Chapter 43 #3
Silence detonates through the room—sharp, suspended, the kind that strips the air from your lungs. You could hear a heartbeat. A pin drop. The exact second everything changes.
Da’s face goes through twenty different emotions in a breath—shock, disbelief, a kind of wounded fury that twists his features into something unrecognisable. “You what?”
“I’ve been in contact with her,” I say, and my voice isn’t steady, but it’s honest. “For months. Longer, if I’m being real. It’s always been her. I—”
“Don’t.” The word cracks like a whip. “Don’t you stand there and tell me you’ve been sneaking around with that girl—that traitor—behind all our backs.”
That word hits me like a match to gasoline.
“Don’t fucking call her that,” I snap, heat surging up my spine. “You have no idea who she is. None. And if you pulled your head out of your ass for five bloody seconds, you’d see the truth of it.”
He steps forward, shoulders tense, fury radiating off him in waves, and the distance between us feels like a challenge.
“Her mother burned this family to the ground. Her father trafficked girls like it was nothing. She’s their fucking asset!
And you—my son—have been sneaking around with her?
While you’re meant to marry Gianna Salvatore?
” His voice drops to a low, incredulous snarl.
“Christ, Matthew, have you completely lost your fucking mind?”
Something inside me snaps.
I don’t decide to move. I don’t think. Every lesson he drilled into me, every command I obeyed, every moment I swallowed my own wants, it all screams to get out. My fist arcs through the air before reason can catch it.
The impact reverberates up my arm, bone-on-bone, a sickening crunch that echoes through the room as he stumbles back, colliding with the wall behind him. Seamus curses, lunging to pull me back, and Declan plants himself in front of Da before he can retaliate.
The room freezes, silence deafening. Only the soft hum of the descending lift punctuates it.
My knuckles throb, skin splitting, but I barely notice. My chest heaves, every nerve screaming for more.
“Talk about her like that again,” I growl, shrugging off Seamus’s grip and stepping forward, “and I’ll do a lot worse than break your nose. Plus, haven’t you heard? The wedding is off.”
Shock flickers across his face. Not pain, not anger, but betrayal.
Because this isn’t just defiance. It’s final.
Jonathan steps in, one hand pressing against my chest, forcing me to take a few steps back.
“That’s enough,” he says, steel in his tone.
Da straightens slowly, blood trickling down from his nose, eyes wild, burning with something volatile.
“You’ve crossed a line,” he says quietly.
“No,” I reply, voice steady, lethal. “I’ve drawn one.” And for the first time in years, I feel the weight of my own spine, straightened. Jonathan could kick me out tomorrow for all I care. In the face of losing Lily, the cost of owning my feelings for her doesn’t scare me anymore.
Jonathan interrupts before the tension can fracture the room. “We don’t have time for this, Lily is missing. That is our only priority. We can hash out all of this shit later.”
My Da just shakes his head, disbelief rolling through him like a tremor.
“You’re telling me you knew?” he throws at Jonathan. “You knew about this? You let him—”
“I didn’t know,” Jonathan snaps. “Not until ten minutes ago.”
Declan shifts, sliding beside Da and resting a steadying hand on his shoulder. “We need to focus on Lily. If she’s missing, we’ve got a serious problem. Think about it, Ciaran. If she were involved, why would they take her?”
Before anyone can respond, the lift opens.
Owen and Cora burst in like a storm, both clearly dragged from bed. Owen’s dark hair sticks up in every direction, his eyes sharp and stormy. In his arms, April clings to him, wide-eyed, honey-blonde hair catching the light as she buries herself against his chest.
Cora follows a step behind, half-awake but moving with lethal precision, the kind of presence that pulls gravity around her. Every step says she’ll destroy anything that stands between her and the people she loves.
Aidan and Liam trail after them, alert and scanning the room like sentries.
“What the hell is happening?” Cora demands.
The room collapses into chaos. Da grumbles, Declan swears, Bren demands answers, and Jack tries in vain to get everyone to shut the hell up while Seamus just makes his way to the bar cart with a shake of his head.
Owen gently covers April’s ears and carries her toward another room, Liam following closely behind. A moment later, Owen returns—sans April and Liam—and falls into place beside Cora, arms crossed, eyes sharp, surveying the chaos with quiet control, ready for whatever comes next.
Helen steps forward, letting out a low, controlled sigh.
“Enough,” she says, voice fierce and steady.
No one listens.
Then Cora claps her hands once, sharp and decisive, the sound cracking through the room like a gunshot.
“Oi! Shut. Up. All of you.”
Silence drops like a blade.
Every man turns toward her. Some shocked, some grudgingly impressed, all forced quiet by the sheer authority in her voice.
“Matt says Lily’s missing,” Cora cuts in, her voice slicing clean through the tension as her glare sweeps the room. “And if he’s right, my best friend has been taken by the same bastards who took me—which I warned you would happen.”
Her eyes lock on my Da, unblinking, and I can feel the accusation radiating off her.
“But someone didn’t want to listen.”
She steps forward, jaw set, every inch of her radiating command. “So we are not doing this macho bullshit right now.”
Helen nods, voice steady, hard as polished stone. “We can deal with family drama after Lily is safe. For now, we need to listen to Matt. He’s the one who knows the most about what’s going on.”
Da opens his mouth, anger still radiating off him in waves, but even he doesn’t dare push past Helen’s look or Cora’s. The room vibrates with restrained fury, every man aware that trying to override them now would be catastrophic.
Jonathan exhales slowly, dragging a hand over his face. With a woman like Helen and a daughter like Cora, it’s a wonder he isn’t fully grey. God help us all when he steps down, and Cora steps up.
I draw in a shaky breath, letting the room settle just enough to be heard over ragged heartbeats and restrained anger. All eyes are on me now, and I know any second wasted is another second Lily could be in danger.
“She left hours ago,” I say, voice rough. “But she never came home. Her flat’s empty, her phone goes straight to voicemail. I checked every feed I could—”
“After Matt rang me, I checked everything I could think of—street cams, nearby buildings, everything. Nothing. She went to some fancy office building and never came back out,” Owen cuts in, voice tight, eyes scanning the room as if willing someone to have answers.
Sharing a look with Owen and Aidan, I start talking as fast as I can, each word clipped and urgent.
Trying to get the facts out before anyone can misread the danger, before anyone can freeze under the weight of it.
Orchis. Salvatore. The strip club. Calling the wedding off.
Ghost shipments. The emails. Every piece of intel we’ve gathered, every thread we’ve pulled—everything.
Halfway through, I chance a look at Jonathan, expecting him to be annoyed that I’m laying everything bare—even things I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet—but instead I find cold determination. Apparently, he agrees the time for keeping things on a need-to-know basis is over.
With every word, the room tightens around us.
Jack’s jaw clenches. Bren mutters under his breath.
Seamus’s hands curl into fists. Declan and Da exchange grim looks, the kind that only come from understanding just how deep this goes.
Horror spreads across everyone’s face as Owen and I lay it out piece by piece, making them see the storm we’re standing in the middle of and the fact that Lily is caught in it.
“She’s gone,” I continue, voice low, sharp. “And everything points to it being that fucking ring trying to steal more from us. As if we haven’t already lost enough.”
“Over my dead fucking body.” Da spits the words, each one a punch that echoes through the room, shocking everyone into tense silence.
Cora steps forward, voice sharp and commanding. “Then we need to move. Now. This isn’t our first brush with these bastards—you know your roles. We will find her before it’s too late.”
Jonathan steps up beside Cora, eyes sweeping his assembled inner circle. “You heard her. It’s time to focus, follow the plan, and play to your strengths. No mistakes. Not tonight.”
Seeing the shared looks of determination, the fear in my chest finally sharpens into certainty—we will stop at nothing.
“We’re bringing her home,” I vow, more to myself than anyone else, heart hammering. “Before it’s too late.”
And just like that, the room shifts. A fractured family closing ranks for one of our own. Somewhere out there in the dark, Lily doesn’t know yet how far we’re willing to go to bring her home.
But Antonio Salvatore is about to find out.