Chapter 130: ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY

Author’s POV

Nicholas didn’t stop.

Even after Blackthorne had stopped moving, Nicholas remained standing there with the gun in his hand, his face soaked with tears and his breathing coming in uneven bursts.

He kept pulling the trigger as though his body had stopped listening to everything around him. The soldiers had already subdued Blackthorne’s men, Adrian was standing nearby, and his brothers were calling his name, but Nicholas couldn’t hear any of it properly.

Adrian finally stepped forward and caught Nicholas’s wrist, forcing his arm down before taking the gun from his hand.

Nicholas resisted for a moment without even seeming to realize what he was doing, his fingers still locked around the weapon even after Adrian had taken hold of him.

"Nicholas, enough," Adrian said firmly, pulling the gun away from him. "It’s over. He’s not going anywhere. You don’t need to keep doing this."

Nicholas stared at him blankly for a few seconds before his fingers finally loosened.

Adrian took the gun and handed it to one of the soldiers, then immediately turned back to Nicholas. The moment the weapon was gone, whatever had been keeping Nicholas upright seemed to disappear with it. He stumbled backward, then dropped to the floor and crawled toward his mother.

He reached her and immediately broke down. Nicholas carefully touched her face with trembling fingers. He looked at her for several seconds before reaching up and closing her eyes. His shoulders shook as he bent over her, unable to stop the tears that kept falling.. "I’m sorry, Mom," he whispered. "I’m so sorry."

Elijah crouched beside him, but Nicholas continued talking as though he hadn’t noticed anyone else around him. "This is my fault. If I had died when Jayden tried to kill me, none of this would’ve happened. She wouldn’t have been dragged into this. She wouldn’t have had to come here. She wouldn’t have married him, she wouldn’t have spent all those years living with him, and she wouldn’t be lying here now."

Cassian shook his head immediately. "Nicholas, stop blaming yourself for what Blackthorne did. You didn’t cause any of this."

"But she came here because of me."

Elijah held him tight, tears staining his cheeks. "She came here because our dad lied to her and had his people bring her here," Roman said, kneeling beside him. "She didn’t know what was happening. She didn’t know what he had planned, and we did not plan for this to happen. We would have put an eye on her, but we didn’t know he would come for her."

Nicholas looked at him through his tears. "If I had just died, she would’ve been safe."

Elijah held him tighter. "This isn’t your fault."

Nicholas lowered his head again.

Adrian crouched in front of him after giving the soldiers their instructions. "Your mother is coming home with us, Nicholas. We’re going to give her a proper burial, and we’re going to make sure everything is handled the way she deserves."

Nicholas wiped his face with the back of his hand, but more tears immediately replaced the ones he had wiped away. "She deserved better."

"She did," Adrian said quietly. "And that’s exactly why we’re going to make sure she gets it."

Nicholas looked at his mother again and stayed there for several more moments before Elijah helped him stand. His legs were weak, and he had to lean against his brother to keep himself upright.

None of them tried to force him to move quickly. They gave him time to look back at his mother one last time before they eventually led him away.

Before leaving the warehouse, Adrian made sure the soldiers understood what needed to happen.

Their involvement couldn’t become part of the official story, and there was no reason for Nicholas to be dragged into another investigation after everything he had already endured.

The soldiers would leave the warehouse looking as though they had simply responded to the information they had received, while Nicholas’s mother’s body would be taken away and delivered to the morgue so the family could prepare for her burial.

As Nicholas was helped toward the vehicle, one of the soldiers brought over a phone and told Adrian that the live news coverage had already begun.

Adrian looked at Nicholas, then held the phone where he could see it.

The news was reporting everything.

The evidence they had collected against Blackthorne and the other Alphas had been submitted to the media.

Names were being mentioned, companies were being investigated, and authorities were beginning to move against the people whose involvement had been exposed.

Nicholas stared at the screen without saying anything.

Adrian stood beside him. "It’s over, Nicholas."

Nicholas kept watching the screen. "The people involved can’t hide anymore," Adrian continued. "We’ve given the authorities everything they need. The evidence is out there, and the people connected to Blackthorne are going to have to answer for what they did."

Nicholas finally looked at Adrian. "What happens now?"

"Now you come home with us."

Nicholas looked back at the screen. "I—"

Adrian shook his head. "You don’t have to investigate anyone anymore. You don’t have to search for answers about him or figure out what he’s planning because he isn’t planning anything anymore. Everything he was hiding has been exposed, and the people who worked with him are going to face the consequences."

Cassian stepped closer. "You can rest now. You should rest for a while."

Nicholas nodded weakly and Adrian placed a hand on his shoulder. "And we’ll bury your mother properly. She deserves that much after everything she went through."

Nicholas didn’t answer, but he allowed them to lead him toward the car.

By the time they reached it, the exhaustion had become impossible for him to fight. He had spent hours terrified, had been beaten, threatened and held captive, then watched his mother die in front of him. He had cried until his face hurt and screamed until his throat was rough and sore. There was no energy left in him.

The moment he sat inside the car, he leaned against the seat.

Elijah sat beside him while Cassian and Roman got in as well. Adrian took the front seat, but before the car even started moving, he turned around to check on Nicholas.

Nicholas’s eyes were already closing.

"Just sleep," Adrian said. "We’ll be home soon."

Nicholas didn’t respond and within minutes, he was asleep.

The brothers remained quiet as the car drove away from the warehouse. No one wanted to disturb him, and no one had anything they could say that would make what had happened disappear.

Nicholas was taken home first.

His mother’s body was transported separately to the morgue, where it would remain until the family had made the necessary preparations for her burial. Adrian made sure everything was arranged before returning home with the others.

While Nicholas remained asleep, Adrian’s soldiers contacted the police and gave them the location of the warehouse in the middle of nowhere.

The officers arrived at the scene and immediately secured the area, but the moment they entered the warehouse, they were stunned by what they found.

There were bodies throughout the building.

The scale of the discovery shocked even the officers who had already been expecting something serious after receiving the location.

They began documenting the scene and searching through the warehouse, uncovering evidence of the illegal operations that had been taking place there.

Then one of the officers recognized a face.

The criminal they had been searching for all day was among the dead.

Blackthorne.

The realization changed the entire investigation.

The police took control of the warehouse and began securing every piece of evidence they could find. The bodies were documented, the area was sealed off, and officers began making preparations to contact the families of the deceased.

Soon, they would have to start asking questions.

And one of the families they would need to speak to was the Blackthorne family.