Chapter 355

Gavin’s POV

“Hey…” I said softly, as Judy’s eyes opened. She looked disoriented for a moment before she finally registered that it was me, and then her body relaxed. I could tell she was having a nightmare; she was murmuring something in her sleep that I couldn’t figure out, and she was tossing and turning, despite my efforts to calm her.

“Hey,” she whispered in return, her voice barely audible over the racing sounds of her heart.

I bent and kissed her lips lightly.

It’s been several hours since we returned home from the clinic, and only about an hour since our bath. I took her out of the bath, wrapped her in a warm towel, and then tucked her into our shared bed, all while she slept. She was peaceful for a little while, until about 30 minutes ago, when she started to toss and turn.

I brushed a strand of hair out of her face and behind her ear.

“Was it a nightmare?” I asked, not wanting to pry, but needing to know if she was okay. I could tell she was still barely awake, and I wanted her to sleep as much as she could. There was a tray of water beside her on the bedside table, thanks to Irene, so I poured her glass and brought it to her lips.

She took a small sip before resting her head back on the pillow.

“Yeah…” she replied, but then she paused as if she was thinking about it. “Maybe… I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it wasn’t. I didn’t feel like I was in any danger, but…”

Her voice trailed off, and it didn’t seem like she was going to say more.

“It’s okay… we can talk in the morning,” I assured her. “Just get some sleep.”

She nodded as she closed her eyes.

It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and I held her a bit longer to ensure that her nightmares stayed away. But I couldn’t bring myself to join her in sleep. I couldn’t get Levi’s words out of my head… that the moon gem didn’t belong to my family.

I untangled myself from Judy and climbed out of bed. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and put them on. I looked at Judy’s peaceful face one last time before leaving the room, quietly shutting the door behind me.

I found myself standing outside my father’s old office. The one I’d left untouched for years. When I inherited the villa after his death, I left most of his stuff alone. I didn’t have it in me to change anything, so I created my own office out of the unused rooms and built my own master suite.

The maids and the other staff knew to leave this room alone, so nobody had been in it since my father.

I feared what I might find on the other side of this door.

The door creaked when I opened it. The room smelled faintly of leather and dust. His desk, sleek walnut, polished, within an inch of its life, sat like a guard against the far wall. I remembered being a boy watching him behind it every deal and decision shaping the man I was supposed to become.

Now he was gone. And yet, the weight lingered.

I sank into the chair and opened the bottom drawer. Files. Too many files, neat as bones laid in rows. At first, they looked like ordinary contracts, financial reports, and legal documents. But then, tucked behind a false back, I found something else.

Articles and ledgers.

The papers were old, the ink faded, but legible. Transactions, shipments, artifacts. My father’s handwriting in the margins. And a name I hadn’t expected to see scrawled more than once.

Blackwell.

The more I read, the colder the air seemed to get. Not just mentions, but signatures. Transfers. Agreements that blurred the line between our family and theirs. And buried in the details, one entry that made my stomach drop.

Acquisition: Moon Gem. Source obscured. Reclassified as Landry property.

I stared at it until the letters blurred.

It was true…

All this time. My father knew the gem wasn’t ours by right. He’s taken it, hidden the truth under decades of wealth and power, passed it down like a crown to be polished… or at least he tried to.

I was strong enough without the stone, so I never required it. My father died before he could pass it on to me officially, so it ended up with my mother. She kept it in a lock box for all these years, waiting for the right moment to give it to me before it was stolen. But when we got it back, or when we thought we got it back, I refused it, not needing it.

That’s when she realized the stone wasn’t the same as it used to be. It lost the magic that was clear as day inside of it. It lost its aura… it wasn’t the same stone.

My hands curled into fists.

“Gavin?” A mindlink came through, and I recognized Taylor’s voice. “Sorry to bother you so late. But something arrived for you. Are you available to meet me in the foyer of your villa? I just arrived.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a second,” I replied as I continued to look through the papers. There were articles… so many articles… about the Blackwell family.

Why would my father be keeping these? It was almost like he’s been keeping tabs on them for decades, but I didn’t understand why he would care about them so much. I knew I couldn’t sit here all night and just stare at these. I could ask a million questions, but probably not get any answers.

I stood, shuffling the papers and placing them on the desk before I took a deep breath and left the office. My heart was a racing mess, and my head was clouded with thoughts.

What the fuck was my father thinking? Stealing from the Blackwell family and putting our family in jeopardy like that?

More importantly… did my mother know about this?

She couldn’t have, could she?

I walked down the stairs and into the foyer, where Taylor stood with an envelope.

“This was delivered to the packhouse for you,” he said, handing me the envelope. “It looked important, and the seal almost looks familiar. I rushed it here as soon as I could.”

“I’m sorry that this pulled you from your mate this evening,” I tell him.

Taylor and Eliza live busy lives; Eliza, being the best doctor in the world, travels more often than not. She’s highly requested in all territories, and I’m not selfish enough to keep her to myself. However, she hasn’t needed to travel for some time. She just recently opened her own clinic inside the Silver Crescent pack, instead of working at the pack hospital. It’s better that way, and she can employ whomever she wants without the fear of being spied on. After the incident of spies working in the hospital, she didn’t feel comfortable staying there, not that I could blame her.

Taylor handed me the envelope, his eyes never leaving my face as I frowned at the black wax sealing it closed.

I knew that stamp… I’ve seen it before.

It was a Blackwell stamp.

“It’s from the Blackwell family,” I murmured.

“I figured it was something important,” Taylor replied. “What do you suppose they want? They’ve been off the radar for years.”

There was only one way to find out.

I slit the seal with my thumb and pulled out the parchment that it held.

The handwriting was neat and familiar as I read the words on the paper.

Chairman Landry,

It’s time we talked. Dinner. The Blackwell Manor. Please accept the invitation.

-Zachary Blackwell.

I let out a breath as I read the address sprawled on the bottom.

“What is it?” Taylor asked, his eyes filled with worry.

“Return to your mate,” I murmured as I turned away. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

I wasn’t ready to disclose what I had found out just yet. I needed to know for certain that what I knew was true; that my father stole something from the Blackwells and that our family could potentially be in danger.

The less Taylor knew, the better.

He knew better than to argue with me right now, so he left without another word, murmuring that he’ll see me tomorrow.

I went back to my father’s office and shut the door behind me, letting out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. I returned to the desk, staring down at the papers I had left. I read the letter over and over again, deciphering every word that Zachary had written.

I eventually let the letter fall against the ledger; old lies meet fresh threats.

I knew I had no choice despite it being an invitation. He wasn’t asking me to join him for dinner… he was telling me.

The Blackwells weren’t hiding anymore. And now they wanted me at their table.