245 When Friendship Breaks
Lucian
“She shifted?” I exploded, turning to my father. “How could you let her?”
He raised both hands in a slow, steady gesture, trying to calm me.
“I told her to hide in the bunker,” he said. “The butlers and security were already moving. But she refused.”
I stared at him, stunned.
“She said she was Luna. Said it was her duty. And before you judge her, let me be clear, we needed her. Badly. The attack
came from both inside and outside. Alaric had embedded moles among our staff. The only reason we’re standing here
now is because she helped me organize the defense. She fought hard, Lucian. She carried weight I couldn’t have on my
own.”
He let out a breath, voice low and bitter. “They came for Martha, Tiffany, and Emma. In the dead of night. And Alaric had
the audacity to leave Mara a note.”
I stood frozen, jaw clenched so tightly I thought I might crack a tooth.
“And where the hell was Delta Denis?” I asked, voice like steel.
My father didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
The silence told me everything.
Denis never came back from the base. He went home. He went home.
I felt heat rise in my throat, choking me. My hands curled into fists, and I had to fight the primal urge to roar.
That bastard.
He thought because we were friends, he could get away with this? That I’d give him a pass for abandoning his post during
a coordinated attack on my home?
I pulled out my phone, fury pounding through my skull as I dialed his number. I didn’t care what time it was. He was going
to answer. Or I’d find him.
But my father grabbed my wrist.
“Not now,” he said quietly. “Handle it when you can think straight. Your wife is alive. The fever is mild. She’ll recover. That’s
what matters.”
My chest rose and fell fast. Too fast.
I tried to breathe, but all I could see was Mara, screaming in pain through her shift, her body trying to hold itself together. And Denis? He was probably curled up with his wife, playing house, thinking I’d understand.
Understand?
Never.
That wasn’t friendship. That was betrayal.
Let’s see how much Keisha loves him when he’s out of the ranks and scrambling to support her with a civilian job. Let’s see how warm her love stays when the title’s gone.
No excuse would ever be enough. Nothing he said could undo what he’d done.
He hadn’t just disobeyed me, he’d endangered everything.
And if Mara had been like other Lunas, untrained, unprepared, fragile?
She would’ve died.
I stared down at her sleeping form. My pulse thundered behind my eyes.
It would take everything in me not to tear Denis apart the next time I saw him.
And even that might not be enough.
I looked at my brother, unable to put off dealing with Denis later, and gave my order.
“Strip Delta Denis Stormborn of his rank.” My voice cut through the room like a blade. “As of this moment, he is dismissed from the military for dereliction of duty. I also want him investigated. I want to be certain he hasn’t been feeding Chase
intel all this time.”
Darian nodded, eyes dark with understanding.
Then, unexpectedly, my father chuckled.
I turned to him, frowning. “What’s so damn funny?”
He met my eyes squarely, the amusement gone now, replaced with something colder. He wanted my full attention.
“Chase is Alaric, Lucian. Martha recognised him from the photo Mara gave her. There’s no doubt.”
The room fell silent.
My chest tightened. I’d suspected. We all had. But suspicion and confirmation were two different beasts.
My thoughts reeled. And then another realisation hit me like a punch to the gut.
“Then why would he kidnap his own daughter? Why tie her down and let them do that to her in Rockville?”
Gasps rippled through the room. My father’s hands started to shake. Martha buried her face in her palms and sobbed.
“Silly, silly girl,” she whispered. “My poor baby. He must’ve lied to her. Tricked her.”
My father’s expression darkened, his breathing quick and ragged.
“I hope she’s dead,” he snarled. “I hope she’s among the corpses they showed on television. That treacherous b***hdeserv
ed it.”
I flinched.
He was furious. But this wasn’t righteous anger. This was personal.
And it wasn’t the first time. He’d never liked Lacy. Hadn’t wanted her near Martha when she was in a coma. Hadn’t trusted
her for a second.
And maybe that was why she’d run.
“You hate her because she’s Alaric’s daughter,” I said, coldly. “But that doesn’t justify this level of venom.”
His eyes twitched. His jaw clenched.
“She poisoned her mother,” he snapped. “That girl was working with Alaric. She did it. She helped him weaken us from the
inside.”
Silence.
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245 When Friendship Breaks
+3 Ports
Martha cried harder, curling in on herself. Tiffany looked away, guilt in her eyes. She knew.
I turned, stunned. Trying to piece it all together. But before I could say a word, Darian stood up abruptly, pulled away from Tiffany, and walked out of the room.
He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.
I knew where he was going.
I followed.
His rage pulsed ahead of me like heat on a battlefield. I could feel it, tangible, raw, about to explode.
We moved fast down the hall, our footsteps echoing through the mansion.
Lacy had been sheltered. Given chances. Protected.
But if what we’d just heard was true, if she knew what she was doing, then she wasn’t a victim.
She was a threat.
And she was about to find out what it meant to betray the wrong family.
“Where is she? Where is that b***h?” Darian roared at the guards stationed in the hallway.
They hesitated, glancing at each other in confusion. He didn’t say her name, he couldn’t. He was too furious. But they understood who he meant.
“The girl you arrived with?” one asked cautiously.
“In her room, Beta.”
Darian didn’t hesitate. “Strip her down to her underwear. Make sure she has nothing on her, no jewelry, no objects, nothing
. Lock her in an empty room upstairs on the right wing. Windowless. Guard it.”
The guard looked at me, unsure. I nodded once.
He saluted and left quickly.
Darian spun around, breathing hard, voice low and vicious as we walked toward his room.
“Can you believe that girl?” he said, his tone almost venomous. “Father was right to suspect her. She was helping that bastard, Alaric, all along, stealing from us, destabilizing us from the inside.”
His fists clenched.
“If she hadn’t stirred up that chaos with the protesters, we wouldn’t have lost money. We wouldn’t have had deserters. She was raised in this house, fed at our table, and she bit the hand that kept her alive.”
He was spiraling. Years of pain and betrayal crashing down at once.
“My mother suffered, bled, for that girl. Sold herself out over and over just to keep Lacy safe. And how did she repay her? By trying to kill the one person who loved her more than anyone ever did.”
His voice cracked.
“I don’t care what her reasons were. Yes, my mother could be a b***h, but she was still my mother. Lacy had no right to take her from me.”
We reached the room and walked in.
He didn’t look at Tiffany. Didn’t say a word.
Instead, he went straight to Martha, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, eyes red from crying, hands trembling in her
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lap
He knelt beside her.
“It’s okay, Mother,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. Tm home.”
He kissed the top of her head and held her tight.
I had always known Darian loved his mother, despite everything. But in this moment, it was painfully clear: to him, she wasn’t just his flawed parent.
She was the one person Lacy had no right to betray.
