Chapter 118: ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

Nicholas’s POV

Adrian finally turned to face all of us. He looked exhausted, but he looked sure and certain.

"You want to know what I saw?" Adrian asked, looking directly at Cassian. "Fine. I’ll tell you exactly what happened."

He pulled the chair away from the desk and sat down, resting his forearms against his thighs. "When we stopped at the restaurant, I recognized Dad’s assistant. At first, I thought she’d somehow found us, so I watched her instead of approaching her. She went to the back of the restaurant and started talking to one of the employees like she owned the place. She wasn’t asking for anything. She was giving orders. Then she went to a door in the corner, entered a code and walked through it."

Ronan’s brows pulled together. "A door inside the restaurant?"

"Yes. And it wasn’t a storage room." Adrian leaned back slightly. "I followed her through after she left. There was another entrance on the other side, and it opened into a club. Loud music, people everywhere, security posted around the place. It looked like a normal nightclub until I walked into a room."

Elijah had stopped pacing. "What did you see?"

Adrian’s expression hardened. "Drugs were being moved through the place. They had people handling it openly behind the scenes, taking orders from clients and sending packages into private rooms. There were VIP areas where wealthy clients were being taken after giving the guards a code. I watched one man arrive, give his code and get escorted away without anyone asking questions about who he was or what he wanted. And there were women."

Cassian stared at him. "And the women?"

Adrian looked at him for a moment before answering. "There were women being kept in some of those rooms, and from what I saw, some of them clearly didn’t look like they wanted to be there. I didn’t stay long enough to understand everything happening inside, but it’s not normal at all. There’s a lot of shady shit going on."

The room went silent and I felt my stomach tighten.

Adrian continued, his voice becoming colder. "I was stopped by one of the guards because I looked suspicious. He asked me for my code. I gave him one of the codes I’d heard them using earlier, and he directed me toward another section of the building. That’s when I realized how organized the entire place was. Different codes gave people access to different areas."

Ronan stared at him. "But how did you know Dad owned it?"

"I didn’t at first." Adrian rubbed his jaw. "Then I heard his name."

My eyes immediately went to him.

"The assistant was talking to someone and told them to make sure everything was ready because Blackthorne was coming. She said it like everyone already knew who she meant. That’s when it clicked. The place wasn’t simply connected to Dad. It belonged to him."

Elijah slowly shook his head. "No."

Adrian looked at him.

Elijah swallowed, struggling to speak. "You’re saying Dad owns a club where drugs are being sold and women are being kept against their will?"

"I’m saying that’s what I saw." He corrected.

Elijah looked away and Ronan sat down beside him, but even he didn’t have an answer this time.

I looked at Adrian. "And you think that’s what you meant when you said he was capable of worse?"

"Part of it, yes."

Adrian picked up the list from the desk again and held it between his fingers "Look at his name. Look at everything we’ve found in here. His fixation with Omegas isn’t something that started recently, Nicholas. He has been against Omegas for years, and I don’t think it was just some disagreement over politics. He has a vendetta against them."

My anger returned immediately. "He hated my father because he was an Omega. He wanted him gone, and when my father refused to stop, he had him murdered."

I looked at the papers scattered across the desk and felt pure, blinding rage. "I’m going to destroy him."

Elijah looked at me. "Nicholas—"

"No." I shook my head. "That’s enough for the dah. He killed my father, he tried to have me killed and he’s been hiding an entire criminal operation behind the respectable life everyone thinks he has." My voice shook with anger, but I didn’t care. "I want every person to know what he really is."

Adrian nodded immediately "I’m with you."

Cassian looked at him, then at me. "I don’t know if I’m ready to say I’m with you yet. But I’m still here. This is a lot to process. Let’s go back home."

We packed everything we could carry.

Adrian checked the building one last time before we left, and once we were in the car, the whole car remained silent.

Fuck, even Elijah was solem.

I sat in the back seat staring out of the window, gripping my phone in my hand. I kept thinking about my mother.

She deserved to know the truth.

But before I could call her, we reached the penthouse.

I waited until everyone had gone inside before heading to my room. I closed the door, sat on the edge of my bed and stared at my mother’s name for several seconds.

Finally, I dialled her number. She answered after a few rings. "Hello?"

"Mom, how did Dad die?" I asked immediately.

There was a brief silence before she answered. "I’ve told you. Your father died protecting you and me."

I frowned. "What do you mean exactly?"

"Exactly what it said." it deadpanned.

I sat down slowly on my bed. "So that’s what you’ve always believed?"

"Of course, why would I believe? Your father was always willing to put himself in danger for us. He died doing exactly that."

I stared at the floor, letting her words settle.

She had been lied to too.

"Mom," I said, keeping my voice low, "did you ever notice anything strange about what happened afterward? Anything that didn’t make sense? Anything that made you feel like there was more to his death than what you were told?"

She didn’t answer immediately and I tightened my grip around the phone. "Because something doesn’t add up. I’ve found things that make me think Dad wasn’t killed because he was protecting us. I think someone murdered him."

The line went completely silent and I waited. "Mom?"

When she finally spoke, her voice had changed and it was colder now. "Have you been investigating your father’s death?"

I swallowed. "Mom, I—"

"Have you?" She cut me off.

I looked away, already knowing there was no point lying to her. "Yes."

Her tone became tight. "And have you been putting yourself in danger while doing it?"

I didn’t answer and her voice hardened further. "Nicholas, don’t make me ask you again. Have you been investigating this on your own and putting yourself in danger?"

My voice was a whisper. "I only wanted to know what happened to him."

There was another silence before she said, "Where are you?"

"I’m safe." I vaguely told her.

"I didn’t ask if you were safe. I asked where you are."

I remained quiet as she exhaled sharply, and when she spoke again, there was only irritation in her voice. "You will meet me at the café near our old house by evening."

"Mom—"

"You heard me. Be there by evening."

I sat frozen on the bed.

"I need to talk to you about this," she continued. "If you have been investigating your father’s death and putting yourself in danger, then you’re going to explain everything to me face-to-face. I am not having this conversation over the phone."

What the—

She paused before adding, "If you fail to show up, Nicholas, then forget about us being family.