Lady Valeria POV
"Hello, Valeria."
My dead husband's voice froze my blood. Marcus stood at the end of the pier like a ghost come back to haunt us, and all I could do was stare in shock.
"Father?" Selene whispered beside me. "But... but you're dead. We had your funeral. I threw flowers on your grave."
Marcus stepped closer, and the pier lights showed his face clearly. He looked older, with gray in his hair and lines around his eyes. But it was definitely him. The man I had lost for five years. The man I had loved and hated and finally learned to live without.
"I had to disappear," he said calmly, like faking his own death was no big deal. "It was the only way to complete my plan."
"Your plan?" I found my voice at last, and it came out like broken glass. "You've been alive this whole time? While your daughter cried herself to sleep for months? While I had to run the business alone? While our family fell apart?"
"I did what was necessary."
"Necessary?" The word burst out of me. "You abandoned your own family!"
"I saved my family!" His voice got louder. "Do you have any idea what the Blackwoods were going to do to us? They weren't just trying to steal our business, Valeria. They were going to destroy us totally. Make us homeless. Ruin our name forever."
I stared at him, remembering those terrible months after the shipping contract event. How we'd almost lost everything. How I'd had to fight tooth and nail to keep us from going bankrupt. "So you decided to fake your death and frame them for terrorism?" I asked.
"I chose to make them pay for what they did. And to make sure they could never hurt us again."
Selene stepped forward, tears running down her face. "How could you do this to me? To us? I mourned you. I missed you every single day."
"I missed you too, sweetheart. But it had to be done."
"No, it didn't!" she shouted. "You chose revenge over your own daughter!"
Marcus looked hurt by her words, but I felt no pity for him. He'd made his choice five years ago when he decided his hate was more important than his family.
"Selene," he said softly, "you don't understand what they put us through. What they cost us."
"I understand perfectly," Arius said, speaking for the first time since we'd found Marcus was alive. "My family thought you were dead. We cried with your family. My father sent flowers to your funeral."
Marcus laughed bitterly. "Your father sent flowers? How generous of him, given he's the reason I had to disappear in the first place."
"What are you talking about?" Arius's father stepped forward from behind us. I hadn't even noticed him arrive with his own protection team.
"Don't pretend you don't know, Richard." Marcus's voice turned cold as ice. "The Riverside accident. Twenty-three families destroyed. Three people dead from heart attacks. All because you couldn't stand losing one shipping deal."
"The Riverside accident was investigated," Richard Blackwood said firmly. "Both our companies were cleared of any wrongdoing."
"Were we? Or did you just have better lawyers?"
The two men stared at each other across the pier, five years of hate crackling between them like electricity.
"Enough!" I stepped between them. "Both of you, stop! This isn't fixing anything!"
"Actually," Marcus said with a cold smile, "this is solving everything. Tonight, both families learn the truth about what really happened five years ago."
"What truth?" Selene asked.
Marcus pulled out his phone and showed us a movie. "Watch."
The screen showed a meeting room from five years ago. I recognized it as the conference room where the big shipping deal had been discussed. On the video, I could see Richard Blackwood talking to several other business leaders.
"We can't let the Moonstones get this contract," video-Richard was saying. "If we have to bend the truth a little to stop them, so be it. A few small companies might get hurt, but that's business."
My heart sank. If this video was real, it showed the Blackwoods had deliberately caused the Riverside accident.
"This is fake," Richard said instantly. "I never said those words."
"Didn't you?" Marcus hit a button, and the video continued. "Watch what happens next."
On screen, Richard was shaking hands with a man I didn't know. "Make sure the Moonstones look responsible for the Riverside situation," he said clearly. "Whatever it takes."
I stared at the video in shock. If it was real, it meant the Blackwoods had not only caused the crash but had also framed us for it.
But if it was fake, it meant Marcus had become very good at creating false proof.
"You're lying," Arius said, his voice full of pain. "My father wouldn't do that."
"Wouldn't he?" Marcus asked. "Ask him yourself."
All eyes turned to Richard Blackwood. He stood there in the pier lights, looking older than I'd ever seen him.
"Well?" I asked. "Is it true?"
Richard looked at his kid, then at me, then at Marcus. "Some of it," he said quietly.
"Father?" Arius's voice was barely a whisper.
"I never meant for people to get hurt. I just wanted to win the deal. But when things went wrong at Riverside, I... I let people think it was the Moonstones' fault."
The statement hit us all like a physical blow. Selene grabbed my arm for support. Arius looked like someone had punched him in the stomach.
"You see?" Marcus said proudly. "This is the man your kid idolizes. A liar and a cheat who wrecks innocent families."
"And what does that make you?" I asked my husband. "You faked your own death. You let your daughter think she was an orphan. You tried to blame both families for terrorism tonight. How are you any better?"
Marcus's smile faded. "I did what I had to do to protect our family."
"No," Selene said, wiping tears from her eyes. "You did what you wanted to do to get payback. There's a difference."
"Selene—"
"Don't." She held up her hand to stop him. "You're not my father anymore. My father died five years ago. You're just a stranger who looks like him."
Marcus looked like she'd slapped him. "I did this for you. For us."
"You did this for yourself."
That's when I heard the sound that made my blood freeze.
Sirens. Lots of them. Coming closer.
"What's that?" Arius asked.
Marcus smiled coldly. "Insurance. I told the cops exactly where to find the Blackwood and Moonstone families meeting secretly with a known terrorist."
"You called us in?" Richard demanded.
"I called myself in. As far as the cops know, I'm the victim here. The innocent man who faked his death to escape from two dangerous families that were trying to kill him."
My heart stopped. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that in five minutes, you'll all be jailed for conspiracy, terrorism, and attempted murder. And I'll be the hero who helped catch you."
The alarms were getting louder.
"But there's one problem with your plan," a new voice said from behind us.
We all spun around to see Maya, the family peacemaker, walking toward us with her own recording device.
"I've been recording this entire conversation," she said calmly. "Including your confession that you faked your death, planned the attacks tonight, and are framing both families."
Marcus's face went white. "You... how did you..."
"I've been investigating the link between both families and the Riverside accident for months. I knew someone was manipulating both sides, but I never guessed it was a dead man."
The police cars were pulling up to the pier now, their red and blue lights flashing in the darkness.
"Maya," I said urgently, "can you prove our innocence?"
"I can prove Marcus planned everything. But there's still the question of what Richard Blackwood did five years ago."
"I'll face the consequences for that," Richard said softly. "But my family shouldn't suffer for my mistakes."
"Noble," Marcus snorted. "Too bad it's too late."
That's when the first police officer stepped onto the pier.
"Everyone stop! Hands where we can see them!"
As the officers surrounded us, I realized we were all stuck. Marcus had planned this perfectly. Even with Maya's recording, it would be our word against his. And he'd had five years to prepare his story.
But then I saw something that made my heart race with hope.
Selene and Arius were stood next to each other, their hands almost touching.
Two young people from enemy homes, united by love in the face of hatred.
Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough to save us all.