Thorns of War (Thorns of Omertà #8)

Prologue

VIOLET

The music from the dance still echoed faintly in my ears when I turned onto the long driveway of our home, and then it stopped.

Red. Blue. Red. Blue.

Police lights flooded the front of our house, cutting through the dark like a warning I didn’t understand yet. My stomach dropped so hard it made me lightheaded.

No, no, no…

I slowed the car, my hands tightening on the wheel as the scene came into focus. Patrol cars lined the drive. The front door hung wide open. Light spilled out into the night like something had been ripped open inside.

My pulse stumbled.

“Are they here for me?” I whispered, my voice barely there. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t. Sneaking out wasn’t… this. My father would never risk attention like this over something so small.

So why were they here?

I stopped the car too far from the house, like getting closer might make it real. For a second, I couldn’t move. Something deep in my chest twisted, tight and wrong.

Go. Go to Lily.

The thought hit like a shove. I was out of the car before I fully registered it, my heels slamming against the pavement as I ran. Yellow tape snapped in the wind.

“Hey—HEY!” someone shouted. I didn’t stop.

“Lily?” My voice cracked as I pushed through the front door. “Lily!”

Strangers. Uniforms. Too many of them.

My heart slammed against my ribs, each beat harder than the last as I turned in circles, searching.

I moved, rushing to Lily’s room. The stairs blurred beneath my feet.

Please be fine. Please be fine. Please…

I hit her doorway so hard it felt like I’d run into a wall. The room was destroyed. Drawers ripped open. Clothes everywhere. The lamp knocked sideways, its shade crushed.

Wrong. Everything was wrong.

And then… blood.

It soaked into the white rug like it belonged there. My breath left me in a broken sound I didn’t recognize.

“Violet!”

I turned as my mother stumbled out of the bathroom. Her face was streaked with tears, her hands shaking, her whole body barely holding together.

“Mom, what happened?” I asked, but the calm in my voice felt like a lie. Like it belonged to someone else.

She grabbed me, hard. “Where is Lily?”

“I—what?”

“Where is she?” she cried, her voice breaking. “I thought she was with you…”

“She’s not with you?”

I didn’t know who said it. Maybe my father. Maybe a cop.

My head snapped back and forth, searching faces that blurred together.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, she was here. I left. She was in her room, she said she was…” My thoughts slipped, unraveling too fast to hold.

“She’s gone,” my mom screamed, collapsing in front of me. “She’s gone, Violet.”

The world tilted and an iciness flooded my veins.

“No!” The word came out sharp, desperate. “No, she probably just, maybe she went out, maybe she—”

“She didn’t go out.” My father’s voice cut through everything. I froze.

He stood across the room, rigid, controlled, but his eyes… His eyes were something else entirely.

“You were supposed to be here,” he said, each word deliberate, heavy. “You were supposed to be watching her.”

My chest tightened.

“I… I just.” My voice faltered. “I was gone a few hours, I…”

“A few hours?” he snapped, stepping toward me. “A few hours and now she’s gone.” The words hit harder than anything else in the room. “You left her alone.” Something inside me cracked.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t think… I didn’t know… I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my eyes burning while my chest twisted with agony, making it hard to breathe.

“You’re useless,” Father spat, eyes burning with hate. “You’ll never have children. Dare to have one, and I’ll make sure you feel this, Violet. You hear me. You’ll lose your child as I’ve lost mine.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine at his promise, a deep warning in his expression telling me he meant it. My father’s threats were never empty.

“Dick… Richard…” My mom attempted to stand up for me and failed when he shot her a glare. She shrank into herself, another sob tearing through her lips.

“Lily is gone because of you,” Father accused. “You’re to blame and nobody else.”

My mouth opened to apologize again, but no sound came out and I wrapped my arms around myself, never feeling more alone than I did at this moment.

“Dare to have a child, Violet,” Father continued with a hiss, “And I’ll snatch it from you like you snatched everything from me. You’ll feel pain, I promise you that.”

“Sir, that’s enough,” an officer cut in, stepping between us, but it didn’t matter. Because he was right. I’d left her.

I couldn’t breathe. The room spun. “I wasn’t here,” I whispered. “I wasn’t here.” A hand touched my arm, steady, grounding.

“Hey. Look at me.”

I turned slightly. A female officer crouched in front of me, her voice calm but firm. “What’s your name?”

“V-Violet.”

“I’m Officer Reyes. I need you to breathe, okay? In… and out.”

I tried. It didn’t work. Every breath came too fast, too shallow, like my body had forgotten how to function. My eyes dropped back to the floor.

The blood.

“I left her,” I whispered.

“That’s not what this is. This isn’t your fault,” she said gently, her hand tightening on my shoulder. But I barely heard her. All I could see was Lily. Alone. Afraid. Because I wasn’t here.

If I had stayed…

If I had just stayed.

My chest seized.

She would still be here.

And I wouldn’t be breaking apart on the floor.