Chapter 29
Emily Windsor's POV
Luke's tone was calm, as if recounting someone else's story, yet beneath that overly flat delivery, I caught the faint tremor buried beneath layers of ice.
"The day she died, my father was locked in a turf war with the Corleone family over the West Side docks. I held her body as it grew cold, waiting through the entire night. He never came home."
My heart felt like it was being crushed by an invisible hand. Breathing became difficult. This man—always above it all, always in control—was now standing before me, utterly unguarded, peeling back his deepest scars.
So he, too, had once known that kind of helpless childhood.
"Three days later, he finally showed up, reeking of gunpowder and blood. He didn't ask how my mother died. He didn't even look at her body. He dragged me to the training grounds and told me the Victor family doesn't shed tears for failures." Luke's mouth curved into a bitterly mocking smile. "From that day on, I never cried again."
He paused, his gaze shifting from the headstone to my face.
In those ice-blue eyes, I saw something I'd never witnessed before—hatred and anguish so thick they seemed almost tangible.
"Emily, do you think I'm just my father's son?" His voice was rough, each word ground out from somewhere deep in his throat. "He gave me life, then destroyed everything I had. I spent ten years clawing power from his hands, purging his corrupt old guard one by one. I built my own order. And then I avenged my mother with my own hands."
Shock rippled through me. My voice came out barely above a whisper. "Avenged?"
Hadn't he said his mother committed suicide?
I held my breath, heart pounding.
"My mother's death and the Queens restaurant shooting—they stem from the same root." Luke's gaze returned to that cold marble stone, his voice carrying a bone-deep chill. "Several of my father's old rivals, backed by the Lowe Family, wanted to destabilize his position. They used my mother as leverage, forcing him to concede in a major deal. That shooting was their warning. And my father chose business over her."
"When the warning failed, they tore up the agreement. My mother didn't kill herself. She was murdered by one of my father's enemies. And my father, to consolidate his power, buried the truth. He told the world she died of depression."
Luke's tone was terrifyingly calm, as if discussing something utterly disconnected from himself.
But in those ice-blue eyes, I saw waves of hatred—an ocean of rage held back by sheer force of will.
"I sent him and everyone who knew what happened—everyone who allowed that murder to be covered up—to join her." He stated the blood-soaked fact as casually as if he'd merely taken out the trash. "Emily, I'm not seeking your idea of justice. I'm cleaning out this filthy family in my own way, building the order that should exist."
He finally turned to face me fully, extending his hand beneath the cold moonlight.
"Everything I've done isn't about making you forgive the Victor family. This name represents sin—including my own." His voice was low, powerful, each word striking against my heart. "I only want you to see that this world you despise is being changed. And I need someone who can stand beside me and watch as I tear down this rotten kingdom and rebuild it."
"Emily," he said, his gaze burning into mine with an intensity I'd never seen—fervent, stubborn, unyielding. "Stay with me. As my equal."
The night wind lifted my hair and dried the tears on my face. I stared at his outstretched hand—strong, defined fingers, the palm still carrying the remnants of earlier violence.
Equal.
That word was like a shaft of light piercing the darkness in my heart—the darkness drowned by hatred and helplessness.
We were the same.
Both were crushed beneath the machinery of family legacy. Both carrying the blood debts of those we loved. Both struggling through the mire, desperate for a way out.
He'd chosen to become a stronger darkness. I'd been searching, futilely, for light.
But in this world of absolutes, where was there any real light?
I looked at him. At the determination in his eyes. At the silent cemetery stretching behind him.
In that moment, I understood: all my resistance, all my struggle—it was nothing but the powerless screaming of the weak.
If I wanted revenge, if I wanted justice, I didn't need abstract legal principles. I needed leverage against the darkness itself.
And Luke was that leverage.
Slowly, I raised my hand. I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around his waist.
I buried my face against his solid, cold chest, breathing in that familiar scent—fir and gunpowder, impossibly complex.
In this moment, I didn't want to push him away. Didn't want to fight him anymore.
We were both cursed by fate. In this cold night, perhaps only by clinging to each other could we find even the smallest sliver of warmth.
Luke's body went rigid for a heartbeat.
He'd probably never expected me to come to him willingly.
After a long silence, those arms—always so aggressive, so controlling—slowly came around my back, pulling me into a gentle embrace.
His hold was tight, but it no longer felt suffocating. Instead, it carried a strange, settling calm.
"Luke," I murmured against his chest, my voice muffled, carrying a trace of dependence I hadn't realized was there. "My grandmother's death..."
"The Lowe Family will pay." He cut me off, voice low and absolute.
Just as we stood there in that rare, fragile peace, my phone began vibrating violently in my pocket.
The jarring buzz shattered the cemetery's silence—and pulled us both from our fleeting moment of comfort.
Flustered, I pulled away from him and grabbed my phone.
It was Jade.
I answered. Immediately, her sobbing filled the line.
"Emily...I broke up with him... David and I are over..."
My chest tightened. "Slow down. What happened?"
"He...he's a liar! He's not some startup CEO—his family works for the Lowe Family!" Jade was barely coherent through her tears. "I just found out today... he only got close to me because of you... because you're the Victor family's lawyer. The Lowes wanted to use me to get to you. I'm so scared..."
The Lowe Family.