Chapter 22
The party ended like that and people talked about the drama that had unfolded, everything was silent except M
“Let him in and close the door” Xander commanded his voice flat.
Mason Valcruz.
Mason Valcruz stepped into the study, his suit wrinkled and face pale like he had aged twenty years in a day. He looked less like the great buisnessman he once was and more like a man drowning in the realization of his own deeds that brought ruin to his family and me. “Xander Thome” he began trying to stop his body from trembling as he recalled the incidents from before.
He turned into a laughing stock and now everyone would look at him like a joke who couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.
Between me his legitimate daughter and an illegitimate child. The way Jessica was taken like she was a whore…it brought shame but despite everything she was the daughter my father loved for so many years so he said as one last request.
“Mr Thome, I came… to speak about Jessica. After knowing the truth I will throw her out of the house and cut off all ties but to give her to a seventy year old man-“}
“Did you said the same thing when your mother- Victoria Valcruz offered Athena to an eighty year old man?”
Mason’s entire face flashed white like a ghost as his eyes filled with helpless tears.
“…I disliked Athena yes and was ready to sacrifice her but…yes I did not agree to her marriage with an eighty year old if that is what you are implying…I know I was wrong..I know my fault.” Like a beggar his face bowed as his face was marred with tears.
Xander didn’t even glance at him finding him utterly disgusting. What kind of father would hurt his own child?%
Even a lion won’t eat its own cubs but he found Mason Valcruz as truly despicable.
Instead, he opened the leather–bound folder on his desk and slammed it in front of Mason with a cold finality.
A confidential report.
[DNA RESULTS!
JESSICA VALCRUZ AND MASON VALCRUZ”
MATCHING PERCENTAGE–0.001%8
RESULT: NOT RELATED?
My biological father could no longer hold his chair and he cluched his heart as a sharp pain spread throughout his body!
He blinked hard. “What….what the hell is this?” Xander leaned forward, voice sharp enough to bleed.
“The girl you destroyed Athena for was never yours.
Mason staggered back.
“No. No, that can’t be. L..I raised her. I gave her everything-”
“Except what you owed Athena.” Xander said, rising to his feet. “You tumed your back on your real daughter for a stranger. For your
mistress’s bastard.”9
“No! No!” Mason crumpled into the leather chair like the truth had punched him in the gut.
“I need to see Athenal..beg for her forgiveness again and again until I diel“!!
Xander’s jaw clenched, his eyes darkening.
“She is gone so how is it possible to search for her now that there is no trace. If you tell me where to find her I will bring her back to her rightful position“}
“Killian Arrows rules Spain…she must be there-
1 searched Spain” Xander snapped. “I searched the coasts. I bribed customs officers…charter pilots and even those damned doctors. I hacked private servers and offered double to private contractors but hell there was nothing!“}
He stood up pacing like a man who was half mad.
“Hospitals luxury retreats, hotels and restraunts…even those small guesthouses I looked everywhere!!!
I searched the villas, the monasteries, the yachts docked along southern Europe. I even had a monk from Sicily interrogated because someone thought they saw her lighting a candle!!
Mason closed his eyes breathing heavily.
Then he said softly “Athena might not in Spain then…there is another place.”
Xander stopped cold.
“Where?”
“Athena’s gone to a place not even the govemment keeps on record. A private island called Golden Reefs. Hidden behind coded coordinates, passed down through ancient maritime families. It is protected by Killian Arrows like he a dragon protecting his gold. No flight paths, no ship logs…..but there he only let those people stay whom he either want to kill or treasure beyond anything_3
Xander’s blood ran cold. Golden Reefs.!!
Even he had only heard whispers.
“She must be safe there. And I… I need to apologize. To Athena.” Mason added hoarsely. “I need to fall at her feet for what I did. For what I
let them do to her.”
Xander said nothing.
Mason stood and quietly left, shoulders broken under the weight of guilt
10:04 AM đσ ·
Mason stood and quietly left, shoulders broken under the weight of guilt
The door clicked shut behind him.
But Xander did not sit.
He didn’t breathe for a full moment
Then his voice cut the air like the snap of a blade:
“Torch it.“&
His most trusted man appeared from the shadows.
“Sir?”
The Valcruz estate.” Xander said, eyes cold. “Reduce it to ashes. Every place that hurt Athena burn it.”
The fire started just past midnight.
Gasoline poured over marble.)
Glass shattered as Flames danced through tapestries imported from Persia, through halls that once echoed with laughter and cruel whispers.
Screams tore through the night as servants and family members who had once turned away from my pain were consumed by the blaze. Mason was dragged out barely alive, his body half burned as they hurridely called for an ambulance. Victoria my grandmother crawled from the second floor.. her diamond necklace blackened with soot as she groveled outside.
They watched from the garden as their legacy cracked and burned.
Inside were contracts and important deeds upon which their family was built…now everything had vanished.)
All the while I slept soundly for the first time in years unaware that the house that made me suffer… was no more.
