24 #3
"None of that happened in your story. Which means she wasn't lying spontaneously. She was reciting a script."
The words don't process immediately. I stare at him, trying to understand what he's saying.
"A script," I repeat slowly.
"Someone told her what to say." Tristan's eyes are sharp now. Focused. "Someone gave her lines and made sure she delivered them perfectly. Someone who knew that if she showed any of her normal tells, you'd see through it immediately."
Lucius sits up straighter. "Someone threatened her."
"With what?" I ask. But even as the question leaves my mouth, I know the answer.
"Liam," all three of them say in unison.
The realization hits like ice water. Of course. The only leverage that would make Aurora walk away. The only thing she values more than her own freedom, her own happiness, her own life.
Her brother.
"Who?" My voice is cold now. Controlled. The grief crystallizing into something sharper. "Who would threaten a seven-year-old to control her?"
Tristan and Lucius exchange a look. Landon's hand tightens on my shoulder.
And I know. Before any of them say it, I know.
"My mother." The words taste like poison. "It was my mother."
"We don't know that for certain—" Tristan starts.
"Yes, we do." I stand up. My legs are steady now.
The grief transformed into something colder.
More familiar. More useful. "She's the only person with the power to make that kind of threat stick.
The only person who would see Aurora as enough of a threat to my 'focus' that destroying her would be necessary. "
I look down at them. At my brothers. The only people I've ever trusted.
"She broke Aurora's heart to protect me from attachment." My voice is flat. Final. "Just like she drowned Matthias to teach me that caring about people gets them killed."
The silence that follows is deafening.
"What do you want to do?" Lucius asks quietly.
What do I want to do?
I want to burn my mother's empire to the ground. Want to destroy everything she's built with the same systematic precision she used to destroy my relationship with Aurora.
But first, I need proof. Need to confirm that it was actually her before I launch a nuclear strike that will tear Laurent Global apart.
"We're going to my mother's office," I say. "Tonight. We're going to find whatever documentation she used to threaten Aurora. And then—"
I pause. Look at each of them in turn.
"Then we're going to destroy her."
Tristan stands. Brushes crystal dust off his slacks. "I'll drive."
"Marcus is faster." I pull out my phone. Text him with hands that are perfectly steady now. "He'll meet us downstairs in three minutes."
Landon stands too. Straightens his jacket. "Evander—are you sure about this? If we find proof and you move against her, there's no coming back. You'll be declaring war on your own mother."
"She declared war first." My voice is cold. Empty. "When she threatened a seven-year-old child to control my life. When she forced Aurora to break her own heart to protect her brother."
I look at the destroyed penthouse. At the evidence of my breakdown. At the proof that Aurora Lane got under my skin deeper than anyone ever has.
"My mother taught me that attachment is weakness," I continue quietly. "That caring about people makes you vulnerable. That love is just another word for something someone can exploit."
I meet Landon's eyes.
"She's about to learn that the most dangerous thing in the world isn't someone who cares about nothing. It's someone who cares about one thing and will burn everything else to protect it."
My phone buzzes. Marcus confirming he's waiting downstairs.
I turn to my brothers. "Are you with me?"
They don't hesitate. Don't ask for more explanation. Don't question whether this is the right move.
They just nod.
And we walk out of the destroyed penthouse, leaving the broken crystal and overturned furniture and bloodstained floors behind.
Because tonight, we're going to war.
And God help anyone who gets in our way.
Marcus is waiting in the parking garage with a black town car that's probably armored and definitely has diplomatic plates that will get us through any security checkpoint.
We pile in. Me in the back with Tristan and Lucius. Landon in the front passenger seat.
Marcus doesn't ask questions. Just pulls out of the garage and heads toward the city at speeds that would get anyone else arrested.
The drive to Laurent Global headquarters takes forty-five minutes. We make it in thirty.
No one speaks. The silence in the car is heavy with purpose. With the knowledge that what we're about to do will change everything.
I stare out the window at the city passing by in a blur of lights, my own reflection staring back at me. And I think about Aurora.
About the way her voice was so carefully controlled when she said I was convenient. About the perfect script she delivered without a single tell. About the blank expression that should have been my first clue she was lying.
Someone forced her to do this. Someone threatened Liam. Someone made her choose between her brother's safety and anything that might exist between us.
And I'm going to find out who. I'm going to get proof. And then I'm going to make them pay in ways they can't even imagine.
The Laurent Global headquarters building appears on the horizon. Fifty stories of glass and steel, lit up like a beacon in the dark city. The physical manifestation of my family's empire.
The empire I'm about to tear apart from the inside.