Lethal Temptation (by Michelle Ray) novel Chapter 203

203 The Daughter’s Truth

Lucian

We waited in the hospital hallway, pacing, silent, unraveling.

Lacy sat in a corner, her face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking with every sob. My father’s eyes were bloodshot. He looked like a man grappling with the impossible-like he had just watched a ghost walk out

of his reach.

He didn’t expect her to actually go through with it.

“Does anyone have her phone?” he asked suddenly, voice tight and cracking at the edges.

We all looked at each other-no one had thought of that.

I called Jason. Told him to grab Martha’s phone from her room and bring it to the hospital. While we waited, the air thickened with tension. No one spoke. Lacy kept crying. My father kept pacing.

“Do you know her password?” he asked Lacy sharply.

She nodded, barely lifting her head. Her voice was small. “It’s your birthday.”

That hit him. Hard. He didn’t say anything, but it was obvious-he wasn’t ready for that answer.

Jason arrived and handed me the phone. I gave it to Lacy, and she unlocked it with trembling fingers. My father snatched it from her hands and began scrolling.

Seconds passed. Then his hands started to shake-violently.

“Give it to me,” I said, gently but firmly, and took the phone from him. Darian moved beside me, silent and pale, looking over my shoulder.

We read in silence. The messages were worse than we imagined.

You think that little sum you sent will stop me from hurting your son and his daughter? Think again, Martha.

You’ll pay for betraying me.

b***h! Why aren’t you picking up? I said the money had to be complete or I swear I’ll do what I promised. Guess living with that over-privileged fool made you forget what I’m capable of.

You sent a private assassin after me? I hope his death was clear enough. I’m unstoppable, Martha. Pay up-

or I finish what I started.

My grip on the phone tightened.

Darian backed away like the words themselves had struck him. My father just stood there, looking like the floor beneath him had disappeared.

There were dozens of messages-hundreds, maybe. All from different numbers, all from the same

venomous voice. Threats. Demands. Promises of pain.

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<203 The Daughters Truth

As I kept scrolling, the weight of it sank in. She wasn’t lying. Not exaggerating. She was drowning in fear, and no one-none of us-had truly listened.

I glanced at my father. His jaw clenched, eyes red, face torn between fury and guilt.

“She should’ve told the truth,” he said quietly, voice hollow. “We could’ve helped her.”

“You wouldn’t have!” Lacy snapped, rising suddenly. Her voice cracked like lightning in the still hallway. We

all turned to her, stunned.

“She was just a tool to you,” she continued, trembling with rage and heartbreak. “You wouldn’t have helped her. You would’ve judged her like you always did. She wasn’t perfect-but she loved you. In her own way.

She tried.”

My father opened his mouth, but Lacy pressed on, years of pain pouring out.

“We were starving,” she said. “I remember nights she didn’t eat just so I could. My father refused to send us money, and she worked herself to the bone in Kentville just to keep us alive. You don’t know what Alaric put her through-not from the beginning.”

She looked at each of us, her voice steady now, like she’d made peace with the ugliness of it all.

“She was trapped, forced into marriage with her pimp. She had a daughter by him. Me.”

There was a collective gasp. Even my father stumbled back a step.

“What?” he breathed.

Lacy wiped her tears, shoulders rising with a deep, bitter breath.

“Yeah. Martha is my mother. And Alaric Moongrove is my biological father.”

My father looked like she’d slapped him. But she didn’t stop.

“He forced her into marriage when she was young. She tried to run. Again and again. And every time, he caught her and punished her. Those scars on her back? Not from boarding school. Silver burns. From him.”

She paused, letting the silence stretch until it hurt.

“He sold her. Pimped her out. Controlled every part of her life. That job at the hotel? Not a choice. He sent her there to keep her in line. Threatened to kill her parents if she didn’t obey.”

She swallowed hard before dropping the final bomb.

“When she got pregnant with me, he sent her to Kentville. Forgot about us. Until you came along. Then he

saw an opportunity.”

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