Claim Me Captain! I'm Addicted to You!-Chapter 419: No More Distance (4)

Oliver’s POV

He stepped forward, gripped Vicky’s arms before she could back away again, and gently held her still. His expression was heavy. Ancient. Exhausted.

"It’s my fault, dear," he said softly. "Not Oliver’s. It was never Oliver’s fault."

Vicky blinked, stunned. "Dad... what are you talking about?"

I stared too, completely lost.

Benjamin looked at each of us one by one. His jaw tightened. His eyes flickered with something I had never seen in him before, fear? sorrow? resignation?

"Should we... go wait in the cafeteria?" Nick asked cautiously.

Benjamin shook his head. "No. You all stay." Then his gaze landed on me and Liam, firm and unyielding.

"I think it’s time everyone knows the truth," he said. "Especially the two of you."

My breath caught.

The room suddenly felt too small. Too bright. Too quiet.

Something told me that whatever Benjamin Knight was about to say... would change everything not only in my life but everyone’s, and I could feel that from my gut.

Benjamin walked toward me with this slow, heavy gait, like every step carried a piece of a burden he’d been holding for decades. He sat at the foot of my bed, right at the edge, hunched slightly forward like a kid who just lost a game he bet his pride on.

"Please sit," he murmured.

Everyone obeyed without a word. Nick helped me settle back onto the mattress, adjusting the pillows behind me before taking the chair beside my bed. It felt like the room itself was holding its breath.

Benjamin wiped his palms on his jeans before meeting my eyes.

"I knew you were Avner Byrne’s grandson," he said quietly. "Through his son, Declan. How could I not? Avner kept your picture in his wallet and talked about you constantly. And Declan..." His voice shook. "Declan always refused to take meetings on your birthday, or on your sisters’, no matter what."

A lump rose in my throat. I didn’t know any of this. Not the pictures. Not their rituals. Not the love they carried in silence. And not Benjamin knowing my real identity.

"They only spoke about you in front of me," he continued. "You were... their little secret. Because your mother wasn’t Declan’s wife. Avner was my father’s head of security for years. When he got older, my father reassigned him to me, not to protect me, but to keep me company. To be a stand-in for my own father, who was always too busy."

Benjamin let out a shaky laugh, wiping at his eyes as if embarrassed to be crying. "I can proudly say Avner practically raised me alongside Declan."

My chest tightened. Hearing my grandfather describe that way, someone who loved him, made something inside me crack open.

"And Declan," he whispered, "your father... he reminded me so much of you. Ambitious. Smart. Charming. When he passed the bar, my father gave him the entire legal department of Knight Fleet Maritime as his first account."

My breath trembled. No one ever told me this.

"Like you and Nick," Benjamin said, smiling through tears, "your father was my best friend. Every time I came back from months at sea... he was there. Waiting. Constant."

My eyes stung. I had spent my life believing my Benjamin rarely cared about my father, believing he was just a pawn in a rich man’s game. But hearing Benjamin talk... I finally saw a man who lived, who loved, who tried.

"They both knew about Prudence," Benjamin went on. "About Nick. About Violet. When the incident with Violet happened... I was furious. I blamed myself. I drowned in guilt for months, drinking myself to sleep. Until Declan told me, ’Let’s find those bastards and make them pay.’"

The pain in Benjamin’s voice felt like an open wound.

"He was already making a name for himself in the legal world. Confident. Fearless. So I gave him my go-signal, even when Violet and the whole family said they didn’t want the case reopened. Police couldn’t trace the culprits anymore. But still... Declan found them."

Benjamin swallowed hard.

"Marco Gambino."

The name hung in the air like smoke.

"Yes," he said bitterly. "The father of Dante and Jay Gambino."

I stiffened. I already knew who hurt Violet—but I didn’t know this. I didn’t know it was their father who started it all.

And suddenly, the puzzle of my grief, my rage, and my family’s destruction rearranged itself into a truth so sharp it could slice skin.

Benjamin let out a long, shaky breath before continuing, and I could already feel my stomach knotting. Every second of silence was heavy, like he was about to unravel a truth that would break something in both of us.

"It was Dante’s sixteenth birthday," he finally said, voice low and tired. "And he ordered his men to get him a woman as a gift. I don’t know how it happened... or how Violet ended up being that woman. But she did."

My heart twisted. Liam’s jaw clenched at the mention of his mother’s name. Benjamin paused, pressing his lips together as if choosing his next words carefully.

"One of the men Declan caught confessed that Marco ordered them to teach Dante how to..." He couldn’t finish the sentence. "So they used Violet first. Made him watch. They were teaching him. And when it was Dante’s turn... he lost control. That’s how Violet ended up pregnant. With a child fathered by a sixteen-year-old Dante Gambino."

Benjamin’s voice cracked, and something inside me cracked with it.

"I was furious," he whispered. "I filed a case against Marco, Dante, all of them. I didn’t understand yet what kind of monster Marco Gambino truly was."

He swallowed hard, eyes distant as if reliving every mistake.

"My father found out after I received a death threat addressed directly to him. He ordered me to retract the case, to lay low... but I couldn’t." His hands trembled. "I couldn’t let those devils walk free after what they did to Violet. So I didn’t listen. I pushed forward. Declan stood with me. We decided to fight to the end."

My chest tightened. My father... I never heard this part of his story. Never.

"But they meant their threats," Benjamin continued, voice breaking. "And it was already too late for me, for your father, for Avner."

He shut his eyes as if the memory physically burned him.

*****

Thank you for the Golden Tickets!

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