?Chapter 25: The Face of the Ghost

                                        

                                              

Dominic's POV

He stormed the building like a man possessed.
Ivan's safehouse on the Lower West Side unmarked, heavily guarded, supposedly impenetrable.
It burned in under ten minutes.
Dominic stepped over the bodies of Ivan's men, his black boots slick with blood. His focus was razor-sharp. Nothing touched him. Not the smoke, not the flames, not the bullets.
Only one thought beat in his mind, Aria. He prayed he wasn't too late, he would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. 
And then he saw her.
Through the cracked door at the end of the hall, cuffed to a rusted bed frame, Weak, Pale, But alive. Thank Goodness. 
His heart stopped and restarted in a second. He ran.
"Aria—!"
Her head turned sharply, eyes wide. "Dominic!"
He dropped to his knees beside her, yanking the cuffs loose. She collapsed into his arms, sobbing into his chest.
"You came," she whispered.
He held her close, burying his face in her hair. "Always."
But before he could stand before he could carry her out 
The door creaked again.
He turned, gun raised.
And froze.
⸻
The woman in the doorway was older now. Her dark hair streaked with gray. Her eyes like his eyes, sharp and cutting.
Juliette Voss.
His mother.
The woman he buried in his memories years ago.
The woman who'd vanished when he was sixteen.
The woman whose death had broken him, shattered him, carved him into the weapon Ivan had once wielded.
Alive.
Standing before him.
"I never thought I'd see you again," she said softly.
Dominic's fingers trembled on the trigger.
"You're dead," he whispered.
"I was, to you. It was easier that way."
"Why?" The word exploded from his mouth like a bullet.
Juliette stepped closer. "Because I couldn't protect you. Because I knew what Ivan would make you into, Because I helped him... once."
Aria pulled away slowly, watching both of them, Silent, Shock writing over her face. 
"You helped Ivan?" Dominic's voice cracked. "He used me, Molded me, Destroyed every ounce of softness I had, You let him?"
Juliette didn't flinch. "I thought if I gave him you, he'd leave the rest of us alone. He promised he wouldn't touch your father. But he lied."
Dominic shook his head. "You fed me to him. You left me."
"I left because I couldn't face what you were becoming."
He took a step forward. "You abandoned me when I needed you most. You created the man I became. You don't get to come back now."
"I never stopped watching. I kept tabs, I didn't know he would take the girl. That wasn't part of the deal."
"Oh, now you draw lines?" Dominic said 
Juliette looked at Aria. Her expression softened. "You remind me of someone I used to be, I told them not to hurt you. But you were leverage."
Aria said nothing. Her hand was on her stomach, protective. Her eyes burned with betrayal.
⸻
Dominic's gun lowered. But his heart was unraveling.
All these years, he believed his mother was dead. That her disappearance had been fate.
Instead, it was strategy.
And now he saw it — the truth behind the masks.
He wasn't just made by Ivan.
He was offered.
He stumbled back a step, suddenly lightheaded. All the blood, all the power, all the control — it meant nothing.
He was the boy again.
The one left in the dark. Crying for someone who never came back.
Juliette tried to touch his shoulder.
He recoiled. "Don't."
Her hand dropped. "This isn't the end. You're not him, Dominic."
"Yes," he said, voice dead. "I am."
⸻
The building behind them crumbled. He carried Aria out through smoke and chaos, never looking back.
Juliette remained in the ruins, watching them go.
Whether Dominic would ever forgive her...
Whether Aria could ever trust her...
That storm had only begun to build.