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CHAPTER 4
publish date:
2026-01-17 00:35:24Chapter 4: The Lie
The leather folder felt heavy in my hands. I should’ve just put it back. I should’ve kept believing the lie. But there was a photo peeking out from the back, and I couldn't stop myself.
I pulled it out. My stomach dropped.
It was John. He wasn’t in some other city living large on fifty grand. He was lying in a shallow trench on the Silas estate, covered in dirt. His eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. The timestamp at the bottom of the photo hit me like a physical blow: it was taken the day after my father sold me.
The wire transfer. The payout. It was all a f**king setup.
A weird, cracking sound came out of my throat. It wasn't even a scream. It just sounded like something inside me had finally snapped.
The girl who loved John died right there. The girl who kept hoping for a rescue was buried in that trench with him. I didn't even cry. My eyes just felt dry and cold. My "protector" was the one who pulled the trigger.
The curtain moved. Abram stepped in, his shadow covering me. He didn't even look at the photo. He didn't need to. He knew exactly what I was holding.
"You weren't supposed to see that yet," he said. He sounded so casual about it, like he was talking about the weather.
I looked up at him. This was the guy who brushed my hair and "defended" me from his sister. He stood there, smelling like expensive scotch and woodsmoke, just waiting for me to lose it. He probably expected me to scream or try to hit him so he could pin my wrists and tell me he did it for "us."
I didn't move. I just let the photo slip through my fingers and hit the floor.
"Elara?" He stepped closer, looking confused. He reached out to touch my face. "Say something. Scream at me. Do something."
I did something, alright. I stepped right into his space. I reached up, my hands shaking just a little, and grabbed the back of his neck. I pulled him down.
And then I kissed him.
It tasted like betrayal. It was the biggest lie I’d ever told. But as his body went stiff with shock, I felt the power shift. He didn't know what to do. He was a hunter; he only knew how to handle things that ran away.
His arms wrapped around my waist, nearly crushing the ribs he’d probably paid to protect. He was buying it—the "submission" he’d been trying to force on me.
He pulled back just an inch, his eyes dark and messy with a mix of winning and being totally lost.
"Do you finally get it?" he whispered, his voice rough. "Do you see that you have nowhere else to go?"
I forced myself to smile. It felt like my face was made of stone, but I kept it steady.
"I was wrong to fight you, Abram," I said. My voice sounded like a stranger's. "John ran. My father sold me. You're the only one who actually stayed."
Abram took a sharp, ragged breath. He looked at me like I was a prize he’d finally won. He couldn't see the hate behind my eyes. He didn't see that I was already gone inside.
"I'll give you everything," he promised, his voice thick. "Whatever you want."
"I know," I whispered, leaning my head against his.
And then I'm going to take everything you have.
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ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter ENDING
"You're late." Abram didn't turn from the stove. The smell of frying garlic and sea salt filled the small, sun-drenched kitchen. He flipped a fillet of bass with the precision of a man who used to handle a different kind of steel."The engine stalled." I dropped the bag of groceries on the wooden table. My lower back ached, the weight of the eight-month bump pulling at my spine. "And Leo found a 'treasure' near the old lighthouse.""A treasure?" Abram turned, wiping his hands on a grease-stained apron. The brand on his chest had faded to a silver ghost of a scar. He looked younger. The red in his eyes had settled into a warm, human brown. "What did you find, kid?"Leo stepped into the light. He wasn't holding a sharpened shell. He was holding a battered, salt-crusted compass. He held it up, his small fingers steady. "It points to the mountains, Papa. Not the sea.""That’s because we’re done with the sea." Abram knelt, ruffling the boy’s hair. Leo didn't flinch. He leaned into the touc
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 59
"Is it sharp enough to kill a man?" Leo held the jagged shell up to the light. The sun caught the fractured edge, turning the calcium white into a predatory glint.I stopped breathing. The salt air in my lungs turned to lead. I looked at my son. He was three. Three years old, sitting in the white sand of a beach that was supposed to be our sanctuary."It’s just a shell, Leo." My voice came out as a raspy thin line. I knelt beside him, my knees crunching on the dried seaweed and grit. "Put it down. We need to go back to the house. Papa is waiting.""Papa is sleeping." Leo didn't look at me. He ran his thumb along the edge of the shell. A thin, red line appeared on his skin. He didn't flinch. He didn't pull away. He watched the blood bead up, dark and heavy, before it dripped into the sand. "He’s been sleeping since the loud noises started.""Leo—""He has a hole in his head, Mama. Like the one I made in the moth." He turned the shell over in his small, steady hands. "Does the blood mea
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 58
"Hand me the whiskey." Abram didn’t look at me. He kept his eyes on the horizon, where the sea swallowed the sun. His fingers traced the jagged 'S' branded into his chest. The skin around it was still pink, still angry."You've had enough." I stayed in the shadows of the porch. My hand rested on my stomach. Flat. For now. "The doctor said your liver is already doing most of the heavy lifting for this family.""The doctor is a local drunk with a shaky hand." Abram let out a dry, rattling cough. He leaned back in the creaking chair. "He’s just happy I haven't broken his fingers yet. Besides, we're celebrating.""Celebrating what? Another day without a bullet in the door?" I walked to the railing. The salt air stung the raw skin of my neck."We did it, Elara." He finally looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot, but they had that old, terrifying light. The Sovereign. "No Syndicate. No fathers. No lab. We’re free.""No one is ever free, Abram." I pulled the folded sonogram from my pocket. I
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 57
"Take the boy and go through the cellar." Abram shoved the Beretta into his waistband, his chest heaving. The salt on his skin had turned to a cold, sticky film."I'm not leaving you here to die for a 'King' who won't even mourn you." I gripped the handle of the heavy kitchen knife. My knuckles were white. Blood from the earlier struggle had dried into a stiff, brown crust on my floral nightgown."It’s not an ask, Elara. Get him to the boat." Abram grabbed my shoulders. His fingers dug in. Hard. He was shaking. Not from the fear of the black cars crawling up the gravel path, but from the raw, jagged realization that the silence of the village was a lie."The boats are already in the harbor, Abram. We’re surrounded." I looked at the window. The searchlights from the tactical ships were sweeping the cliffs. White knives cutting the dark. "The 'Glass Empire' didn't just crack. It's dust."Leo sat on the floor between us. He wasn't crying. He wasn't hiding. He had a small, sharp stick in
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 56
"He was loud, and then he was quiet." Leo didn't look up from the small, jagged piece of limestone in his hands. He dragged the rock across the wooden porch, the screeching sound sets my teeth on edge."Leo, look at me." I grabbed his chin. Hard. I forced his head up until his dark, "Silas eyes" met mine. There was no fear there. No guilt. Just a flat, glass-like surface. "Mateo almost died. Do you understand that? He stopped breathing because you sat there and watched.""He was noisy." Leo’s voice was too steady for a three-year-old. Too melodic. "The water went in his mouth. Then he stopped making the noise. It was better."My hand went numb. I let go of his face like I’d touched a live wire. The "Cerebral Demon" wasn't just a part of my past anymore. It was sitting on my porch in a pair of stained overalls. I didn't see a toddler. I saw a perfected version of every cold-blooded instinct I’d ever tried to bury."Abram, we have to talk. Now!" I slammed the screen door so hard the mes
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 55
"Where the hell is the boy, Elara?" Abram slammed the front door, his boots heavy with the stench of the docks. He dropped a string of fresh sea bass onto the wooden counter.Elara didn't look up from the radio she was rewiring. Her fingers were steady, but the soldering iron shook just enough to sizzle. "He’s at the tide pools. Watching the crabs again.""Alone? He's barely three." Abram wiped sweat from his neck, his shirt sticking to his skin. "I told you, he needs to be around the village kids. Needs to learn how to lead, not just how to sit in the dirt.""He doesn't want to lead them, Abram. He wants to see how they work." Elara finally turned, her eyes hard. "He doesn't play. He dissects. Last week I found his wooden blocks lined up by weight. Perfect rows. He hasn't touched the stuffed wolf you bought him since the day he pulled the eyes out to see what was behind the glass."Abram laughed, a dry, proud sound. "That’s the Silas blood. Analytical. The kid’s a genius.""It’s not
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 20
"Eat. You’re shaking so hard the chair is rattling, Elara."John shoved a plastic tray across the bolted-down table. A gray, lukewarm mash sat in a bowl. It smelled like cardboard and floor cleaner. The room was a concrete box buried in the gut of an Alpine peak. No windows. Just the hum of a venti
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 19
"Extraction in sixty seconds! Clear the LZ!"The voice cracked through the penthouse speakers, distorted by the static of a high-gain jammer. Abram didn't move toward the door. He stood over the master terminal, his knuckles turning a bloodless white as he gripped the edge of the console. The scree
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 18
Elara spoke to the corner of the ceiling, her voice a hollow rasp that barely carried across the padded floor. She sat in the center of the nursery, the white silk of her robe a stark contrast to the sterile, grey cushioning of the walls. She knew the camera was there. Hidden in the glass eye of th
ALHPA ABRAM: And the four daughter 17
"Sir, the signal is jumping... he’s already three levels down," Vane’s voice crackled through the intercom, strained and thin. "The shaft is rigged! Don't go near the—"A dull thud echoed from deep within the building’s spine. It wasn't the roar of a building-level collapse. It was a surgical pop.
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