Veil of Shadows

Chapter Eight- Evangeline

The room was filled with a thick, suffocating tension, the kind that crawled under your skin and made you want to scream. I stood at the head of the long, polished table, my hands resting on the cool wood as I stared down at the men who had served this family for years. My top advisors, men who had seen the worst of this world, who had fought and bled for the Moretti name, now seemed uncomfortable, unsure, and unwilling to meet my gaze.

That wasn't going to fly.

"Enough of this fucking bullshit," I snapped, my voice sharp and cold, cutting through the silence like a razor. "I want full transparency, and I want it now. What the hell is really going on with the Giovannis? Why the sudden interest in me? What do they think they're going to gain by coming after me?"

I watched as the men exchanged uneasy glances, each one waiting for someone else to speak up. It was Lucas who finally broke the silence, his voice calm but far too careful for my liking.

"Evie, it's not as bad as you think. The Giovannis are trying to get in our heads, that's all. We've dealt with their kind of shit before. They're just trying to rattle us, make us look over our shoulders."

"Don't fucking patronize me, Lucas," I hissed, slamming my hand down on the table. The loud crack echoed through the room, making a few of the men flinch. "This isn't some minor turf war. Their enforcer was watching me at the jewelry store, and then I received a note in the mail—a fucking handwritten note that said 'You're mine.' This is personal, and I want to know why."

Lucas's jaw tightened, his eyes flicking away from mine for just a second before he met my gaze again. I could see the struggle in him, the war between telling me what I wanted to hear and keeping me in the dark, "for my own good." But I wasn't a fucking child, and I wasn't going to let him coddle me.

"Tell me the truth, Lucas," I demanded, leaning forward. "What the hell aren't you telling me?"

There was a heavy pause, the kind that made your stomach twist because you knew the words coming next would change everything.

"They've been after you for years, Evie," Lucas finally admitted, his voice low but clear. "Since your father's time. They see you as the key to breaking the Moretti family. They believe if they can control you, they can control everything. But it's more than just control—they want to use you, break you. They couldn't break your father, but they think they can break you."

A cold rage settled over me, seeping into my veins like ice water. I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears, my vision narrowing as I processed what he was saying. Years. Years, they had been planning this, and I had been left in the dark, treated like a pawn in a game I didn't even know I was playing.

"And you never fucking told me?" My voice was low, lethal. "All this time, all I've ever asked for is loyalty, and you repay me with lies and half-truths? You kept this from me, knowing what they wanted?"

Lucas's eyes flickered with something—guilt, regret, maybe even fear. But there was something else there too, something raw and vulnerable that I hadn't seen in him before. "I was trying to protect you, Evie. Your father brought me into this family to keep you safe, and that's what I've been doing. But I became more than that. I became part of this family, your right hand. But that didn't change my first responsibility—keeping you safe."

I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. All this time, I'd been running the family, making decisions, thinking I was in control. But Lucas had been there, carrying the weight of this secret, trying to shield me from the truth. And now, that truth was out, and it was a fucking nightmare.

"Protect me?" I spat, stepping closer to him. "You think keeping me in the dark is protecting me? All you did was leave me vulnerable. You let me walk into this shitstorm blind, and now we're all paying for it."