Chapter 13 - The Truth Elena HatedElena locked the monastery door.
Then she faced Cassian.
“What did you know?”
Cassian stared at the floor.
“Not enough.”
“That wasn't my question.”
His father entered the room.
“Don't blame him.”
Elena turned.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“You knew what happened.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
The old man sighed.
“Your father was not killed by Viktor.”
“Who killed him?”
“You did.”
Elena's face went blank.
“No.”
“You were seventeen.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You were being extracted. Your father tried to stop the team because he discovered the Council had turned on him.”
Elena shook her head.
“I don't remember.”
“Because they erased it.”
Her stomach turned.
“Who?”
“The Council.”
“They took your memories.”
Elena stepped backward.
Cassian moved toward her.
She raised a hand.
“Don't.”
Her mind began flashing.
A room.
White lights.
A voice.
A gun.
Her father's face.
She remembered.
She was seventeen.
She had been holding a pistol.
Her father was standing across from her.
He had said:
“Elena, trust me.”
Then someone behind her had shouted.
A shot.
Her father's body fell.
But she had not fired.
Someone else had.
Elena gasped.
“I didn't kill him.”
“No,” Cassian said.
“Then why erase it?”
“Because they needed you to believe you were responsible.”
Her eyes filled with rage.
“They used guilt to control me.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Cassian's father answered.
“Viktor.”
Elena turned.
“Viktor was there?”
“He ordered the operation.”
Everything aligned.
The attacks.
The archive.
The housekeeper disguise.
The endless surveillance.
Viktor hadn't been trying to conquer Cassian.
He had been hunting Elena.
Because she was the only witness who could identify him.
Cassian stepped closer.
“We can end this.”
Elena looked at him.
“How?”
“By using the Council against itself.”
His father opened a case.
Inside was a small drive.
“The original ledger.”
Cassian stared.
“That's what we've been searching for.”
“No.”
The father shook his head.
“This is worse.”
He connected the drive.
A single file opened.
OPERATION ROSTOVA
Elena stopped breathing.
The file contained every stage of her disappearance.
Every handler.
Every false identity.
Every memory procedure.
And one final authorization.
Signed by Viktor Volkov.
But beneath Viktor's signature was another name.
Cassian Thorne.
Elena stared.
“No.”
Cassian looked at the screen.
His face drained of color.
“I never signed that.”
“You don't remember,” Elena whispered.
“I was sixteen.”
“Exactly.”
Someone had used Cassian's identity too.
His father stared at the screen.
Then the lights flickered.
The drive began deleting itself.
The files vanished one by one.
Elena reached for it.
Too late.
Only one file remained.
A video.
Viktor appeared on screen.
He smiled.
“You finally remember.”
Elena stared.
Viktor leaned toward the camera.
“Now ask Cassian why I always knew he would save you.”
The video ended.
Elena turned.
Cassian looked genuinely terrified.
Not for himself.
For her.
And then she realized the final truth.
May you like
Cassian had not been the target.
He had been the bait.
