CHAPTER 7 — THE MEMORY DAMIAN WAS FORCED TO FORGET
The most dangerous thing about a lie…
is not believing it.
It is building your entire life around it.
For twenty years, Damian Russo had carried one memory.
One night.
One betrayal.
One man responsible for everything he lost.
Victor Brooks.
Hazel’s father.
The enemy who supposedly tried to destroy him.
But now…
Hazel had sent him four words.
DON’T TRUST YOUR MEMORY.
And those words were more terrifying than any threat.
Because Damian Russo trusted his memory more than anyone alive.
---
The private archive room beneath the Apex Building was colder than usual.
Damian stood in front of hundreds of files.
Old records.
Old enemies.
Old ghosts.
Garrett sat at the table, his arm wrapped after the explosion.
“You really believe her?”
Damian didn’t answer.
Garrett looked at him.
“That’s a dangerous question.”
“What?”
“Whether you believe Hazel.”
A pause.
“Because if she’s right…”
Garrett looked around the room.
“Everything you built is based on something false.”
Damian stared at the files.
He hated that.
Not the possibility.
The uncertainty.
Damian Russo could handle enemies.
He could handle bullets.
He could handle betrayal.
But he couldn’t handle not knowing the truth.
---
“Find everything about that night.”
Garrett frowned.
“We already did.”
“No.”
Damian turned around.
“Find everything we ignored.”
---
Twenty years earlier.
A younger Damian Russo stood inside an abandoned warehouse.
Rain poured through broken windows.
Blood covered the concrete floor.
Victor Brooks was on his knees.
Damian remembered the gun.
He remembered the anger.
He remembered Victor looking at him like he was disappointed.
Like Damian was the villain.
Then…
a gunshot.
Then darkness.
That was the memory.
The problem?
There was a missing minute.
One minute he couldn’t remember.
---
Three hours later.
Garrett found something.
Not a file.
Not a photograph.
A recording.
Old.
Damaged.
Almost destroyed.
“Where did you get this?”
Garrett placed it on the table.
“Hidden inside an old security backup.”
Damian stared.
“Why wasn’t this found before?”
Garrett hesitated.
“Because someone deleted the original archive.”
Damian looked at him.
“Who had access?”
Garrett didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
They both knew.
---
The recording played.
Static.
Noise.
Then voices.
Young Damian.
Young Victor.
But the conversation was different.
Not enemies.
Something else.
“You don’t understand what they’re doing, Damian.”
Victor’s voice sounded desperate.
“They’re using you.”
Damian watched himself on the screen.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“Yes.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Because I’m the only person telling you the truth.”
The younger Damian looked angry.
“After everything?”
A pause.
“You betrayed my family.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“They betrayed yours.”
---
The recording suddenly changed.
A new voice entered.
Michael.
Young Michael.
Damian froze.
Because Michael wasn’t supposed to be there.
He was supposed to have arrived years later.
But there he was.
Standing behind Damian.
Whispering.
“Do it.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
---
Damian didn’t move.
Garrett watched him carefully.
“You okay?”
No answer.
Damian picked up the recorder.
His hand tightened around it.
“He was there.”
Garrett nodded.
“Yes.”
“No.”
Damian looked up.
“He wasn’t just there.”
His voice became colder.
“He controlled it.”
---
Meanwhile.
Hazel woke up inside an unfamiliar room.
Dark.
Cold.
Concrete walls.
Her hands were tied.
But she wasn’t panicking.
She had been in worse places.
A chair scraped against the floor.
Hazel opened her eyes.
Elias Crane sat across from her.
Older.
Calm.
Almost disappointed.
“You’ve become soft.”
Hazel looked at him.
“You kidnapped me to criticize me?”
“No.”
Elias leaned forward.
“I kidnapped you because you made a mistake.”
Hazel said nothing.
“You cared.”
A pause.
“That was always your weakness.”
Hazel looked away.
“I’m not like you.”
Elias smiled slightly.
“No.”
He stood.
“That is why you were useful.”
Hazel stared at him.
“What do you want?”
Elias walked toward the door.
“The same thing I wanted twenty years ago.”
He stopped.
“To reveal what Damian Russo really is.”
---
Back at the Apex Building.
Damian watched the old recording again.
And again.
And again.
Until one detail caught his attention.
Something in the background.
A reflection.
A person standing behind Michael.
A person nobody noticed.
Damian paused the video.
Zoomed in.
His face slowly changed.
Because the person behind Michael…
was someone else.
Someone he trusted.
Someone who had been beside him for years.
Garrett noticed.
“What?”
Damian didn’t answer.
He just pointed at the screen.
The reflection showed a familiar face.
And Damian whispered:
“No…”
Garrett leaned closer.
Then froze.
Because the person in the reflection was impossible.
The person was supposed to have died twenty years ago.
But there he was.
Alive.
Watching.
---
Damian stood up.
“Find Hazel.”
Garrett looked confused.
“You think she knows?”
Damian looked at the frozen image.
“No.”
A pause.
“I think she was trying to warn me.”
He grabbed his coat.
“And I think I spent twenty years hunting the wrong enemy.”
---
The elevator doors opened.
Damian stepped inside.
Before they closed…
his phone received a new message.
Unknown number.
One photo.
No words.
Damian opened it.
His blood ran cold.
The picture showed Hazel.
Still captured.
Still alive.
And standing beside her…
was Michael Voss.
But Michael wasn’t holding a gun.
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He was crying.
And Hazel was pointing a weapon at him.
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