Claimed By The Mafia Rogue King (Snow and Cupid) novel Chapter 281

Chapter 281

Snowflakes

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Silence hung thick in the interrogation room, heavy as the air before a storm. Eshan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed loosely, watching Ares with the calm patience of a predator who already knew where the kill would land.

Ares sat opposite him, shoulders squared, legs crossed at the ankle, looking far too comfortable for a man who’d been summoned two hours early.

But the mask was cracking; I could see it in the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth, the way his fingers drummed once, twice, against the metal table before he caught himself.

Eshan let out a quiet sigh, almost theatrical.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he said, voice low, almost conversational. “I can’t even believe I’m sitting in the same room with you without putting my fist through your face until it bleeds. How about we talk about something else while we wait for your crazy lawyer? Like how much I’ve hated you from the first second I laid eyes on you.”

Ares wasn’t expecting the raw honesty. His eyes narrowed, but he scoffed, short, dismissive.

“I did nothing wrong to you people. Yet you hated me on sight. I’ve never met anyone so ungrateful as you Frosts.”

Eshan rolled his eyes, the gesture lazy but edged.

“Ungrateful?” He leaned forward slightly. “My whole family is in pieces because of you. Viviana… well, she’s sorting herself out somehow. Just needs someone to take the load off her shoulders and we’re done.” He said it like a small, careless secret, then snapped his mouth shut, glanced at his watch, and stood. “I should get someone to call Rusi. Stay here.”

He walked out, door clicking shut behind him with finality.

In the observation room, Mr. Gerald and I stayed frozen, eyes locked on the feed.

Ares stared at the empty chair Eshan had vacated, blank at first, then something darker swirled behind his eyes.

Tension rolled off him in waves; I could almost feel it through the glass. His posture shifted, subtle, but unmistakable. Shoulders tightening. Jaw clenching. The easy arrogance was fraying at the edges.

Eshan slipped back into the observation room beside me, arms folded, watching the same screen.

“What do you think?” he asked quietly.

“I can feel his energy shifting. He’s getting edgy.”

“Good.” Eshan rubbed his lower lip with his knuckle, thoughtful. “Let him stew. He’s already dead, he just doesn’t know it yet.”

He turned to leave, but I caught his wrist.

“Use Doctor Catina,” I whispered urgently. “He has no idea we know about her. It’ll break him.”

Eshan paused, searched my face for half a heartbeat, then gave one sharp nod.

He left.

1/3

11:33 pm PPW.

Chapter 281

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Seconds later the feed showed him re–entering the interrogation room. He sank back into his chair, casual as ever, and flicked open the file folder.

“Rusi’s on his way. Let’s wait for him.” He lifted one page, pretended to scan it. “It’s not going to work out, Ares Bani. The attack on Mr. Castle? Lame. The man’s an Alpha. You can’t suppress him because you don’t want the case to open.”

“I don’t know anything about any attack,” Ares gritted out, voice low and tight.

Eshan shrugged, unconcerned. “Hmm. What do you know, then? Certainly not about the Dark Alley case. You were just… miraculously a savior.” He made a show of pressing the intercom button, cutting the official recording for a few seconds and leaned forward, eyes locked on Ares. “Viviana told us everything.”

Ares’s head snapped up. For one raw second his mask shattered, eyes wide, pupils blown before he forced a scoff.

“Fuck you. That crazy line or trick won’t work on me. You think I was born yesterday?”

“I know you weren’t.” Eshan’s voice stayed even, almost gentle. “But I also know Viviana mentioned you. And some other… details. One doctor, in particular. We’re already working on that lead. Doctor Catina, I believe she said.”

Ares’s eyes flew open. His jaw locked so hard the muscle jumped. He tried to laugh, harsh, disbelieving but it came out strangled.

“Don’t bluff. Don’t bullshit me with that. I have nothing to do with Doctor Catina. As a matter of fact, why don’t you bring your crazy–ass sister in here and interrogate her?”

“Viviana?” Eshan barked a short, humorless laugh. “You think our father would ever let Viviana step foot in this building to be questioned? Don’t mean to brag, but you know who Grant Frost is. And you know what Viviana is to him. He raised Snow himself but left her to Vivi without blinking. You think a man like you wouldn’t be discarded for her in a heartbeat?”

Ares swallowed hard. His throat worked visibly.

“Don’t bullshit me, Eshan. Don’t you dare. All I did that night was help Snow just as I was told. You don’t bullshit me.”

The words landed like a gunshot.

The room went still.

Eshan’s smile vanished. He leaned back slowly, eyes narrowing to slits.

“Just as you were told?” His voice was dangerously soft. “I thought you were coming back from Mooncrest pack and you heroically saved my sister.”

“Yes.”

Eshan’s gaze flicked to the mirrored glass, straight at me then back to Ares. When he spoke again, the playfulness was gone.

“I know who orchestrated the rape, Ares.” He said it flat, matter–of–fact. “I can picture exactly how it happened. I know who to prosecute and who to let walk. Sitting here interrogating you doesn’t mean I don’t already know you were there that night. All of this, the files, the questions, the early summons is to build evidence that will bury you in court.”

Ares stared at him. Really stared. And in that moment I saw it. The realization sinking in like cold lead.

Eshan wasn’t bluffing. He believed me. Completely. Every word I’d spoken at the family meeting, every fractured memory I’d forced myself to share, every truth, he trusted it. He would burn whatever bridges he had to if it meant getting justice.

2/3

1:33 pm PPWN

Chapter 281

And gods, it terrified me how much that meant.

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“All I did was help Snow from being raped,” Ares said, voice lower now, almost pleading, “I know nothing more. The moment I got to the alley, the ones who attacked her had already fled. Why don’t you ask her all this?”

Eshan ignored the deflection.

“Where were you that night, Ares? The night of the incident.”

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