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My heart hammered in my chest. Lucas had worked for Callum.
And if he was still out there…
He’d held me against my will along with Callum, helped him, and killed Godfrey. He’d been a part of this whole thing.
My grandfather simply stared at the drive as Ramses rolled forward in his chair.
“Told me it was everything I needed to let the world know what Callum Prinze did to my daughter and your granddaughter.” Ramses sat back. “And to my surprise when I listened, it was. There’s a detailed confession on there by none other than Callum Prinze himself. It was the night he told my daughter everything and her voice is on there as well. It’s authentic.”
What?
Ares blinked my way, his look of confusion shared. Why would Lucas give Ramses that confession?
“Said it was mine to do with as I wished, and when I asked him why, he told me this was at the request of his employer.” Ramses eyes narrowed. “Said who he actually worked for wanted me to have this, and no one was more surprised than me when I looked into that. I did find a name connected, but it wasn’t Callum Prinze or even his alias Callum Montgomery.”
The older man shifted in his chair. “Son—”
“It was you, Dad,” Ramses stated, causing both Ares and me to twitch. “Lucas works for you, or at least, well, he did before you died. He was head of your security, and don’t deny it. There’s sheets of evidence, and my people are still finding more.”
“I wasn’t going to deny it, Ramses,” the man stated, I think shocking the whole room and even Ramses himself. Our dad’s brow lifted after what his father said. Our grandfather shook his head. “It’s just unfortunate. Lucas was supposed to provide you what you needed, and that was supposed to be the end of it. There didn’t need to be a spectacle or even this meeting. I just wanted you to have the truth and a way to expose Callum.”
“Even in death?” Ramses asked, and our grandfather sighed.
“I wanted you to have that option, yes, felt you deserved it, and needless to say, it was the least I could do. I mean, all this was me…” His voice broke off, thick before he pressed a knuckle to his lips. He faced Ramses. “Had I not been thinking more about the future of my company than the implications my decisions could potentially have on my own family, none of this would have happened. You and Brielle wouldn’t have lost eighteen goddamn years with your daughter, and my grandson wouldn’t have lost his sister.”
My lips parted, Ares’s too. I squeezed my necklace, and when he noticed, he braced my arm.
“I pleaded so hard with that son of a bitch. I had no evidence he took my granddaughter, but I just knew… I knew he had something to do with it when I heard,” our grandpa said, glancing away. “It just made sense, and he had threatened me before. Said he’d take everything I loved away from me, but I didn’t take that to mean he’d ruin my family’s lives.”
Ramses said nothing, watching his father.
“I told him I’d give him everything.” Our grandfather looked up. “Anything he wanted just to give her back, but he laughed at me and claimed, once again, he had nothing to do with it.” His hand covered his prosthetic. “The truth was more than evident when he tried to have me killed. Said the meeting in Italy was to reconcile, but the last thing he said to me before he left that cafe was that karma was a son of a bitch. He’d get what he wanted, and he’d watch my world burn even if I wasn’t around to.” His head shook. “The bastard left, and the bomb went off shortly after that.”
Which meant Callum had cared more about revenge than anything else. Our grandfather had been willing to give him what he’d wanted.
I rubbed my chest, and Ares rubbed my arm. He had this look on his face, a rage heating his dark eyes.
Ramses’s lips parted. “Why didn’t you come to me, Dad?”
“I had no proof, son. Proof he took her or anything else. Not to mention, I knew you wouldn’t have seen me anyway.”
Ramses glanced away, the action of which was very telling. Ramses had talked to me about his dad, but it hadn’t been easy the one time he had. There was pain there, and though he may have gotten past that in his father’s death, that didn’t mean this was the case when our grandfather had still been alive. There was ill will just like with Callum and his own family.
“Instead, I kept my focus on searching. Trying to find my granddaughter, and the search never stopped despite time and time again coming up with nothing,” Grandpa said. “I looked for her for years discreetly, quietly. If Callum knew I was alive, who knew what he’d do to my family.”
“He was good at covering his tracks,” Ramses said. “Pretty much anyone connected to my daughter’s fake adoption he had killed.” Ramses cracked his knuckles. “He made it virtually impossible to find her.”
The dark prince had said many of the people who’d helped with my adoption had died. Ares had called that justice.
But none of us had known that justice had been murder.
These were obviously things the parents had found out during their own investigation.
My God.
“But one person who’s not so good at covering his tracks is my father,” Ramses continued, his head tilted. “And before you try to deny this, I have evidence of this too. More than one person saw your Lucas Gray leaving the room housing the hotel’s security footage. Footage that was conveniently shut off just before our people were about to move on Callum.”
Whoa.
