Free Web NovelChapter 250: Chapter 250: The Letter
Damian’s POV
They were still in the sitting room when he came back.
Damon had moved from the floor to the sofa. Silas was in the same chair. Eve had her legs pulled up under her and a cup of tea she’d made at some point that she wasn’t drinking.
They all looked at him when he walked in.
He put both letters on the table.
The new one they’d already seen. The old one sat beside it.....same handwriting, same paper weight, same precise spacing. Thirty two years between them and you couldn’t tell from looking.
Nobody spoke.
Damon looked at the old envelope. Then at Damian.
"Same person," he said.
"Same person," Damian confirmed.
Silas looked at the date.
Eve looked at Damian’s face.
"What does it say," she said.
He sat down. Picked it up.
Read it to them.
It wasn’t long.
Two pages but the writing was spaced, like it was written by someone who chose words carefully and didn’t fill space for the sake of it. The kind of letter you wrote when you meant every line.
It started with a name.
Not V’s name. Their father’s. Aldric.
Aldric.
I’m writing because I think you already know what I’m going to say and I think you’ve been waiting for someone to say it. So I will.
What happened to the Seraphim line was not an accident. You know that. I know that. The difference between us is that you were there and I was not and you have been carrying that distinction ever since.
Damian paused.
The room was very quiet.
He kept reading.
I don’t write to assign blame. I write because the child is alive. I confirmed it three weeks ago through a source I trust completely. She is alive and she is hidden and whoever is keeping her hidden is doing it well enough that Malachai hasn’t found her yet.
He will keep looking.
I don’t know how long the hiding holds.
What I know is that when it stops holding someone needs to be ready. Someone who knew Azrael. Someone who knew Lilith. Someone who understood what they were building and why it mattered and who will not look at their daughter and see a problem to be managed.
I think that person is you.
I think you’ve known it was you since the night it happened.
Write back or don’t. But know that I am watching and I will keep watching and when the time comes I will come out of wherever I am and I will stand for her. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Because her mother asked me to.
— V
He set the letter down.
The sitting room held it.
Nobody moved.
Damon was staring at the table. Not at the letter, the expression on his face was the one he wore when something had hit him hard enough that the easy warmth had gone quiet and what was underneath it was visible.
Silas had his elbows on his knees and his hands folded and his head slightly bowed. Processing.
Eve.
Damian looked at Eve.
She was looking at the letter. Both of them, the old one and the new one sitting side by side on the table. Her face was.....still. Not the performed stillness of someone holding themselves together. Just. Still. The way a person went still when something landed that was too large for an immediate reaction.
Because her mother asked me to.
V had known Eve’s mother.
Had been asked by her mother. Specifically. To watch. To wait. To stand for Eve when the time came.
That was not a political ally.
That was something else entirely.
"She knew," Eve said.
Quiet. Almost to herself.
"Your mother," Damian said.
"She knew something was coming," Eve said. "She asked someone to watch for me." She paused. "Before it happened. She was already asking."
Lilith Seraphim at twenty six with a day-old child
And before any of it, had written a letter to someone she trusted. A contingency. A person assigned to watch for a daughter who might one day need watching for.
Damian looked at his brothers.
Damon still wasn’t looking up.
"Dad knew," Damon said.
"Yes," Damian said.
"He knew she was alive." Damon looked up now. "Eve was alive and hidden and he knew and he never...." He stopped. Jaw tight. "He never said anything. To any of us."
"He was protecting the truth," Silas said.
"I know why he did it Silas."
"Damon."
"I know why." Damon’s voice was controlled. Barely. "Doesn’t mean I’m not sitting here right now feeling a certain way about it."
Nobody argued with that.
Because it was true. Their father had known. For however long....from the moment he received this letter or before it, from the night it happened....he had known Eve was alive and he had kept it. Had sat across from his sons for years and kept it a secret, and had died keeping it.
Damian understood it.
He still felt the weight of it.
"He couldn’t tell us," Silas said. "Three sons. Any one of us could have said something without meaning to. To the wrong person, at the wrong time." A pause. "One slip and Malachai finds her."
"I know," Damon said again.
"He kept it to keep her safe," Silas said.
"I know Silas." Damon looked at him. "I said I know. I’m allowed to feel this way about it anyway."
Silas looked at him and nodded
Eve picked up the old letter.
Read it herself. All the way through. Set it back down.
Looked at the new one beside it.
"V has been watching for two decades," she said. "Waiting for the right moment." She paused. "The hearing was the moment."
"Yes," Damian said.
"She knew my mother, and your father trusted her enough to keep her letter for twenty years, that’s not nothing."
"No," Damian said.
"So we respond," Eve said.
Damon looked at her.
"We don’t know who she is," he said. "We don’t know what she wants. We don’t know if any of this is real or if it’s a very good letter written by someone who did their research." He paused. "Your mother is dead. She can’t confirm she asked V to do anything. Your father is dead. He can’t confirm he trusted her." A pause. "All we have is paper."
Eve looked at him.
"You think it’s Malachai," she said.
"I think it could be," Damon said. "I think we can’t rule it out just because the letter is convincing." He paused. "Convincing letters are exactly what a man like Malachai would send."
