248 The Interrogation Begins
Mara
We ate in silence, each of us trapped in our own thoughts. The air was heavy-too heavy for small talk. We weren’t just anxious. We were waiting. Bracing.
Martha sat quietly beside Vander, her usual fire dimmed. My father had seen her while I slept, dosing her with something to take the edge off. She managed a weak smile, but it never reached her eyes. She was scared-for Lacy, mostly. And she had every reason to be. Lacy had crossed every line with Darian and Lucian. She’d tried to kill Darian’s mother. Helped her father rob Lucian blind. No apology could fix that.
“Have you told the guards to prepare the room for interrogation?” I asked Lucian.
Martha’s eyes flicked up, tense.
“Yes. It’s the most soundproof one we have,” Lucian replied.
I nodded, saying nothing.
“She’s just a confused child,” Martha said softly.
Vander shut her down fast. “No one asked for your opinion,” he snapped.
Martha fell silent, and stayed that way. I’d never seen her so subdued. Whatever was coming, it had shaken her deeply.
After breakfast, Lucian led us to the room-a makeshift courtroom in his office, fortified by thick walls. This wasn’t just
about answers. It was about control. Whatever Lacy had to say, it wasn’t going to leave that room unless they wanted it
We waited. Minutes passed. Too many. A slow panic started to rise in my chest.
“Why is it taking so long?” I asked. “Was she secured properly?”
Lucian and Darian exchanged looks. No answers.
“Emotions were running high yesterday,” Tiffany said. “I doubt they were thinking straight.”
Our tension broke the moment two guards stepped in with Lacy between them. Everyone exhaled-relief, frustration,
maybe even dread. Darian moved quickly, taking her from the guards.
“What took so long?” he asked, curt.
“She was in the restroom,” one of them explained. “We waited for her to finish.”
Lacy stood before us, still shackled, her posture sunken. She looked broken-sad, maybe even remorseful-but none of it mattered. She’d betrayed the only people who’d truly cared for her. Family didn’t try to destroy each other from the inside.
She stared at her mother like she was seeing a ghost.
I leaned back on the couch, eyes locked on her.
“I don’t intend to hurt you,” I lied smoothly. “But if you make this difficult, I will-and I promise, I won’t lose sleep over it.” Her eyes widened. The fear landed. Good. She needed to understand exactly what was on the line.
“Now,” I continued, calm but cold, “tell us why you poisoned your mother. How you met Alaric. How long you’ve been working for him. Why you chose to betray this family. And anything else that might help us. Your life depends on how much sense you make right now.”
Tears started to fall. She looked at Martha again, and it hit her-her mother was alive. Not just alive, watching.
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“I’m sorry, Mother. I really am,” she whispered.
I almost cut her off, but held back. Let her say what she needed. Vander, on the other hand, looked ready to explode. I quickly linked to Lucian: Get him under control or we’ll get nothing from her.
A moment later, the pressure eased. Vander was still furious, but restrained.
Lacy sniffed, struggling to speak. “He told me it was just something to make you sleep. That you’d wake up later. I didn’t know it was poison. Not until the doctor said what happened. I got angry. I went back to confront William. He’s the one who connected me to my father. Said he was from Goldenpeak.”
She blinked rapidly, tears still falling, her gaze shifting back to me.
I waited. No emotion. Just facts. She owed us the truth-and maybe, just maybe, a reason to spare her.
“I had just arrived with my mother from Goldenpeak, and I could tell something was off between her and Alpha Vander, Lacy began, her voice unsteady. “The tension was everywhere. I barely had time to settle in before William approached
me.”
She hesitated, then continued, eyes distant, voice soft.
“He said he was from my father. That caught me off guard. I’d never met him. Mom never talked about him-at least, not in a way that made me want to ask more. But in that moment… I was curious. Hopeful, even. William said he could arrange a meeting. I was excited. I thought maybe I could finally ask him to stop blackmailing my mother. I knew how much it was draining her.”
She swallowed hard. “That same evening, he called. My father. He said he was happy to finally hear my voice. He wanted to meet-in private. I agreed. We met at Free Park. It was a public space, so I thought it would be safe. When he saw me, he hugged me like he meant it. Said I looked just like you, Mom. Said he missed me. That he never stopped.”
She glanced at Martha, her expression fragile.
“Then he told me you left him for money and power. That he couldn’t give you either, so you walked out on him. That you ran off with some other man whose wife had just died. And… I believed him.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them this time.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” she whispered. “But I believed him.”
Her voice cracked as she continued. “All I could think about was what I never had. I didn’t grow up as your daughter. You told everyone I was your niece. You kept me hidden. I grew up an orphan. Watching from the outside while you gave everything to Darian. You were a mother-to Lucian, to Darian-but not to me. And I hated you for it.”
She turned to me, broken and raw, before looking at her mother again. It could see the sorrow in her eyes before her gaze
returned to Martha
“I thought you abandoned me. I thought you chose power over me. And when he said we could be a family again… I
wanted it. I wanted to believe he was the one who cared.”
Lacy wasn’t just manipulated-she was groomed by her own father into seeing her mother as the villain. She hadn’t stood a chance. The anger, the betrayal-it all made sense now, twisted as it was. But none of it changed the damage she’d
done.
