller somehow, like the walls had crept closer while I wasn't paying attention. My hands started trembling at my sides, and I clenched them into fists, trying to hold myself together in front of everyone.

"Just say it," I whispered. "Whatever it is, I need to hear it from you directly."

Naomi's expression softened, like she felt sorry for what she was about to say.

"He knows that you are Bella Ricci." She said with a low voice.

The room went completely silent and I felt my whole body go cold, like ice water had been poured straight down my spine. My ears started ringing, and for a moment, I couldn't hear anything else around me. Ethan reached out like he wanted to steady me again, but I stepped back slightly, needing the space to breathe on my own.

"How…How" I whispered, my voice barely holding together. "How does he know about it? Nobody was supposed to know, apart from us."

Naomi shook her head slowly. "We don't know how yet, honestly. But he does and it looks like he's known for a while now…Maybe before you even reunited with him."

"He knows.." I repeated, barely able to get the words out.

Naomi nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving mine.

"He also knows that you are Lucas's dead wife.”