Chapter 43 #3
“Where is Tessa right now?” Don Blackwood asks his voice uncharacteristically strained and thick with panic.
“She is safe with her aunt,” the grandma replies, her breathing ragged. “Thank you... thank you for giving us the money, for securing the house, for providing everything we needed to survive this nightmare.”
Don Blackwood listens to her gratitude in silence before delivering a heavy, remorseful apology that shocks Lucius to his core.
“It is my fault. I arrived too late. I could not save your daughter and son-in-law from the ambush. I will take on the entire financial cost of her upbringing. I will act as a distant Uncle Joseph to Tessa, ensuring she never wants for anything. But before we do that,
she needs the specific medicine from the clinic. She needs to take it so that she forgets her horrific past. She cannot live with the memory of the blood.”
The grandmother’s choked voice agrees to the radical terms, and the call abruptly cuts to static.
Lucius feels a crushing, unbearable weight pressing down on his chest, a rare sting of hot tears pricking the corners of his eyes.
Tessa had suffered so much more than him, carrying a buried trauma, and his father was never the heartless monster he pretended to be to the world.
The forced amnesia wasn't a punishment; it was a desperate act of mercy to save a little girl’s sanity from a dark past.
"There are two more records loaded from the restored batch," Kael murmurs quietly, breaking the heavy silence and pressing play on the next audio file.
The second recording begins with less static.
It is a direct, secret conversation between Don Blackwood and Arthur Jones before the fateful trip to Europe.
Arthur speaks with raw, bleeding vulnerability about the agonizing pain of being separated from his family, explaining how hard it is to wake up every morning when he can’t see the faces of his beloved wife and little daughter.
After a long, emotional talk, Tessa’s father delivers his final command.
“If I fall, Blackwood... takes care of them.”
Don Blackwood’s response is immediate, firm, and sacred: “I promise you on my life, old friend.”
The line goes dead with a sharp click.
After the audio stops, Lucius stares blankly at the wall, utterly unable to believe the reality that his father had spent decades protecting them from the shadows, honouring a blood oath.
"Alessio burned the grandma’s house to the ground shortly after that call, you know that," Kael states quietly, pulling off his earphones.
"Yup," Lucius says his voice a ghost of a whisper.
"Then Uncle Joseph—your father—secretly funnelled the mafia funds and resources to build that exact house up a second time, keeping them hidden from the Gambino family," Kael adds, closing the laptop folder.
In the full, choking tension of the atmosphere, Lucius’s phone suddenly buzzes violently in his pocket, shattering the emotional weight of the room. He pulls it out, seeing the caller ID, and answers immediately. It is Victor.
"Lucius, Alessio, that fucking brat, is moving faster than we anticipated," Victor reports, his voice laced with pure venom and adrenaline. "Our sources inform us that his next primary focus will be launching an assault on the luxury hotels under your direct control."
Lucius forces his cold, professional mask back into place, his emotions locking down instantly. "Oh? Did you uncover that intelligence yourself, or did you finally track down the woman?"
"No," Victor answers, a smug smirk evident in his tone. "Kai just managed to steal the secure walkie-talkies right off the hips of Alessio's personal bodyguards while they were clearing a perimeter."
Suddenly, Kai’s distinct, chaotic, and unhinged laugh echoes loudly from Victor’s side of the line.
Lucius listens to the evil laugh of Kai, and a low whisper escapes his mouth, a faint trace of dark amusement touching his lips.
"Oh, God. Two absolute evils working together. Fine. Work carefully and don't leave a trail."
The call ends, and Lucius slides the phone back into his leather jacket.
When he finally walks out of the heavy security doors of the base, the freezing winter air bites viciously at his face, but his mind is entirely consumed by the ghost of his father.
"I don’t know who my father really was, Kael," Lucius says softly, staring up at the grey New York sky.
"For my entire life, he always talked to me like a bad, cruel man who valued nothing but blood and power. But when I listen to their secret talk and read these hidden letters... he is the one person who wanted Tessa’s father to live, not die."
Lucius turns back to his lieutenant, his dark eyes flashing with absolute, terrifying resolve.
"Pack up every single restored record and every original letter. Take them directly to the penthouse. I need to hear the rest of those things myself, and I need Tessa to read them with her own eyes. She needs to know the truth of her blood.
I need more information on my father’s real nature—and the true, hidden extent of Don Gambino’s power before we burn them to the ground."
~