Chapter 5 The Man In The Hoodie

Sometimes, the truth doesn't come in pieces.

Sometimes, it crashes through the walls like a wrecking ball and leaves everything broken.

That's exactly what happened.

It started with a face.

One I hadn't seen since the night of Nora's funeral.

We found him two nights after the video.

Ace-Luca-got a lead from one of his old contacts. A shell corporation with ties to a private contractor who matched the build and gait of the man in the hoodie.

The name?

Silas Maddox.

My father's head of security.

My goddamn godfather.

The man who used to sneak me ice cream after bedtime when I was five.

The man who taught Nora how to shoot.

The man who kissed my forehead when he said she died too young.

I couldn't breathe when Luca said the name.

Couldn't think.

Couldn't understand how betrayal could hurt more than death.

He brought Silas in. Quietly. Without backup. No cops. No mercy.

Tied to a chair in an abandoned art studio Luca once used as a safehouse.

Bloodied. Bruised. Still breathing.

"You sure you wanna be here for this?" Luca asked me.

I nodded.

I wasn't scared.

I was done being scared.

Silas looked up slowly as I stepped in. One eye swollen shut. Lip split.

"You," he murmured. "You shouldn't be here."

"You shouldn't have betrayed us," I replied, arms folded. "Start talking."

He gave me a broken laugh. "You sound just like her."

My throat tightened. "Like who?"

"Nora."

He leaned forward, coughing blood onto the floor.

"She wouldn't stop digging. Even when I warned her. She didn't understand what she'd found."

"What did she find?" I asked.

Silas hesitated.

Then looked at Luca.

"You didn't tell her?"

"Tell me what?" I snapped.

Silas smiled through the blood. "Your father. He didn't just silence Nora. He used her."

I froze.

"Used her how?"

"She was the leverage," Silas said. "To get what he wanted. The deal she tried to stop-it wasn't political. It was personal. It was about you."

My stomach dropped.

"What the hell does that mean?"

But Silas was fading fast. Luca grabbed him by the collar.

"Talk."

"She was protecting Aria," Silas gasped. "From your father's real plan."

"What plan?!"

Silas gave me one last look.

"You were always his favorite," he whispered. "That's why he couldn't risk you knowing."

And then he passed out.

I didn't cry.

I didn't scream.

I just stood there, frozen, as Luca called in a medic from one of his trusted contacts.

And when he finally turned to me, I said:

"Take me home."

Back at the loft, I collapsed onto the couch.

"What did he mean?" I whispered.

Luca didn't answer.

"Luca."

He ran a hand over his face. "I think... I think your father had plans for you. For years. Some kind of arranged deal. Maybe with the man Nora was trying to expose."

"A marriage?"

"Or something worse."

"Jesus."

I stood and paced. "I don't know what's real anymore. Was my entire life just... one big plan?"

"No," he said. "Not all of it."

"Oh yeah?" I turned to him. "Then what was real?"

He stepped toward me.

"This," he said quietly. "Me. You. Everything I felt when I looked at you. That was the only thing I ever had that wasn't built on orders or secrets."

My chest cracked.

"Then show me," I whispered. "If I'm the only real thing you ever had... show me."

His mouth was on mine in a second.

Hot. Urgent. Desperate.

He picked me up like I weighed nothing and carried me to the kitchen counter, sweeping dishes aside with one arm.

I wrapped my legs around him and yanked his shirt off.

He buried his face in my neck, kissing, biting, breathing me in.

"You want the truth?" he growled. "I've dreamed about this every night since I left."

He pulled my panties to the side, slid his fingers inside.

"Still so tight," he whispered. "Still mine."

"Yes," I gasped.

He slid into me hard, deep, and fast.

I cried out, my back hitting the fridge, hands clawing at his shoulders.

"Say it," he demanded, thrusting deeper.

"I'm yours!"

He grabbed my jaw, made me look at him.

"Louder."

"I'm yours, Luca!"

He groaned and kissed me like he couldn't get enough, like my mouth was the only place he could breathe.

We finished together, breathless and shaking, bodies still tangled as he held me on the cold countertop.

"I'll burn the world down before I let anyone touch you," he whispered into my hair.

Hours later, after the fire faded, we sat side by side on the balcony, wrapped in silence and a blanket.

And I finally asked:

"Do you think my father had Nora killed?"

Luca didn't answer for a long time.

Then finally, "Yes"