3rd POV

In the heart of Chicago, where the streets never truly slept, a boy named Elias grew up under the unwavering love of his father. His mother was nothing more than a faded name in his memories, an absence he had learned to live with. But his father? He was everything. A steady force. A man who filled every empty space in Elias' life with warmth. 

Elias had always been the kind of boy people gravitated toward—his laughter infectious, his energy undeniable. But among all those fleeting friendships, only one truly mattered: Noah. They weren't just best friends; they were family, bound by something deeper than blood. 

And then came Ethan. 

Ethan was older, someone Elias had met in middle school, but from the very beginning, he had been more than just a friend. He had been a protector, a guide—someone Elias admired with an intensity he didn't fully understand at the time. He looked up to Ethan like the older brother he never had. 

But fate wasn't kind. 

By the time Elias entered high school, everything changed. That was when Kai appeared—a transfer student with a quiet intensity, a hesitant smile, and a presence that made Elias feel like he had finally found something he never knew he needed. 

He fell. Hard. 

What started as friendship turned into something deeper. Something real. And for a while, it felt like they had the kind of love that could survive anything. 

Until it didn't. 

The betrayal hit like a blade to the chest. Kai had cheated. Elias didn't know with whom, and honestly, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that the person he had loved—the one person he thought he could trust—had shattered him. 

And when he thought things couldn't get worse, life threw him into a world even crueler than heartbreak. 

His father sat him down one evening, his expression unreadable, and changed everything with a single sentence: 

"Son... our family is in the mafia." 

Elias had laughed at first. Thought it was some kind of twisted joke. But the moment he saw the seriousness in his father's eyes, the laughter died in his throat. 

He had two choices: turn away or embrace it. 

Elias chose the latter. He poured every ounce of pain, every shred of betrayal, into becoming someone his enemies feared. He trained. He learned the art of control, of deception. With Noah by his side, he built something unstoppable—a force that ruled the underworld of America. 

Then came Victor. 

A stranger. A name whispered in the dark. And then—a revelation. 

Victor wasn't just another mafia leader. He was Elias' half-brother. 

And his mother? She wasn't just some forgotten woman from his father's past. She had been a queen in the underworld. A legend. And now, Victor carried her legacy in Italy. 

Elias had no choice but to follow. 

But nothing could have prepared him for what he found there. 

Kai. 

Not the boy he once knew. Not the boy he had loved. But a monster in his place. Cold, ruthless, merciless. Elias had seen him kill his own father without a flicker of emotion, had watched as the person he once held so close now stood before him as a stranger. 

And if that wasn't enough, the world delivered one final, cruel twist. 

Ethan—his protector, his family—was Kai's brother. 

Everything he had believed, everything he had known, was a lie. 

Elias didn't know what hurt more—the betrayal, the truth, or the realization that he was now standing at the edge of a war that had begun long before he was even born. 

And there was no turning back. 

The dim light flickered overhead, casting elongated shadows across the room as Elias' gaze fell on the weathered piece of paper in his hands. Victor had given it to him before leaving for Russia. 

"Read it when you're ready. But don't take too long." 

His brother's words echoed in his mind, heavy with unspoken weight. This wasn't just a letter—it was the last fragment of his mother's truth. The final piece of the puzzle he had spent years trying to solve. 

His fingers ghosted over the rough edges, the parchment old but well-preserved, as if someone had kept it safe for a moment like this. His pulse thrummed against his skin, an anxious rhythm that refused to settle. 

Did he want to know? 

The answer should have been easy. He had chased this truth for so long, searching for scraps of her existence in a past filled with holes. And now, the answers were right here—waiting. 

But something inside him hesitated. 

A nagging, gut-wrenching instinct. 

Some truths destroy more than they heal. 

He swallowed hard. His instincts had kept him alive in the ruthless world he belonged to. They had warned him of betrayal, of deception, of death. And right now, those same instincts whispered a quiet warning: 

Don't do it. 

His grip tightened around the letter. His mother had walked away from him without a word. If this was her final message, what were the chances it would bring comfort rather than devastation? 

Elias shut his eyes, inhaling deeply. 

Then, with a decisive flick, he broke the seal. 

The parchment unfolded in his hands, the ink slightly faded but still legible. And as his eyes scanned the first words, his breath caught in his throat. 

"My dearest son," 

A salutation so simple—so gentle—yet it struck him like a blade to the chest. 

His mother's voice, long buried in the echoes of his past, came alive through those words. And suddenly, he wasn't sure he was ready for what came next. 

The words blurred before his eyes. 

Elias swallowed hard, fingers gripping the parchment so tightly it threatened to tear. His breath hitched as he read the first line: 

"As these words reach you, I know that I am no longer a part of this world." 

He exhaled slowly, willing his hands to stop trembling. She was dead. That much he had accepted. But seeing it in writing—acknowledging that she had prepared for this moment—made it feel unbearably final. 

Still, he forced himself to read on. 

"It is a bittersweet realization, for it signifies that your big brother, Victor, has succeeded in fulfilling the promise he made to me." 

His jaw clenched. Victor. His brother had known everything. Kept it from him. He told himself he wasn't surprised, but deep down, the bitterness curled in his chest like a slow-burning flame. 

Elias' breath shallowed as his mother's words unraveled the past he had never known, the reasons behind her absence, her desperate attempt to justify the abandonment that had shaped his entire existence. 

"I understand that you must be burdened with countless questions, but the most pressing one undoubtedly revolves around why I seemingly abandoned you." 

He scoffed under his breath, his grip on the paper tightening. Seemingly? As if the pain of being left behind was just a misunderstanding. 

And yet... a part of him wasn't ready to hate her. 

His eyes darted back to the next line, and as he read, the room seemed to close in on him. 

"I entered this world as a girl in the vibrant city of Milan..." 

The story unfolded in sharp, vivid strokes—his mother, a girl once untouched by violence, thrust into a world of blood and vengeance. He could picture her at fifteen, watching her parents die in a crossfire, even though not the same way he had lost his everything. The same hunger for revenge that had consumed him had burned within her too.  

Elias dragged a hand through his hair, fingers tangling in the strands. 

This wasn't just some absent mother making excuses. This was a woman forged by the very world that had shaped him. 

As he continued, a cold wave of nausea crept up his spine. 

"Your father's obsession with me fueled a sinister plan all along. Vulnerable and unsuspecting, I had unwittingly walked into his trap." 

He stopped breathing. 

"By then, he had already orchestrated the death of my husband and the abduction of Victor." 

The letter trembled in his grasp. His father—his father—had done this? Not just to some nameless victims, not just as a consequence of the life they lived, but to her? 

To his own love? 

A sharp, stifled breath escaped him, his vision momentarily swimming. He had always known his father was a ruthless man. But this—this was different. 

"He kept me captive for a year." 

His stomach lurched. He nearly stopped reading. 

But his mother's words held him in place, binding him like chains. 

"And then, in the midst of this captivity, I learned that I carried you within me." 

He blinked rapidly, his chest tightening. 

She had loved him. Despite it all—despite the nightmare she had been trapped in—she had still wanted him. 

His vision blurred, but he forced himself to keep reading. 

"The day you were born marked a tumultuous juncture—your father declared you stillborn."  

A quiet, choked sound slipped from his throat. 

That son of a bitch. 

Elias' heart pounded violently against his ribs, his fingers crumpling the edges of the letter. All these years, he had thought she left him willingly. That she had cast him aside. 

But no. 

She had fought. 

She had believed he was dead. 

His breath hitched as his eyes scanned the next lines, desperation creeping in. His mother had escaped. She had fought her way back to Victor. She had lived. 

And she had searched for him. 

"Years passed, and the revelation of your continued existence reached my ears. Yet, even in this moment of hope, destiny played its hand." 

His throat constricted. 

She never got the chance. 

She had died before she could find him. Before she could tell him herself. 

Elias' hands shook violently now, and he cursed under his breath, wiping at his stinging eyes. 

He wasn't sure how much time had passed by the time he reached the final lines. 

"If it lies within your heart, my dear son, find a way to forgive the mistakes of your fallible mother." 

A bitter laugh escaped him, wet and broken. Forgiveness? 

He wasn't sure if he could. Not yet. 

But for the first time in his life, he wasn't consumed by hatred either. 

The last words struck him deep, cutting through the walls he had built around his heart. 

"You remain forever etched in my heart as my little bear." 

He inhaled sharply, pressing the letter against his forehead, as if trying to absorb her presence from the ink itself. 

"With a heart heavy with regrets and love, 

 Your unworthy mother, 

 Roseanne"  

The letter trembled in Elias' grasp, its weight far heavier than the ink and parchment it was made of. A single tear slid down his cheek, smudging the delicate script, yet he barely noticed. The words on the page burned into his mind, rewriting everything he had ever known. 

His mother's words—so full of sorrow, regret, and love—felt like a dagger plunged into his chest.

Could it be true? 

Could his father, the man who had raised him, concealed such a monstrous truth all his life? 

His breath came in short, uneven bursts, as if the air itself had thickened around him. His father had been his anchor, the one constant in a life filled with uncertainty. The man who had wiped his tears, guided his steps, and taught him how to navigate the ruthless world they lived in. 

How could that same man have orchestrated a lie so profound? 

A fresh wave of disbelief crashed over him, threatening to pull him under. 

The memories fought back—the quiet moments of understanding, the lessons whispered in the dead of night, the strength he had inherited. Was it all tainted? A carefully constructed illusion designed to keep him blind? 

He gritted his teeth. 

No. 

It couldn't be that simple. 

His mother was gone, her voice preserved only in this letter, yet the doubt she had planted was already spreading like a slow-growing poison. Could she be lying? Twisting the truth from beyond the grave to turn him against his father? The notion seemed absurd, but the seed of uncertainty had already been sown. 

His chest ached with the weight of two warring truths. 

On one side, a mother who had fought for vengeance, been broken and manipulated, yet still claimed to love him. On the other, a father who had stood by him through every storm—but whose hands, if this letter spoke the truth, were stained with blood and betrayal. 

The room felt smaller. Colder. 

Elias ran a hand through his hair, gripping at the strands as if grounding himself. He wanted—needed—to believe that his father had been honest with him. That the man who had raised him wasn't capable of such extent cruelty. 

But the cracks had already formed. 

For the first time, Elias saw the past through a different lens. Every unanswered question, every evasion, every moment that had felt slightly off—it all came rushing back. Had the truth been there all along, lurking in the shadows, waiting for him to notice? 

The realization hit him like a punch to the gut. 

He had been played. 

A pawn in a game he hadn't even known he was part of. 

The weight of it all pressed down on him, suffocating, unbearable. His grip on the letter tightened, his nails digging into the fragile paper. A part of him wanted to rip it apart, to erase the words that had shattered his world. 

But he couldn't. 

He had been given the truth—or at least one version of it—and now, there was no turning back. 

Elias exhaled, slow and shaky. His vision swam with unshed tears, but he forced himself to stand, to breathe, to think. 

He wasn't a child anymore. 

If there was one thing he had learned in this ruthless world, it was that loyalty should never be blind. 

He had spent his life walking in the footsteps of a man he had trusted without question. Now, for the first time, he had to ask himself—had he been walking in the wrong direction all along? 

The storm inside him hadn't settled, but one thing had changed. 

He was no longer lost. 

He was searching. 

And no matter how painful the answers might be—he would find them. 

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Hey everyone,

Wow. This chapter was intense, and I know it probably left you with more questions than answers. Elias' world has just been turned upside down, and now, he's standing at the edge of a truth that could change everything. His journey from here won't be easy—betrayal, deception, and the weight of the past are all clawing at him. But one thing is certain: he won't rest until he uncovers the truth.

Writing this chapter was a rollercoaster. I wanted you to feel Elias' emotions—the disbelief, the anger, the gut-wrenching realization that the people he trusted most may not have been who he thought they were. This isn't just about revenge or survival anymore; it's about identity, about breaking free from the chains of the past to find his own path.

As always, thank you for being here, for reading, and for diving into this world with me. Your support, thoughts, and theories mean everything! I'd love to hear what you think—whose side are you on? Can Elias ever truly trust anyone again? What would you do in his place? Let's talk! 

See you in the next chapter—things are only going to get darker. 😈✨

— Ashley