Ownership Papers and Open Wounds
1573 Words
No one spoke after Amelia’s words.
Project Lycan.
The name seemed to drain the warmth from the room.
Elena looked from Amelia to Lucien, then to Adrian.
Every face carried the same expression.
Not confusion.
Fear.
She slammed both hands onto the conference table.
“Enough.”
The sharp sound echoed through the room.
“I am done being treated like a child.”
No one interrupted her.
“I’ve been hunted.”
She pointed toward the window.
“My father is missing.”
She lifted the cassette tape.
“My mother left me a letter and somehow everyone knows about it except me.”
Then she looked directly at Lucien.
“And every time I ask a question, you tell me to wait.”
Her eyes filled with frustrated tears.
“I’m tired of waiting.”
Silence answered her.
Lucien slowly walked toward the table.
He picked up the old contract Marcus Carter had signed—the same one that had first brought Elena into his life.
The edges of the paper were worn, the ink slightly faded, but every signature remained clear.
He placed it in front of her.
“You’ve read this before.”
She nodded bitterly.
“The document that says my father sold me.”
Lucien didn’t respond.
Instead, he reached into a drawer beneath the table and removed another folder.
Unlike the first, this one was newer.
Cleaner.
He opened it.
Inside were several legal documents.
Property deeds.
Bank transfers.
Financial records.
He slid them toward her.
“What are these?”
“The day your father disappeared…”
He paused.
“…I bought every asset connected to his debt.”
She frowned as she read.
Her apartment building.
Her father’s office.
The warehouse listed in the loan agreement.
Even the abandoned garage where Marcus had once run a small business.
Everything had been purchased under Lucien Devereaux’s name.
She looked up slowly.
“You own all of this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So Viktor couldn’t.”
She stared at him.
“You bought my entire life.”
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“I bought everything around your life.”
She looked down at the papers again.
Every address she had ever known.
Every memory.
Every place connected to her childhood.
Owned by one man.
Her chest tightened.
“So I really have nothing left.”
Lucien’s answer came without hesitation.
“You were never one of the things I purchased.”
She searched his face for deception.
Found none.
“Then why keep these papers?”
“Because they’re proof.”
“Proof of what?”
He closed the folder.
“That your father’s debt ended with me.”
Elena frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Lucien held her gaze.
“No one else can legally claim what Marcus owed.”
Amelia let out a quiet breath.
“You never told her.”
“There wasn’t time.”
“There has to be now.”
Lucien nodded once.
“There does.”
He looked back at Elena.
“The contract your father signed…”
He tapped the first page.
“…was never about making you my prisoner.”
Confusion flooded her face.
“Then what was it?”
Before Lucien could answer, the cassette player sitting on the far side of the room suddenly clicked to life.
No one had touched it.
The reels began turning on their own.
A burst of static filled the silence.
Then…
A man’s voice echoed through the speakers.
Older.
Tired.
Unmistakable.
Marcus Carter.
“If you’re hearing this…”
He paused, taking a shaky breath.
“…then I’ve already failed my daughter.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
The tape had started playing by itself.
And her father’s confession had only just begun.
Static crackled through the speakers before Marcus Carter spoke again.
“If you’re listening to this, Lucien… then you kept your word.”
Elena’s eyes snapped toward Lucien.
“You knew about this recording?”
Lucien slowly shook his head.
“I knew Marcus kept records.”
“But not this one.”
No one interrupted the tape.
Marcus continued, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“I don’t know how much time I have left, so I’ll tell the truth the way I should have years ago.”
A long sigh escaped him.
“Lucien… I know you’ll hate me after this.”
Lucien remained expressionless.
“You’ll probably think I betrayed you.”
Adrian frowned.
“Betrayed him?”
Amelia lowered her eyes, as though she already knew where the confession was leading.
Marcus continued.
“But I never wanted Elena dragged into our mistakes.”
“Our mistakes?” Elena whispered.
The tape rolled on.
“When we were young, we thought we could change the underworld.”
Lucien closed his eyes for the briefest moment.
“We believed we could build something that didn’t feed on innocent people.”
Elena looked at him in disbelief.
“You knew my father…”
Lucien still said nothing.
Marcus gave a bitter laugh.
“We were fools.”
The room remained completely silent.
“There were four of us.”
Elena immediately remembered the old photograph Amelia had shown her.
Three women.
One face scratched away.
“There was Amelia.”
Amelia’s hands trembled.
“There was your mother, Sophia.”
Tears welled in Amelia’s eyes.
“There was me.”
Marcus paused.
“And there was Lucien.”
Elena slowly turned toward him.
“You…”
Lucien met her gaze but didn’t interrupt the recording.
Marcus continued.
“We weren’t enemies.”
Another painful silence.
“We were family.”
The words hit Elena harder than anything she had heard before.
Family?
Lucien?
Her father?
Nothing made sense anymore.
Marcus’s breathing grew heavier.
“Everything changed the night Project Lycan was approved.”
The room tensed instantly.
“We should have destroyed it.”
Lucien’s jaw clenched.
“I wanted to.”
“But we were too late.”
The tape crackled again.
“There are people who believe power belongs only to those willing to become monsters.”
Marcus coughed.
“We refused.”
Another pause.
“They didn’t.”
Elena wrapped her arms around herself.
“What is Project Lycan?” she whispered.
The tape answered before anyone else could.
“It wasn’t a weapon.”
Everyone in the room froze.
“It wasn’t money.”
Marcus’s voice softened.
“It was a child.”
The blood drained from Elena’s face.
“No…”
Amelia covered her mouth.
Adrian looked toward Lucien in shock.
Marcus continued.
“They wanted to build an heir.”
Silence.
“The perfect leader.”
Another crackle.
“The perfect weapon.”
Elena felt the room begin to spin.
“You’re lying…”
She whispered the words to the tape as though Marcus could hear her.
“They wanted a child born into power.”
Marcus’s voice broke.
“We swore we’d never let that happen.”
Lucien lowered his head.
“But everything went wrong.”
The tape fell silent for several seconds before Marcus spoke again.
“If Elena is standing beside you while you’re hearing this…”
His breathing became uneven.
“…then you protected her longer than I deserved.”
Lucien’s fingers tightened into a fist.
“I’m sorry.”
The apology was directed at Lucien.
Not Elena.
Marcus continued.
“I let greed blind me.”
“I thought I could borrow money, repay it, and disappear before anyone discovered the truth.”
A bitter laugh escaped him.
“I was wrong.”
The tape hissed softly.
“I signed that contract because I trusted one man.”
Elena slowly looked at Lucien.
Marcus finished the sentence.
“I trusted Lucien to protect my daughter…”
Another pause.
“…even if she spent the rest of her life hating him for it.”
Silence filled the room.
Tears blurred Elena’s vision.
Every memory of the contract…
Every accusation she’d thrown at Lucien…
Every time she’d believed he saw her as property…
Suddenly felt uncertain.
Marcus spoke one final time.
“If you’re hearing my voice…”
His breathing sounded weaker than ever.
“…then I may already be dead.”
A long pause followed.
“But listen carefully.”
His tone became urgent.
“Do not let Elena open Sophia’s letter until she learns the truth about the woman whose face was erased.”
The tape crackled violently.
“Because if she opens it first…”
Static swallowed the next few words.
The recording distorted.
The machine whined loudly.
Adrian rushed to the cassette player.
“It’s damaged!”
The tape stretched inside the machine before coming to an abrupt stop.
Silence.
No one moved.
No one even breathed.
Elena slowly wiped away the tears on her cheeks.
Then she looked at Lucien.
“You weren’t keeping me because of the debt.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“You were keeping a promise.”
Lucien didn’t deny it.
He simply nodded once.
Before either of them could say another word, the communications screen flashed bright red.
An emergency alert echoed through the mansion.
WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED TRANSMISSION DETECTED.
The monitor flickered to life.
A single sentence appeared in bold white letters.
WE HEARD THE TAPE.
Beneath it, another line slowly typed itself across the screen.
NOW SEND US THE GIRL… OR WE RELEASE THE REST OF THE RECORDINGS.
- Writer
