Don’t Fall for the Billionaire Lover

"My last assignment was to wipe out the entire Grevenberg family-all thirty-eight of them. But for the first time, I couldn't bring myself to do it. There were kids, so many of them. I don't kill children. That's my line. Half of them were just kids, and I couldn't go through with it. Shadow saw what I was struggling with. That night, he drugged me and left me on a broken-down boat. He told me he'd handle the job instead. With Crimson Moon, the only thing that matters is the end result, not how you get there."

"So as long as the Grevenberg family was dead, the organization would say the mission was done. After that, Crimson Moon would erase the name 'Shadow,' and I'd finally be free."

Chloe and her friends just stared at Jeffery in shock.

None of them had ever guessed Jeffery had a past like this.

Chloe especially knew who Shadow was-her mentor.

Her mentor, who loved life and found joy in the smallest things. He was always playing tricks and bending the rules, but at his core, he was one of the kindest people she knew.

She never would have guessed he'd been raised by a brutal organization to be a killer.

But then Chloe caught something in his words.

"So, what you're saying is... you didn't actually kill the Grevenberg family? My mentor did it for you?"

If that were true, it would explain why Grant kept her mentor locked up for years. But if her mentor really did it... why wouldn't Grant stop hunting the Sartori family? Jeffery's hand trembled as he clutched the blood-stained letter.

He finally spoke. "That's what I thought, at first. When I woke up and went back to the Grevenberg estate, it was hell on earth. The whole place was burning, bodies everywhere. For years, I believed Shadow had done it for me, that he'd carried the weight so I wouldn't have to. But I was wrong. Completely wrong.”

Chloe felt a chill rush through her.

She watched Jeffery, who was staring hard at the blood-stained letter. Suddenly, something clicked.

"What does this letter from my mentor mean? You said things aren't what they seem. What's the real story?"

"Are you saying my mentor didn't even kill the Grevenberg family?"

Jeffery looked at the letter, his voice low. "Actions have consequences. Debts always come due.

Sometimes, the innocent pay then et

price. Your mentor was telling me that everything happening now is payback for the past. The

Grevenbergs are back for revenge. He's willing to take the blame, let me pin it all on him, so I can go on living my life."

It was their code.

The last thing Shadow ever said to him was, "Live. Really live, like a

person.

old,

Build a life, aet

Grow

be happy."

Jeffery had spent his whole life trying to live up to those words.

A bitter, almost mocking smile flickered across his face.

"But I was wrong. So wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Chloe asked.

"There's an old saying," Jeffery said quietly. "The peach tree stands by the well, the plum tree by its side. When worms eat the peach's roots, the plum takes its place.' If he'& actually killed them, he wouldn't have put it that way. He wouldn't say he was taking the fall for me. He wouldn't have left you this letter to remind me. That only means one thing-he thought I was the one who did it."

Everyone fell silent.

So what was the truth?

All these years, Jeffery had believed Shadow-Nemo-was the one who killed the Grevenberg family.noveldrama

But Nemo always thought it was Jeffery, and he'd taken the blame, the anger, and the revenge onto himself-willingly?