Chapter 14 - The Last Prisoner
The coastal residence stood behind a high stone wall overlooking the Atlantic.
Damian’s team arrived after sunset, accompanied by police officers carrying the court order obtained through Peter’s evidence. The house appeared abandoned from the road, but fresh tire tracks marked the gravel, and a light burned in an upstairs bedroom.
Elena studied the building through the car window.
“If Lydia is alive, she may know everything.”
Gabriel sat beside her, pale and rigid.
“I never knew what happened to my mother. Victor told me she died shortly after I was born.”
“He lied,” Damian said.
“Why keep her alive?”
“To control you. To control the trust. To control anyone who might challenge him.”
Damian stepped out of the vehicle.
“Stay behind the officers. We don't know who is inside.”
They entered through the front door.
A security guard emerged from a side room and immediately surrendered when he saw the police badges. Two more men were found in the basement, where they had been keeping financial records and medical files.
The upstairs bedroom was locked.
Damian forced the door open.
An elderly woman sat beside the window, wrapped in a pale blue blanket. Her hair was almost entirely white, and her hands trembled as she turned toward the doorway.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
“Mother?”
The woman stared at him.
Then she began to cry.
He crossed the room and fell to his knees beside her chair.
Lydia reached for his face, touching his cheeks as if she could not believe he was real.
“My boy,” she whispered.
Gabriel buried his face in her hands.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
Then Lydia looked at Damian.
“Your father wanted to bring us home,” she said. “He tried to find Gabriel. But Victor threatened to expose a secret that would have destroyed the family.”
“What secret?” Damian asked.
Lydia swallowed.
“Your father had funded the organization’s earliest operations using money diverted from a business partnership. He intended to repay it, but Victor discovered the accounts and used them to blackmail him.”
Damian felt the old world shifting beneath him.
His father had not been the honorable patriarch he had imagined. He had built the family’s power on compromise, secrecy, and decisions that had trapped others for decades.
“What happened the night he died?”
“Victor arranged for his car to be sabotaged. Your father survived the crash, but he was badly injured. Victor left him in the wreckage.”
Damian clenched his jaw.
“And the fire?”
Lydia looked toward Elena.
“Victor learned that Elena had found the original records. He planned the explosion to destroy them, kill her, and eliminate the unborn child who would inherit the controlling shares.”
“Elena was already pregnant when the fire happened,” Damian said.
Lydia nodded.
“I helped her hide the records. I also helped her arrange a safe escape route. But Victor discovered the plan and captured her before she could leave the country.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“You knew where I was?”
“Not at first. He moved you several times. When I tried to contact Damian, Victor threatened to kill Gabriel.”
She looked at her son.
“I stayed silent because I thought it was the only way to keep you alive.”
Gabriel took her hand.
“I spent my whole life believing I had been abandoned.”
“You were never abandoned.”
The words seemed to break something inside him.
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers.
Damian watched them, thinking of the years his daughter had lost, the mother she had dreamed about, and the family that had been dismantled by people who believed power mattered more than love.
Then Mateo entered the room.
“Boss, Victor has been found.”
Damian turned.
“Where?”
“At the river docks. He was trying to board a cargo vessel under a false identity.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
Mateo hesitated.
“He asked to see you.”
Damian looked toward Elena.
She shook her head.
“You don't owe him a conversation.”
“No,” Damian said. “But I owe the truth to everyone he hurt.”
Victor sat in a secure interview room at the police station, his injured leg stretched beneath the table. His expensive suit was stained, his hair uncombed, and the serpent ring had been removed from his hand.
When Damian entered, Victor smiled.
“Come to gloat?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“To give you one chance to tell the truth.”
Victor leaned back.
“The truth is that I did what I had to do.”
“You kidnapped a child.”
“I protected my inheritance.”
“You imprisoned my wife.”
“I protected myself.”
“You killed our father.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“He was going to give everything to you.”
“So you left him to die?”
“He made me what I am.”
“No,” Damian said. “He taught us that power mattered more than people. But only one of us decided to turn that lesson into an excuse.”
Victor looked at him with naked hatred.
“You think you're better than me?”
“I think I finally understand what we both were.”
Damian placed a copy of the ledger on the table.
“The police have everything. The trust documents, the accounts, the medical records, and the evidence from the fire. You can lie, but you cannot make the truth disappear again.”
Victor stared at the papers.
Then, unexpectedly, he began to laugh.
“You still don't understand.”
Damian waited.
Victor leaned forward.
“There is one more person you should be looking for.”
“Who?”
Victor's eyes glittered.
“The man who gave me the explosives. The man who arranged the accident. The man who helped me remove every witness.”
Damian felt his stomach tighten.
“Give me a name.”
May you like
Victor smiled.
“Your father's oldest friend.”
