CHAPTER 5 — THE FATHER WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD
For twenty years, Damian Russo believed one thing.
Some people deserved a grave.
And some people deserved to stay in one.
Victor Brooks belonged to the second category.
The man on the screen was impossible.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar running from his temple down toward his jaw.
But impossible was standing right in front of him.
Alive.
---
Nobody spoke.
Not Damian.
Not Garrett.
Not even Hazel.
The only sound inside the office was the rain hitting the broken windows.
Michael Voss smiled from the screen.
“You should see your face, Damian.”
His voice carried through the speakers.
“You spent years searching for him.”
Damian stepped closer.
“Turn that off.”
Nobody moved.
His voice became sharper.
“I said turn it off.”
Hazel stared at the screen.
Her father stood behind Michael.
Looking directly at her.
Not Damian.
Her.
And that hurt more than anything.
Because he looked like he knew exactly what she was thinking.
---
“Hazel.”
Victor’s voice came through the speakers.
A single word.
Her name.
And for the first time since Damian knew her…
she looked like a normal person.
Not trained.
Not controlled.
Not untouchable.
Just a daughter hearing her father’s voice.
Damian noticed.
Of course he noticed.
He noticed everything now.
Too late.
Always too late.
“You knew.”
Damian looked at her.
Hazel didn’t answer.
“You knew he was alive.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
Simple.
No excuse.
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“How long?”
Hazel looked down.
“Twenty years.”
The room changed.
Not because of the number.
Because of what it meant.
For twenty years…
Damian had hunted a ghost.
And Hazel had been standing beside him the entire time.
---
Michael laughed softly.
“You understand now?”
Damian looked at the screen.
“No.”
Michael smiled.
“That’s your problem.”
He leaned closer to the camera.
“You always think everything is about power.”
A pause.
“It’s not.”
The screen switched.
A new video appeared.
A younger Damian.
Twenty years earlier.
A warehouse.
Blood.
Fire.
A young Victor Brooks lying on the ground.
Damian froze.
Because he remembered that night.
But not everything.
---
The old footage continued.
Young Damian stood over Victor.
A gun in his hand.
Around him were men from his old organization.
The men who later became enemies.
The men who started the war that changed Chicago.
Damian watched silently.
Hazel watched too.
But her reaction was different.
Pain.
Not surprise.
She already knew.
“You remember now?”
Michael’s voice interrupted.
Damian didn’t answer.
Because something inside the memory felt wrong.
The footage showed him raising the weapon.
But then—
The screen cut.
Missing footage.
A blank space.
A missing minute.
A missing truth.
Damian looked at Michael.
“What did you remove?”
Michael smiled.
“Nothing.”
A pause.
“I just showed you what you wanted to believe.”
---
The screens went black.
The connection ended.
Silence returned.
Damian turned toward Hazel.
“Start talking.”
She stayed still.
“Mr. Russo—”
“No.”
His voice stopped her.
“Not that.”
He walked closer.
“For three years, you stood outside my office.”
A pause.
“You watched me.”
Another step.
“You knew my enemies.”
Another.
“You knew what I was afraid of.”
His eyes narrowed.
“And you never told me who you were.”
Hazel looked at him.
“You never asked.”
The words hit harder than she intended.
Because they were true.
And Damian hated that.
---
Garrett, still injured, sat against the wall.
He looked between them.
“You two are unbelievable.”
Neither looked at him.
Garrett sighed.
“One lies for three years.”
He looked at Damian.
“One fires the only person keeping him alive.”
A pause.
“Great team.”
Nobody laughed.
But the tension broke for one second.
---
Hazel finally spoke.
“My father wasn’t supposed to survive.”
Damian listened.
“He discovered something about your organization.”
“What?”
She looked toward the dark screen.
“Your old partners were selling information.”
Damian frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
Hazel gave him a tired look.
“There’s that word again.”
A small silence.
“Michael wasn’t working for them.”
She looked at Damian.
“He was one of them.”
Damian’s expression changed.
Because that meant one thing.
Michael had been close to him long before Hazel arrived.
“How did you know?”
Hazel hesitated.
Then:
“Because I spent years looking for the people who destroyed my family.”
Damian looked at her.
“And you found Michael.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of killing him…”
“I watched him.”
“Why?”
Hazel looked away.
“Because revenge makes people careless.”
A pause.
“And I had already lost enough.”
---
Suddenly, Garrett’s phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Unknown number.
Damian looked at him.
“Answer it.”
Garrett hesitated.
Then picked up.
A distorted voice came through.
“Damian Russo.”
Everyone listened.
“Congratulations.”
A pause.
“You finally discovered your assistant.”
Damian grabbed the phone.
“Michael.”
A quiet laugh.
“No.”
Silence.
“Someone much worse.”
The call ended.
Garrett looked at the phone screen.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
Damian looked at him.
“What is it?”
Garrett turned the phone around.
A message appeared.
A picture.
Taken moments ago.
Inside the Apex Building.
The image showed Hazel.
Standing alone.
Near the elevator.
But behind her…
was another person.
Someone holding a knife.
Someone who had entered the building without triggering a single alarm.
Hazel looked at the photo.
And all the color left her face.
Because she recognized him.
“I know that man.”
Damian stared.
“Who is he?”
Hazel slowly whispered:
“The person who trained me.”
May you like
A pause.
“The person who taught me how to kill.”
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