Chapter 240: The Reason
Natalie~
My breath hitched, sharp and hollow.
So this was it.
This was the twisted root behind all the pain I had dragged myself through?
I stared at Darius, my voice low, almost calm — too calm. "This was the reason you killed my parents?"
He flinched like I’d struck him across the face. Good. He should feel it. Every word.
"You murdered them," I said, louder now, my voice cutting through the silence dungeon. "Because my father got in your way? Because you thought killing him would make me yours? And my mother? Was she just collateral damage? Same as my friend and his family?"
For years, the question had lived in my mind like a ghost — always lingering, always whispering when I was alone. Why? Why would Darius, my father’s closest friend, betray him like that? The man he trusted more than anyone?
My father never wanted glory. He wasn’t chasing power or position. All he ever wanted was to bring her back — my mother. His mate. She was everything to him. The story I believed for so many years was that rogues took her — stolen away under the cover of darkness while I was helpless to fight them and my father was buried in the chaos of preparing for a royal visit. A visit he believed would change everything. A visit Darius had no intention of letting him be part of.
Now, after seeing the truth through Darius’s own memories, it all made sense — in the most horrifying way. And no matter how much I wished I could, I couldn’t unsee it. The truth didn’t just sting. It was venom, burning slow and deep, twisting everything I thought I knew into something unrecognizable.
He staged it.