Chapter 65 — The Shadows Close In

The night had fallen like a shroud over the city, thick and suffocating, but inside the house, the air was hotter—charged, almost crackling with fear and fury. I could feel it in my bones, smell it on my skin. Lucian moved like a shadow himself, checking locks, securing every window, scanning every corner with the precision of a man who had spent his life hunting danger before it had a chance to strike.

I held the girls in my arms, my heart hammering in sync with theirs. Aria, Arianna, and Arian clung to me, their tiny fingers gripping my clothes as if sheer will alone could keep the evil from reaching us. My father sat at the kitchen table, his hands trembling, head bowed as if the weight of every failure in his life rested squarely on his shoulders.

“This is my fault,” he muttered, voice low, nearly breaking. “He’s coming because of me. Everything I did—or didn’t do—brought this back to you, to Sophie.”

I swallowed hard, trying to steady my shaking hands. “Dad… no. This is not your fault. You protected me before, you protected me now. We’re together—and that’s what matters.”

He looked up at me, eyes haunted. “Together won’t stop him. He doesn’t just want you… he wants to hurt me. He’s going to take you just to make me feel every second of the fear I’ve carried all these years.”

I felt bile rise in my throat. The thought of being taken, of the girls seeing me disappear, made the air in the room thick, almost unbreathable. Lucian’s hand rested on my shoulder, firm, grounding me. “We’re not letting him take her,” he said, his voice a low growl, each word heavy with unspoken promise. “Not tonight. Not ever.”

“I’m going to call my brothers,” Lucian continued, already moving to the phone. His jaw was tight, his expression carved from stone. “They’ll help. We’ll set a trap if we have to. But first…” His eyes swept the room, stopping on me and the girls. “…we prepare. We fortify. We make sure this house—this family—can’t be touched.”

I nodded, trying to push down the fear that threatened to suffocate me. My father’s presence was both a comfort and a reminder of why we were here: mistakes of the past, sins of absence, and a monster who had waited decades for revenge.

The girls had been tucked into a playroom under strict orders: stay inside, lock the door, don’t answer anyone, and keep the TV loud. Their muffled giggles and whispers filtered up to the living room, a fragile shield against the darkness pressing in.

Lucian’s brothers arrived hours later, each one a mirror of his intensity, a perfect mix of strategy and brutality. They moved quickly, setting cameras, sensors, and security systems I didn’t even know existed. Every door, every window, every potential entry point was monitored. And still… the fear didn’t leave me.

“I need to know,” I whispered to Lucian, as he stood over me, tense and silent. “Why me? Why now?”

He didn’t answer immediately, just placed his hand on my cheek, thumb brushing gently. “Because he can,” he said finally. “And because of what happened years ago… the judge’s daughter. You were a child, almost killed her accidentally by witnessing it. He saw your face. He’s been waiting for the right moment—waiting for you to come back into the open. He thinks he can make your father pay through you.”

My stomach dropped. I’d always known some shadow from that night lingered, but I never imagined it would reach this far, this dark, this personal. I realized then that nothing—no amount of protection, no measure of distance—had ever truly shielded me from the consequences of surviving that night.

Lucian’s phone rang again. His jaw clenched as he listened, every muscle in his body tensing like a coiled spring. He hung up abruptly, voice low and dangerous. “He’s testing us. This isn’t an attack… not yet. But he wants to see what we’ll do, how we react, and whether he can manipulate fear against us.”

My father’s hands clenched into fists. “Then we fight him. Let him try. I’m not hiding anymore. I’ve run from him for too long. He wants you, Sophie… he wants to hurt me through you? Then he’ll have to go through all of us first.”

Lucian’s eyes softened briefly at my father’s words, a flicker of respect amidst the storm of fury and fear. “Good. We need that. Because he won’t come alone. And he won’t stop until he’s made you suffer—or until we make him suffer first.”

Hours passed in tense silence. Every shadow outside, every passing car, every creak in the floorboards set our nerves on edge. The girls slept fitfully, unaware of the full weight of the danger surrounding them, while my father and I sat side by side, shoulders touching, drawing strength from the simple act of presence.

Finally, Lucian spoke, voice a low growl that carried over the monitors and sensors. “We set the bait. We know he wants you. But we control the terms. He won’t take you—not without cost. Not without leaving traces we can follow. We’ll use him against himself, just like we always do.”

My father nodded slowly, swallowing hard. “I never wanted to drag you back into this, Sophie. I never wanted you to see this part of me—or him.”

I reached for his hand, gripping it tightly. “It’s too late for that now. But we’ll survive it. Together.”

Lucian’s phone buzzed again. A message this time, chilling and deliberate:

“We’ll meet soon. Don’t try to hide. And know this… this is only the beginning.”

The words froze me.

My father swallowed, white-knuckled. “He’s here. He’s not hiding anymore. And… he means what he says.”

Lucian’s hand closed around mine, steel in the warmth. “Then we prepare. We strike first. We don’t wait for him to make the move. We trap him before he can touch you.”

I nodded, trying to summon courage I wasn’t sure I had. My daughters’ laughter, muffled from upstairs, was a fragile tether to the normal life I longed to protect.

And then I realized the terrifying truth: this wasn’t about me, not really. It was about my father.

He had tried to stay away. He had tried to protect me by disappearing. But now… the monster from the past had come back, and I was the only thing standing between him and the revenge he’d planned for decades.

Lucian pulled me close, his forehead resting against mine. “I swear,” he whispered, voice low and lethal, “nothing happens to you. Nothing. We survive this. We trap him, we end this. And when it’s over, he’ll regret ever thinking he could touch you—or your father—through fear.”

I closed my eyes, feeling the storm of terror and rage coiling through me, drawing on a strength I didn’t know I had. The night was long, and the danger was far from over.

But together… we were ready.

We would survive.

We would fight.

And we would make sure that when the villain came for me, he would find not a frightened woman, but a family prepared to crush him.