Beneath the Mask
1346 Words
Chapter 4
The silence that followed Dominic’s confession was colder than death.
Adrian didn’t move. He stood frozen, as though the words had shattered the foundation beneath him. I could see his mind unraveling, every memory, every conversation with his father, every whispered lie trying to fit inside this horrible new truth.
“I did what I had to do.”
Those words wouldn’t stop echoing.
“What you had to do?” Adrian finally said, his voice cracking like glass. “You murdered innocent people, Elena’s family. My wife’s family!”
Dominic’s face didn’t twitch. “It was a business decision.”
Adrian lunged.
I grabbed him just before his fists reached Dominic. “Adrian, don’t!”
He was shaking, no, trembling with rage. And I wasn’t sure if I held him back for Dominic’s sake… or his own.
“You took everything from her,” Adrian seethed. “Everything!”
“I gave you everything,” Dominic said calmly. “A life. A legacy. And now you're throwing it away for her?”
Adrian turned toward me. “We’re done here. Come on.”
But before we could leave, Dominic said something that made my blood run cold.
“You don’t know the full story, Elena. You think you do… but you’re still just a pawn.”
I stopped.
Adrian didn’t.
But I did.
“What do you mean?” I asked, voice like ice.
He smiled, that cruel, knowing smile. “Your father wasn’t just some saint with a dream. He made enemies too. Dangerous ones. I wasn’t the only one who wanted him gone.”
I swallowed hard. “Are you saying someone else was involved?”
“I’m saying you might want to dig a little deeper before you hang everything on one villain.”
I wanted to scream. To throw something. To demand answers. But all I could do was turn and walk away, dragging the puzzle pieces of my past behind me.
We didn’t speak in the car.
Adrian drove like he was trying to outrun the truth. His jaw clenched. Knuckles white. I could feel the fire in him, the betrayal, the grief. It mirrored my own.
And yet… all I wanted to do was touch him.
Because if we didn’t hold on now, we’d fall apart.
“Pull over,” I said quietly.
“What?”
“Just… please. Pull over.”
He did.
We were on the edge of a quiet overlook, the city lights twinkling below us like stars that had fallen.
I reached for him.
At first, he didn’t respond. But then something inside him broke. His hands gripped my waist. My hands found his face. And then we were kissing, hard, desperate, lost.
His lips moved over mine like he was trying to forget everything except us. My fingers threaded into his hair. His arms wrapped around me like I was the only thing tethering him to the earth.
It wasn’t lust.
It wasn’t even just love.
It was survival.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against his mouth.
“No,” he breathed. “Don’t. You didn’t do this.”
“I dragged you into it.”
“You’re the only thing that’s real in this mess.”
We stayed that way, forehead to forehead, hearts beating in chaotic sync, until the sky turned grey.
Back at our apartment, we both collapsed onto the couch, drained.
Adrian stared at the ceiling. “He’s lying, right? About your father? About others being involved?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “That’s the worst part. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
He turned to face me. “Then we find out.”
I raised a brow. “How?”
He hesitated. “There’s someone we can talk to. Someone who used to work for my father. She disappeared years ago, after your parents died.”
“Why would she talk to us?”
“Because she was the one who warned me once. When I was a kid. Said someday I’d have to choose between my father and the truth.”
“What’s her name?”
“Marina.”
It took us two days to track her down.
She lived off-grid in a beach town a few hours away. No phone. No address. But Adrian had friends, and friends of friends, and eventually, we found her, a small house on a cliffside, waves crashing below.
Marina was older now, maybe mid-fifties. Her hair streaked with grey, her eyes tired, but sharp.
She didn’t seem surprised to see Adrian.
“I told you this day would come,” she said as she let us in.
Adrian sat stiffly on the edge of the couch. I stood beside him, heart pounding.
“I need to know the truth,” he said. “About my father. About what happened to Elena’s family.”
Marina sighed. “I was Dominic’s fixer. His cleaner. I know where the bodies are buried figuratively and literally. But you need to understand, Adrian, once you open this door, there’s no going back.”
“It’s already open,” I said.
She looked at me for a long moment. “Your father, Thomas… he wasn’t clean. Brilliant, yes. Visionary, yes. But he was playing a dangerous game. He was trying to expose a network”
“What kind of network?” Adrian asked.
“Corporate laundering. Arms trade. Ties to political figures. He stumbled into something too big.”
I felt sick. “And Dominic was part of it?”
“Not just part. He was one of the architects.”
“And my father?” I asked, my voice hollow.
“He tried to stop it. But someone tipped Dominic off. He staged a break-in to make it look like a robbery gone wrong.”
“And the someone who tipped him off?” Adrian asked.
Marina looked away. “We don’t know. But there’s a name that kept coming up in the files: Lazaro Vex.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
She leaned in. “The man behind the curtain. You’ve never seen his face. No one has. But he’s powerful. And he’s watching.”
My skin crawled.
“Why didn’t you say anything back then?” Adrian whispered.
“Because I was afraid. And because… I loved your father, once.”
Adrian recoiled like she’d slapped him.
“I’m sorry,” she added. “But you needed to know.”
That night, we stayed in a small motel. Adrian didn’t speak much. I couldn’t sleep. I walked out onto the balcony and leaned against the railing, letting the wind hit my face.
He joined me after a while, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” I said softly.
“I’m sorry you had to live through it.”
We stood in silence. The night wrapped around us like a secret.
Then he turned me to face him.
“I don’t know what comes next,” he said. “But I know I want to face it with you.”
My heart squeezed.
“Even if it means going up against your father?”
He nodded. “Even if it means burning everything down.”
I kissed him, slow this time. Deep. We weren’t trying to forget. We were trying to remember why we still had something worth fighting for.
His forehead rested against mine. “We’ll find Lazaro. We’ll find the truth.”
“And if the truth is worse than we think?”
“Then we fight harder.”
The next morning, we woke to a text on Adrian’s burner phone.
“You’re digging too deep. Back off.L.V.”
I stared at the message. “Lazaro.”
Adrian’s face turned to stone. “He knows we’re coming.”
“Are we scared?”
“Yes,” he said. “But that doesn’t change anything.”
Because now we knew the truth was more dangerous than we’d imagined.
And the real war had just begun.
- Writer
