Chapter 5 - The Phantom of the Family
The revelation hit the room like a bomb.
Lucas took the scorched metal plate from Viktor’s hand. His fingers traced the raised crest of the burning torches. His face did not register anger; it registered an absolute, paralyzing disbelief.
"No," Lucas rasped. "I saw the car explosion. I saw the fire department pull three bodies from the wreckage."
"They pulled three burned bodies, boss," Viktor corrected him grimly. "Identifications were done twenty-five years ago using basic dental records. Dental records that Wendell Dracott owned and managed."
Bella watched as the blood drained entirely from Lucas’s face. The terrifying, invincible boss of Chicago looked, for a split second, like a lost child.
"He faked his death," Lucas whispered, connecting the dots in his head. "He set the fire. He killed my parents... so he could take the offshore accounts and disappear before the federal indictment hit."
"And now he’s back," Viktor added. "Because news leaked out of Green Bay three weeks ago that you brought two children back to the estate. Wendell knows you have heirs now, Lucas. He knows your empire is no longer just yours—it belongs to a new generation."
Bella stepped forward, her hand instinctively clutching her chest. "He wants to hurt my children?"
Lucas turned to her instantly. The shock on his face vanished, replaced by an absolute, terrifying aura of death.
"He will never touch them," Lucas swore, his voice dropping into a register that chilled the room. "Viktor, double the security perimeter. Put snipers on the roof. No one enters or leaves this estate without my personal code."
"Where are you going, Lucas?" Bella asked as he turned toward the door.
"To hunt a ghost," Lucas replied coldly, pulling a black semi-automatic pistol from his shoulder holster and checking the magazine.
"Lucas, wait!" Bella ran after him, grabbing his arm in the hallway.
He stopped, looking down at her hand on his sleeve.
"Don't go out there angry," Bella begged, her dark eyes wide with worry. "If he planned this for twenty-five years, it’s a trap."
Lucas looked at her, surprised by the genuine fear in her eyes—not fear of him, but fear for him. He raised a hand, gently touching her cheek, his thumb brushing over her soft skin.
May you like
"Four years ago, I thought you were just an expense, Bella," Lucas murmured softly. "Now I realize you were the only real blessing I ever paid for. Stay inside with the kids. Lock the doors."
He pulled away and marched down the grand staircase, his heavy boots echoing off the marble, leaving Bella alone in the silent, drafty hallway.
