Page 226 of The Obedient Lie

Didn’t drop my gaze.

“It’s the least we could do for Vince,” I said. “He killed our father for locking us in those cages.”

Luca’s jaw clenched.

Rome, Cecilia, and Sofia never knew.

Not thetruth, at least.

They were told what everyone else was told—that our father took his own life. That the weight of our mothers death, the guilt, the legacy had finally crushed him. That he wentquietly.

But we knew better.

Because we saw it.

We were there.

Luca and I were just kids, but we’d learned to move like ghosts. Stay small. Stay quiet. Especially around our father. That night was no different.

We’d crept down the stairs after hearing voices—Vince’s voice.

We didn’t mean to see it. We just wanted to be close. Close to Vince. To Nik. Anywherebutalone in our room. Near someone who made the house feelsafe, even just for a second.

So we sat in the shadows in the side room to the lounge, backs to the wall.

And through the crack.

We watched Vince raise the gun.

We watched himend it.

Nik came running, holding Cecilia. Sofia screaming upstairs. Rome was asleep. None of them saw it.

But we did.

And when Damius arrived, he didn’t look at the body first. He looked at Vince.

We still hid. They thought we were upstairs asleep.

“He was going to execute him,” Luca said, quieter now. “I wassureof it. Vince looked him in the eye like hewantedit. Like he’d already made peace.”

I didn’t say anything.

Because I remembered it too.

The way Vince stood over our father’s body, shoulders squared like a man who’d finally done the one thing no one else would. His jaw was locked. His hand didn’t even tremble.

He didn’t beg.

He didn’t lie.

He just told the truth.

“I did it. He deserved worse.”

And waited.

Damius didn’t flinch. Didn’t raise his voice. Didn’t even look surprised. He just stared at Vince like he wasdeciding.