Revenge: A Path of Destruction
Chapter 139: Lauren Blackwood (3)

Chapter 139: Lauren Blackwood (3)

Dominus and Martha eventually began to investigate the situation themselves. They contacted Lauren’s friends—those who had accompanied her to the Thunder Domain.

One by one, the pieces began to fall into place.

Even her friends were stunned by her reaction to the news of the clan’s destruction. They had never seen Lauren cry before—never even seen her frown in a way that hinted at vulnerability.

To them, she had always been composed, unreachable, a girl of ice and focus. Hearing that she had locked herself in her room and broken down was something none of them could process.

Dominus and Martha were equally confused. A boy, single boy had caused this?

But Lauren emerged from her room a few days later before they could confront her.

At first glance, she looked... normal, as if nothing had happened.

But Martha saw it immediately. Her daughter’s already-cold expression had become colder. The walls Lauren had built around herself were now higher, thicker, and impenetrable.

She resumed her routine without issue. Trained even harder than before. She studied more, ate properly, and even offered to accompany Dominus to the association on occasion.

To Dominus, this was a good sign. She was back on her feet, more driven than ever.

"She’s finally taking things seriously," he said one evening. "This is good for her."

But Martha wasn’t fooled.

Every time she asked if Lauren was okay, the girl would reply instantly:

"I’m okay, Mum."

With that same smile. Tight. Forced. Empty.

Martha recognized it for what it was—a mask.

She couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t bring the dead back to life. All she could do was watch—and worry.

What terrified her most wasn’t Lauren’s silence or her newfound drive. It was the way her daughter had buried her grief, locked it away behind layers of cold logic and discipline. Martha feared where that pain might lead her. Especially if it turned to vengeance.

After all, first love was no small thing. It could heal but also ruin, especially when torn away from a girl who is just opening up to the world around her.

Still... over time, her fears began to ease.

Little by little, the cracks began to show—not the cracks of a broken girl, but signs of healing. Lauren started smiling again, occasionally, genuinely. She laughed with her friends. She stopped isolating herself.

She even tolerated the company of boys—something she had never done before.

Martha’s heart slowly began to believe her daughter was moving on.

That maybe... just maybe... she had grown past the pain of Alex’s death.

That maybe the boy who had somehow found his way into her heart had finally left it.

But Martha had been wrong.

So wrong.

Lauren had never moved on.

The pain hadn’t lessened. It had deepened.

And behind her carefully constructed facade, she had already begun to plan. Quietly. Meticulously.

The Higher Clans would pay for what they had done.

She would not strike now—not while she was still too weak.

But one day, she would rise.

And when that day came, her pretense would end... and the world would finally understand what it meant to wound a girl who had only ever known how to endure.

As they said, First love is a honeyed poison: sweet in taste, deadly in effect.

----

Back in the present—inside the meeting hall—

Lauren stared at the holographic image in front of her, her expression frozen in shock. The murmurs and whispers around the room faded into a distant hum, as though the world had gone quiet just for her.

There he was.

Alex.

The image displayed a version of him that was older, colder, and emotionless. But she knew. She could see through the expressionless face, see the weight in his eyes. The pain. The isolation. It pressed against her like a wave.

And yet... beneath it all, a powerful, raw sense of relief surged through her chest.

For years, she had carried a grief that refused to fade—haunted by dreams of the day he left, tortured by the thought that she hadn’t stopped him. She had cried silently, behind closed doors, wishing for just one more moment.

Now he was alive.

He’s alive.

Her heart beat wildly, just like it had the first time they met.

She didn’t notice the stares. She didn’t hear the silence that had fallen over the room. She didn’t even register her father’s voice the first time.

"Lauren," Dominus said again, sharper. "What are you thinking about? You’ve been staring at that image for a while now. Care to explain why?"

"Ehhn—?" she blinked, startled. Her gaze shifted from the image to her father, then to the others seated around the table. The room was quiet now, eyes fixed on her with suspicion, confusion, and concern.

She coughed lightly, as though trying to clear her throat, then composed herself quickly.

"Nothing, Father," she said with practiced calm. "He just... has the features of the Thunder Clan that was wiped out ten years ago."

A tense silence followed.

Several high-ranking officials exchanged wary glances. Frowns creased their faces. They knew what had happened to that clan.

No one spoke—but the tension thickened like a storm cloud.

Finally, Clara broke the silence.

"We thought that as well," she said, taking control of the presentation. "But after running extensive facial scans and combing through classified records, we found no match."

She pressed a button on her remote, and the central table’s hologram shifted. Now it displayed portraits of every known member of the Thunder Clan’s main family, along with other key figures.

"As you can see," Clara continued, "there’s no record of this young man among them. His image does not appear in any of our archives. It’s possible he altered his hair color or features to look like that, and also—possibly even his aura signature."

She paused to look around the room.

"Our data isn’t perfect, especially if the higher clans want him erased. But either way, we need to act. The Wind clan already dropped the notice, and we suspect he isn’t someone that strong at his age, likely has a background we haven’t uncovered yet."

She turned toward the council. "We need a decision. Do we intervene, or stand back?"

"Do we send more people over or leave it for the branch in Europe?"

The conversation resumed, voices growing louder and more urgent. But Lauren was no longer listening.

Her eyes remained locked on the rotating holographic archive.

The image where Alex was supposed to be wasn’t of him.

The image and name had changed

They’d placed a substitute—a false record. To most people in the room, that meant nothing.

The only reason the false image worked was that, although Alex was a prince, his likeness wasn’t well-known compared to his siblings, who were popular around the world.

He was mostly recognized only within the Thunder estate and the neighboring clans. Therefore, if his image was altered, most people wouldn’t notice, as they wouldn’t expect anyone to change their appearance, especially that of someone who was believed to be dead.

All of them hadn’t noticed, but how could she not notice?

As Lauren looked at the image, she felt like a huge weight she didn’t know she was carrying left her chest.

Because to Lauren, it meant everything.

That simple switch confirmed what she already knew in her heart.

The boy she had loved—the boy who was supposed to be dead—had survived.

Even when she saw his image and was sure he was the one, there was still some doubt, but now, she was sure, as was evidence was already there.

Someone had gone to great lengths to erase him from the world.

Lauren looked at the image, so focused that she didn’t notice another person watching her.

Across the room, Liam Drake sat quietly, arms folded. But his eyes were sharp, fixed on her with suspicion.

He’d seen her reaction.

And he didn’t like it.

He didn’t like it at all