He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 326

326

Thaisy’s POV)

Every single person in that field was looking at me.

Not glancing. Not checking in occasionally. Full, sustained, unblinking attention, from an entire army currently on its knees and from Nice’s group standing off to the side, and I stood there in the middle of it feeling like the punchline to a joke nobody had bothered explaining to me first.

So I did the only reasonable thing available to a person in my exact situation.

I pinched myself.

Hard. On the arm, right through my sleeve, testing the theory that maybe, somewhere around the stadium chase or the fraud charge or possibly the taser incident, I’d actually fallen asleep and my brain had simply started generating increasingly unhinged content to fill the time It hurt. Genuinely, real–worl

hurt, the kind dreams don’t usually bother simulating.

I pinched myself again anyway. Science required a second data point.

Everyone kept staring while I did this. The kneeling men. Nico’s men. All of them, watching me assault my own arm like it was somehow the strangest thing that had happened tonight, which, considering the actual competition, felt deeply unfair.

“Daisy.”

Archer’s voice. I heard it clearly enough.

I did not turn around. I had a working theory in progress and I intended to see it through.

Because here was the thing – the last several months of my life had been objectively, undeniably insane, Kidnapped by mistake. Shot twice. Chased through a stadium. Accused of bank fraud. Discovering my roommate was a criminal mastermind. All of that, somehow, felt more manageable than this. At least that chaos had made a kind of terrible sense once you squinted at it.

This didn’t make sense from any angle at all.

‘Daisy.”

My mother’s voice this time, closer, real hands closing around my shoulders and shaking me gently until I finally, actually looked at her.

“Mom. The word cracked out of me, and I gripped her arms like she might be the only stable thing left standing in this entire field. “Mom, what is going

on?

She held my gaze steady.

Calm down, Daisy. I know you re panicking. And it’s my fault, I could have prepared you for this a long time ago. She glanced briefly at the men still kneeling. Not this, specifically. But the world you’ve just been pulled into. I could have told you about your father. About everything. I didn’t.”

Bet grip on me tightened slightly.

I need you to be strong right now. This is real. All of it. You are his blood, Daisy. His first child. You inherit this – this entire mad, terrible heritage, whether either of us wanted that or not. Those men kneeling in front of you aren’t performing. It’s genuine”

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Chapter 326

“But Mom-

Daisy. She cut me off, gentle but immovable. “You have to make a decision. I’m sorry this is happening this fast, with almost no explanation. I truly am. Be you have to decide now.”

“What decision? The words came out stuttered, thin.

ooked at me, intense but not unkind, holding that look like it was the only thing keeping either of us upright.

have to decide what happens next. I don’t want to overwhelm you further, but our fate; everyone’s fate, every single person standing on this ground now is in your hands.”

don’t think you should push her into this.”

Adrian’s voice, low, worn thin by blood loss and everything else tonight had cost him.

My mother turned toward him.

“No, she said. “This is the reality. She has to do this.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, something unspoken passing between them, until DeLucafinally leaned back, not retreating exactly, just easing the pressure of his objection without fully surrendering it.

My mother arned back to me.

“Mom. My voice shook badly now, my whole body trembling with it. “What are you saying? I’m shaking. I can’t even-

I know.” She took both my hands in hers, steady despite everything. “I know, Daisy. But this is the truth. You decide what the next second holds. You decide whether our enemies finally answer for everything.”

0

The pause that followed stretched too long, too deliberate, tension coiling tighter with every second of silence.

“You decide,‘ she said, “if we’re going to leave here alive today…”

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He has another daughter. The younger man swallowed hard enough that I saw his throat move from here. “His first child. He has two daughters.”

‘Twa?”

“Yes.”

The younger man’s finger lifted, pointing directly at me.

Every nerve in my body locked at once. I felt the tremor start somewhere in my chest and spread outward until my whole body was shaking with it, and some very small, very unhelpful part of my brain thought, of course. Of course it’s me. Why would tonight give me a single break.

DeLuca moved instantly, stepping in front of me despite the blood still soaking through his side, a shield nobody in that field could have mistaken for anything else.

The conversation didn’t stop.

“Volkov had her before Aria,” the younger man continued. That’s what I heard. She’s been away this whole time.”

The older survivor – the one who’d first confirmed Volkov’s death – went still, recognition dawning visibly across his face.

“He’s right,” he said slowly. “I remember now. That’s her mother standing beside her. I was there when Volkov said it himself. She’s the one.”

I wanted, badly, to disappear. There was no version of this field that came with an exit for that particular wish.

The hoarse–voiced man turned his full attention back to me, something in his expression recalculating in real time.

“So she’s truly his daughter.”

“Yes, the older man confirmed. His first seed.”

The hoarse man’s features shifted, the aggression in them settling into something quieter, heavier.

‘His first blood, he murmured.

“What is your name?”

His voice carried the whole distance between us, and it hit me like a physical thing,/panic spiking so fast I nearly lost my footing.

“That’s none of your business, Deluca said, still shielding me.

“I was talking to you, boy.”

The hoarse–voiced man a eyes stayed locked on me, ignoring Deluca completely.

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