CHAPTER 13 — THE FATHER WHO RETURNED FOR REVENGE
The elevator doors opened slowly.
Nobody inside the Apex Building moved.
Not because they were afraid of what would come out.
Because they already knew.
The impossible had become normal.
Dead men returned.
Memories changed.
Enemies became allies.
And the people they trusted most became the ones holding the knife.
---
Damian stood in the middle of the executive floor.
His gun was already raised.
Garrett stood beside him.
Hazel stood behind them.
But Hazel wasn't holding a weapon.
That worried Damian more than if she had been.
Because Hazel Brooks was always prepared.
Always ready.
Except now.
Now she looked like a daughter waiting to meet a ghost.
---
The elevator reached the floor.
A soft sound.
A small movement.
The doors opened.
Victor Brooks stepped out.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
A scar running across his cheek.
But alive.
Very alive.
His eyes immediately found Hazel.
For a moment...
nobody spoke.
Twenty years disappeared in a single second.
Hazel looked at him.
Her lips parted.
But no words came out.
Victor looked at her.
And whispered:
"Hannah."
That name hit harder than anything else.
Because nobody called her that anymore.
Not for years.
Not since she buried that girl.
---
Hazel took one step forward.
Then stopped.
Her face hardened.
"You knew."
Victor looked down.
A painful silence.
"Yes."
The answer was worse than an excuse.
Hazel's eyes changed.
"You knew I was alive."
"Yes."
"You watched me search for you."
Victor didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Damian watched from the side.
He saw something he never expected.
Hazel wasn't angry like him.
She wasn't explosive.
She was disappointed.
And somehow that looked worse.
---
"You let me believe you were dead."
Victor swallowed.
"I was trying to protect you."
Hazel laughed quietly.
A broken sound.
"Everyone says that."
She looked at Damian.
Then back at her father.
"Everyone protects me by lying."
The sentence hung in the air.
Because everyone knew who she was talking about.
---
Damian lowered his weapon slightly.
"Why are you here?"
Victor looked at him.
The room changed.
The father disappeared.
The survivor disappeared.
The enemy returned.
"I came because Elias is about to finish what he started."
Damian stared.
"You worked with him."
Victor didn't deny it.
"Yes."
Garrett raised his weapon.
Damian stopped him.
"Let him talk."
Victor looked surprised.
Maybe because Damian would have killed him years ago.
Maybe because this was not the same Damian anymore.
---
Victor walked toward the conference table.
Twenty years of history stood between them.
"I made mistakes."
Damian almost smiled.
"That's an understatement."
Victor accepted the insult.
"I trusted the wrong people."
"So did I."
The two men stared at each other.
For the first time, they understood they were not completely different.
They were both survivors.
Both manipulated.
Both carrying damage they refused to admit.
---
Victor placed an old folder on the table.
"This is everything."
Damian looked at it.
"Everything?"
"The truth about Elias."
Nobody touched it.
Because everyone knew opening that folder would change something.
Victor continued.
"Elias Crane was never trying to take your empire."
Damian frowned.
"Then what did he want?"
Victor looked directly at him.
"You."
---
Silence.
Hazel looked at her father.
"What does that mean?"
Victor hesitated.
Then:
"Elias believed Damian Russo was the only person capable of changing Chicago."
Damian almost laughed.
"That sounds insane."
Victor shook his head.
"No."
A pause.
"That's why he hated you."
---
Twenty years earlier.
Elias found Damian when he was young.
Angry.
Ambitious.
Hungry.
He saw something in him.
Not cruelty.
Potential.
Elias didn't create Damian's darkness.
He simply fed it.
Every betrayal.
Every enemy.
Every violent choice.
He pushed Damian closer to becoming someone who could never go back.
---
"He didn't want you dead."
Victor looked at Damian.
"He wanted you powerful enough that nobody could stop you."
Damian stared.
"And why?"
Victor answered quietly:
"Because he wanted to control the most dangerous man in Chicago."
---
Hazel looked at her father.
"And you?"
Victor lowered his eyes.
"I tried to stop him."
A pause.
"I failed."
She looked hurt.
"You failed me too."
Victor closed his eyes.
The words hit.
Because they were true.
"I know."
---
A sudden alarm interrupted them.
Everyone looked toward the security monitors.
The entire building camera system went black.
Then one screen turned on.
Elias.
Standing inside a dark room.
Smiling.
"Family reunion."
Nobody spoke.
Elias looked directly at Hazel.
"I knew this would happen."
Hazel stepped closer.
"Elias."
His smile widened.
"There she is."
A pause.
"The girl who always believed she could save everyone."
Damian watched.
The way Elias spoke to her.
The way Hazel reacted.
There was history.
A painful one.
---
Elias looked at Damian.
"You finally know the truth."
Damian said nothing.
"You know who lied."
A pause.
"Who betrayed you."
His eyes moved to Victor.
"Who abandoned you."
Then back to Hazel.
"And who was never supposed to love you."
The room became tense.
Damian stepped closer to the screen.
"What do you want?"
Elias smiled.
"The same thing I wanted twenty years ago."
A pause.
"I want to see what happens when you lose the last thing keeping you human."
Damian's expression hardened.
"You think that's Hazel?"
"No."
Elias shook his head.
"That's your mistake."
A pause.
"Hazel is not your weakness."
The screen flickered.
Then Elias revealed something.
A live video.
A room.
A person tied to a chair.
Damian froze.
Because he recognized the person immediately.
It was someone he thought was long gone.
Someone connected to the beginning of everything.
Someone who knew the final truth.
---
Elias leaned toward the camera.
"Come get them, Damian."
A smile.
"But choose carefully."
The screen split into two images.
On one side:
Hazel.
On the other:
The person Damian had spent twenty years trying to find.
May you like
And Elias spoke the words that changed everything.
"Because you can only save one."
