The Man who doesn't Trust
Aria's POV
I shoved the newspaper under my pillow just as the door burst open. Kael stormed in like an angry thundercloud, his golden eyes blazing with fury.
"Where is it?" he demanded, scanning the room like a hunting hawk.
My heart jumped into my throat, but I tried to look innocent. "Where's what?"
"Don't lie to me, Aria." His voice was low and dangerous. "I can smell the old paper and ink. You found something."
Smell? Who could smell newspaper from across a room?
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, but my voice shook like a leaf in the wind.
Kael crossed the room in three quick steps and grabbed my pillow. The newspaper fell out, unfolding like a guilty secret.
He stared at it for a long moment, his face going pale. Then he crumpled it up in his fist.
"You weren't supposed to see this," he said quietly.
"Too late." I jumped up from the bed, anger burning in my chest. "Is it true? Am I really this Mafia Princess person?"
"Yes," Kael admitted, throwing the crumpled paper into the corner. "Your name is Aria Santoro. Your father is Vincent Santoro, one of the most dangerous crime bosses on the East Coast."
The name hit me like a slap. Vincent Santoro. It should have meant something to me. Should have brought back memories of birthdays and bedtime stories and family dinners.
Instead, I felt nothing. Just a cold, empty space where love should have been.
"Then why don't I remember him?" I asked. "If he's my father, why doesn't my heart recognize his name?"
"Because you're lucky," Kael said bitterly. "Memory loss is the best thing that could have happened to you. Trust me."
"Trust you?" I laughed, but it came out harsh and angry. "You kidnapped me! You've been lying to me since I woke up! Why should I trust anything you say?"
Kael's jaw tightened. "I didn't kidnap you. I rescued you."
"From what? My own family?"
"Your family isn't what you think they are, Aria." Kael started pacing around the small room like a caged wolf. "They're murderers. Drug dealers. They hurt innocent people for money and power."
I shook my head. "I don't feel like a criminal. I can't even hurt a spider."
As if the universe wanted to prove my point, a tiny black spider chose that moment to scurry across the floor. Without thinking, I bent down and gently scooped it up in my hands.
"See?" I said, walking to the small window and carefully placing the spider on the sill. "I could have squashed it, but I didn't. Does that seem like something a dangerous criminal would do?"
Kael watched me with a strange expression. Almost... sad.
"Just because you're not like them doesn't mean they won't use you," he said softly. "Your father has been training you since you were little. Teaching you to be cold. Heartless. Like him."
"Then why can't I remember any of it?"
"Because Dr. Frost helped erase those memories. The bad ones. The ones that would have turned you into a monster."
My blood turned to ice water. "Dr. Frost did what to my brain?"
"He saved you," Kael said firmly. "He gave you a chance to be someone different. Someone better."
"By stealing my memories?" I shouted. "By taking away everything that made me who I am?"
"Everything that made you who you were was poison!" Kael shouted back. "You were being shaped into a weapon, Aria. A beautiful, deadly weapon that your father could use to destroy his enemies."
I sat down hard on the bed, my legs suddenly weak. "I don't understand. If my family is so dangerous, why did you take me? Why not just let the police handle it?"
Kael stopped pacing and stared out the small window. For a long moment, he didn't say anything. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet and full of pain.
"The police can't touch your father. He owns too many judges, too many politicians. He's untouchable."
"That still doesn't explain why you took me."
"Because someone had to stop him."
"And kidnapping his daughter was your brilliant plan?"
Kael turned away from the window and looked at me with those strange golden eyes. There was something wild in them. Something that made my skin prickle with goosebumps.
"You want the truth, Aria? The real truth?"
I nodded, even though part of me was scared to hear it.
"Your father didn't just hurt strangers. He destroyed families. Innocent families who got in his way or refused to pay his protection money."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Three years ago, your father ordered a hit on a family called the Nightshades. They ran a small business that wouldn't pay him tribute. So he had them killed. All of them."
The way he said the name Nightshades made my stomach drop. "Kael... that's your last name."
"Yes." His hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Vincent Santoro killed my parents, my little sister, and my grandmother. He burned down our house with them inside."
Tears stung my eyes. "Kael, I'm so sorry. But that wasn't me. I didn't know—"
"I know it wasn't you," he said, his voice getting rougher. "You were probably at some fancy private school, learning French and piano while my family burned."
"Then why take me? Why not go after him directly?"
Kael laughed, but it sounded broken. "You think I didn't try? Your father is surrounded by bodyguards twenty-four hours a day. He never goes anywhere alone. Never takes risks."
"So you took me to hurt him?"
"I took you to make him feel what I felt. The terror of losing someone you love. The helplessness of not being able to protect them."
My heart broke a little more with each word. "Do you... do you plan to kill me?"
Kael's golden eyes flashed with something that looked almost like pain. "I don't know. I thought I did. I planned it for months. Find Vincent Santoro's precious daughter. Make her disappear. Make him suffer."
"What changed your mind?"
"You did." He sat down on the chair across from me, his shoulders sagging with exhaustion. "When I first saw you, you were unconscious in that car. You looked so young. So innocent. Nothing like the spoiled princess I expected."
"I was really in a car crash?"
"Yes. I was tracking you, planning to grab you when you were alone. But you crashed before I could act. I had to choose between saving you or letting you die."
"And you saved me."
"I saved you," he confirmed. "But I still don't know what to do with you."
Silence stretched between us like a thick rope. I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears.
"Kael," I said finally, "why did you really bring me here? Not for revenge. The real reason."
His golden eyes met mine, and for a second, they seemed to glow brighter. Almost like they were reflecting light from somewhere else.
"Because your father killed everyone I ever loved," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "And now I need to decide if his daughter deserves the same fate."