Page 42 of Liam
I shift in my seat, the leather creaking beneath me.
“Things escalated,” Dad says, his voice hoarse. He sets his glass down, the heavy crystal base thudding against the polished wood of the desk. “When I confronted him, he attacked me. It all happened so fast.”
Logan moves for the first time since our father started speaking. He walks to the window, drawing back the heavy curtain to peer out into the darkness. The faint glow of the outside lights illuminates his profile, casting half his face in shadow.
“I don’t know exactly how it happened,” our father says. His hands are shaking now, not just trembling but quaking. “One moment, we were shouting, the next, there was a struggle. He came at me, and I... I reacted.”
Cora stands, crossing to the sidebar. She pours herself a glass of water, the ice cubes clinking against the glass. She doesn’t drink it, just holds it, staring into the clear liquid as if it might hold some answers.
Our father looks up then, meeting each of our gazes. The pain and regret in his eyes is overwhelming. “When it was over, he was... He was dead. I’d killed him.”
The words hang in the air, heavy and final. Lucas stops his pacing, freezing mid-step. The thread Cora had been fidgeting with snaps.
I run my hands through my hair, tugging as if the physical sensation might ground me in this new, terrible reality.
“I never meant for it to happen,” our father says. He picks up a pen from his desk, turning it over and over in his hands. “But I couldn’t... I couldn’t let him walk away. Not after what he did to your mother. To our family.”
The ticking of the clock fills the heavy silence until Logan finally speaks, his voice hoarse as he asks, “What happened next?”
Our father’s gaze drops to the pen he’s still fidgeting with, rolling it between his fingers. “I called someone. An old friend who could make things disappear.”
Cora gasps.
“We made it look like he’d just gone,” our father continues, his voice hollow. “He was living alone, no job, no relatives. A criminal. It wasn’t hard to...” He trails off.
Bile rises in my throat. The idea that our family’s wealth and connections could erase a man’s existence is chilling.
Logan turns from the window, his face a mask of controlled emotion. “And no one ever questioned it?”
Our father shakes his head. “No. We were thorough.”
The way he says “thorough” makes my skin crawl. I’m about to ask more when Ryder clears his throat, stepping forward from his position in the corner.
“There’s more,” Ryder says, his deep voice cutting through the tension, and all eyes turn to him. “Mercer’s been investigating at my request. He’s uncovered some complications.”
Our father’s head snaps up. “What complications?”
Ryder takes a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over all of us before landing back on our father. “The man you dealt with. Dominic Martin. He had a son.”
Dad shakes his head. “There was no son. I would have known. We checked everything.”
Ryder steps closer, his expression grim. “It was out of wedlock, sir. The woman got pregnant and had the child in secret. The boy didn’t use the same last name as his father. Nobody knew he was connected.”
The room plunges into a silence so thick it feels like a physical presence. The only sound is the soft clink of ice in my father’s glass as his hand trembles. Our shared shock creates an unspoken bond.
“What’s his name?” I ask, my voice sounding distant.
Ryder turns to me, his gaze heavy. “Elias Nort. He took his mother’s surname.”
Our father slumps in his chair, looking older than I’ve ever seen him. “Nort,” he repeats.
The realization that this unknown threat has a name, an identity, makes everything feel much more real, more dangerous.
“Why do you think he’s related to the threats,” Lucas asks, his voice cutting through the tension, breaking the heavy silence. He turns to Ryder, his eyes narrowing. “To what happened to us? To me?”
Ryder shifts his weight, his usual stoic demeanor faltering. “It’s more of a concerning coincidence,” he admits. “When Zane started investigating Dominic Martin’s background, he stumbled upon the existence of Elias.”
“And?” Logan prompts, leaning forward.
