Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Honor Gravehart
The easiest way to beat a man like Lucian wasn't by outsmarting him or overpowering him.
It was patience. Men like him didn't fear opposition.
They expected it and built their empires, preparing for someone to challenge them head-on.
However, the one thing men like Lucian never accounted for was obedience.
Give a man like Lucian what he asks for, and he stops looking for the knife in your hand long enough for you to bury it in his back.
Lucian believed power meant controlling every move on the board.
He liked to think of himself as the only one pulling strings while everyone else danced for his enjoyment.
What he didn't understand was, the smartest move in any game is letting your opponent think he's cornered you.
Lucian asked me to choose because he was testing me.
He knew I never wanted to take over for him, and this was his way of proving it.
I knew that and gave him exactly what he wanted.
I gave him the answer that hurt the most. The answer that made Navy believe twenty years of loving her meant nothing to me and that somehow Choyce meant more.
Choosing Choyce proved Lucian wrong if only for a second.
It made him believe I had finally become the man he'd spent years grooming me to be.
Cold.
Calculated.
Loyal to legacy over love.
But Lucian didn't realize the moment he asked me to choose, he already lost. While he was playing god in this dining room, I had already removed every piece of protection keeping him safe.
His security was dead at their posts thanks to the Teixeira catering staff who'd been working inside his house all day, slipping small traces of Morphenyl into the guards' water.
Lucian had no one left to protect him. No witnesses.
No backup. Nothing. Just the family he thought he controlled.
Click.
The click of the empty gun echoed through the room. Lucian frowned, then pulled the trigger again.
Click.
The confusion that crossed his face was small, but I caught it. Across from him, Crown's grin slowly spread. Rize let out a low breath, and realization started rippling through the room. Lucian looked down at the empty gun, like the metal betrayed him.
A slow breath escaped Navy before she sprang into action. Her chair scraped violently across the floor as she shot to her feet and swung. Her fist bashed into Choyce's face so hard that it knocked her out of her chair.
"You fucking bitch!" Navy screamed.
Choyce hit the floor with a cry as Navy climbed on top of her, fists flying.
"This is the bitch you fucking chose over me!" Navy shouted. "You think I don't know you fucked this hoe! I hope the dick was worth it!"
Choyce curled up, arms shielding her face instead of fighting back.
"Navy!" I barked, rushing forward and grabbing her around the waist.
I dragged her off Choyce, and she turned her rage on me, kicking and swinging, not giving a fuck where her fists or feet landed.
"I fucking hate you!" she screamed. "Let me the fuck go!"
"Rize," I snapped, holding Navy tighter. She was small, but the way her anger laced her movements made it feel like I was wrestling the Hulk. "Get Choyce outta here."
Rize moved quickly, helping Choyce off the floor and carrying her toward the door. They passed Lucian, who'd calmly pulled his chair out and sat down like he was still in control.
"Get the fuck off me!" Navy twisted in my arms, fury blazing in her eyes.
"Not until you calm down," I gritted.
Her nostrils flared. "Let me go, Honor. I'm not saying it again. I need to get the fuck outta here."
I stared at her for a second, then let her go. The moment she was free, she stormed toward Lucian. The crash of her hand across his face shocked us all.
"I'm your daughter, and you were going to fucking kill me?" she huffed, laughing menacingly. "I don't know why I'm surprised when you almost had your wife killed, and you had your son killed for being weak. I guess I was next in line, huh?"
Her eyes burned.
"None of us matter to you if we're not Honor." She stared at him with pure disgust before spitting directly in his face.
"Fucking poor excuse for a father, let alone a man."
Lucian smirked.
Navy caught that devilish glint in his eye and stepped back out of his reach.
"I hope it was fucking worth it!" she shot at me before storming out of the room.
Watching her leave, my heart pounded slower than it ever had.
"Crown," I said without looking away from the door, "make sure he doesn't move."
Crown stepped forward, gun aimed at Lucian.
Lucian laughed smugly. "I hope you're man enough to use it because this is your one chance."
"I ain't ever been scared to kill a muthafucka who deserves it," Crown replied as I ran after Navy.
"Navy—"
She was already at my truck when she turned around, sobbing uncontrollably. Tears soaked her cheeks as she fumbled with the door handle.
"Navy," I called softer, with more love and less command.
"Don't!" she shouted. "Don't say my fucking name! Not… not like I mean something to you."
"You mean everything to me," I said, stepping closer. "Nothing was gonna happen to you. This was the plan."
"You think I give a fuck about your plan?" she cried, wiping her face with trembling hands. "You fucking picked her."
"I had to."
"Stop fucking lying!" she shouted. "You didn't have to pick her. The gun was empty. There were no guards around. You could have chosen me!"
Her hand slammed against her chest.
"You were supposed to choose me!"
"Navy, I—"
"Did you fuck her?" she blurted. The pain in her eyes told me she already knew.
"We can talk about that—"
"You can't even say it, can you?" she scoffed. "I'll say it for you. You fucked that bitch. You fucked her because you went to therapy, and whatever came up made you feel worthless. So instead of coming to me… you went to that bitch?"
"Come to you," I scoffed. "What happened to all that shit about not wanting to be my reason?"
"I don't want to be," she snapped. "But that doesn't give you the right to fall into the next hoe's shallow pussy!"
"The fuck do you want from me, Navy?" I erupted.
"To be a fucking man and keep your word," she fired back. "You told me to tell you what I needed, and it would be mine. Remember that?"
I waved her off. "Man—"
"I told you I needed the truth. Not the truth you thought I could handle, but all of it."
Her voice cracked, and I felt that same fracture along my heart.
"I told you I needed to feel wanted because you love me, not because I keep you anchored.
I gave you chance after chance to be honest, Honor.
Do you think I sat across from you after you killed my brother for the hell of it?
I was waiting for you to tell me Lucian put you up to it.
I kept fishing, hoping you'd be honest, but you played dumb and treated me like some naive girl who doesn't know any better. "
"Navy, it's not that fucking simple."
"Maybe not for you, but it is for me," she whispered, wiping her eyes.
"I can't even look at you right now. Just give me the keys to your truck so I can leave."
My heart was breaking as I watched her fall apart like this.
I didn't want to give her my keys, but right now wasn't the time to argue.
I reached in my pocket and handed her the keys.
Navy snatched them and climbed into my truck.
The engine roared to life as she sat there, crying behind the wheel for a moment before she slammed the door and sped down the driveway.
I stood watching the taillights disappear, fighting the urge to run after her and force her to understand how I played it was the only way to keep everyone safe.
"Fuck!" I gritted before turning back toward the house.
When I walked back into the dining room, Lucian was still sitting at the table with a glass of champagne in his hand and that smug grin on his face.
"Is Navy good?" Crown asked.
I didn't say shit. I walked over and punched Lucian. His chair toppled backward as he crashed to the floor. I stood over him, slamming my fist into his face again and again for every day that I was locked in that basement and for every tear I watched roll down my mother's face as she died.
"Weak," he rasped, laughing through broken teeth. "Still so fucking weak."
I slammed the back of his head against the floor, knocking him unconscious.
"That's enough," Crown said, grabbing my shoulder. "Killian said not here."
I stood slowly, breathing hard as fuck.
"Fuck," Rize groaned, walking back into the room. "Choyce is gone. I walked the property, and all the guards are dead. The waitstaff is gone, too."
He looked at me. "How the fuck did you pull all this off?"
I wiped Lucian's blood from my knuckles, ignoring Rize's question. "Bring him to the mill."
Crown nodded.
I stepped away and pulled my phone out. Killian answered on the first ring.
"It's done," I told him.
There was a pause before Killian calmly spoke.
"Burn everything. It'll hit the news tomorrow, and then you have less than a week. I wish things could've been different."
"This was the only way my family stays safe," I responded before hanging up.
I went down to the basement, the same basement that used to be my prison.
My fingers traced the jagged lines I had carved into the wall when I was eleven.
Back then, I thought death was the only way out.
Now it wasn't a thought. I grabbed the gasoline and carried it back into the dining room.
I poured it across the table, soaking the food Lucian had laid out.
Pulling a matchbook from my pocket, I struck a single match and watched the flame flicker between my fingers.
I dropped it, and a fire erupted across the table as a strange sense of peace washed over me.
I walked out of the house just as Crown and Rize pulled off with Lucian, heading down the driveway.
By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, the house was already burning.
For years, that place had been my prison. Tonight, it finally became his grave.