THE MAN NAMED AXEL KNOX

A NAME I NEVER ASKED FOR

In Bonneville without power you are nothing. Without money you're considered a limitation. And without a name, you're good for nothing.

That was the unwritten law of the city, everyone who mattered knew it and the ones who mattered most came from the five founding families. The Falcones, who ran the ports and the unions. The Beauforts, who owned the banks and the judges. The Hawthornes, who controlled the media and the truth. The Marlowes, who held the construction and the land and the Windsors which were the oldest, the proudest, and the dead.

The other four families had erased the Windsors twenty years ago, not with fire or blood, but with betrayal. A single piece of information, whispered in the wrong ear, at the wrong time. The Windsor fortune vanished overnight, their name became a curse and Harrison Hawthorne had been the one holding the match.

Axel still tied to a wooden chair, wriggling, trying to set himself free as he dug fingers into the carved armrest.

“Don’t call me that,” he said. His voice came out harder than he felt.

Harrison Hawthorne pulled a chair across from him and sat down. He crossed one leg over the other, looking very calm while Vince and Leo stood by the door like two nervous guard dogs.

“You don't believe me?” Harrison said. “That's fine too, because you don't have to, but you should know that I am your father.”

“My mother never mentioned you.” Axel’s jaw tightened, filled with rage. “Ever.”

“Of course she didn't.” Harrison’s smile was thin and cold. “She hated me and with good reason.”

He stood up and walked to a cabinet against the wall. He poured himself a glass of amber liquid…… it was whiskey, from the smell of it—and took a slow sip.

“Your mother was Mariette Windsor,” he said. “Last daughter of a dying house. She was beautiful, sharp but desperate. Her family was already bleeding money when I met her. She didn't know that yet or maybe she did and just didn't want to admit it.”

Axel remained silent, his angry gaze fixated on Harrison as his hands were shaking, but it wasn't from fear. That humming under his skin was back and it was much louder now.

“Where did you meet her?” Axel asked.

“It was at a party, downtown Bonneville. The old Hawthorne estate before it became a museum.” Harrison set his glass down on the glass table in front of him. “She was twenty-two and I was twenty-five. She had the Windsor pride and nothing else. I had information she wanted……. about a deal that could save her family. So she played nice. And I played nicer.”

He paused.

“We had a fling for like what? a few weeks? Maybe a month? I took her to dinners, bought her dresses. You know made her feel like she mattered.” His voice dropped. “And one night, I got her drunk. Very drunk. Not to hurt her. Just to loosen her tongue.”

Axel felt something cold settle in his chest. “What did she tell you?”

“Everything.” Harrison said the word like it tasted sweet. “Every account number. Every safe house. Every ally the Windsors still had and the greatest secret of the five founding families. She trusted me. Poor girl.” He shook his head. “The next morning, I made three phone calls and by noon, the other four families had moved. By midnight, the Windsor name was dirt.”

In that moment everything stood still, Axel's rage didn't. With every word Harrison spewed the more Axel's rage increased.

“You destroyed her family,” Axel said slowly. Each word felt like broken glass coming up his throat.

“I didn't destroy them,” Harrison said. “I just showed everyone where the cracks were and besides the Windsors was already falling apart. I just pushed.”

Axel's eyes shined with bright blue light. The humming under his skin turned into a low vibration, like a motor starting. Vince and Leo flinched and took a step back. Harrison didn't move.

“Where is she?” Axel demanded. “Where is my mother?”

Harrison held his gaze. “I don't know. After that night, she disappeared, she probably went underground, maybe found distant relatives somewhere up north. She was pregnant with you by then—I didn't know that until later.” He picked up his whiskey again. “She raised you alone for three years. Then she came back to Bonneville.”

“Why?”

“To see me.” Harrison’s voice went quiet. “She showed up at my door with you in her arms. You were three years old. Blonde hair. Big eyes. She said she wanted me to know what I had done. To see my son's face before she vanished for good.”

Axel’s throat went tight. He had no memory of this. He could barely remember what his mother looked like.

“What happened after that?” Axel's rage slowly calming down, Axel decided that Harrison wasn't worth his anger.

“She left you with a neighbor for two hours while we talked. We argued and she cried, well I didn't.” Harrison finished his drink. “When she went to pick you up, you were gone. The neighbor said a woman matching her description had taken you. But it wasn't her. Someone else got to you first.”

“Someone else?”

“I never found out who.” Harrison set the glass down with a soft clink. “And Mariette? She walked out of my house that night and no one has seen her since. Not dead, as far as I know. Just… gone.”

Axel stared at him. The man who had destroyed his mother's family. The man who had gotten her drunk for information. The man who claimed to be his father.

“You're a monster,” Axel said.

Harrison nodded slowly. “Probably, I'm the monster who paid your hospital bill and the monster who injected you with the greatest potion that brought you back from the dead.” He stood up and walked toward the door. “You're tired and you're confused. We'll talk more tomorrow.”

“I'm not staying here,” Axel said.

“You don't have a choice.” Harrison didn't even turn around. “Vince, Leo. Make sure he's comfortable and don't hurt him. He's worth more than both of you combined.”

The door closed behind him.

Axel sat alone in the large room, fists clenched, that strange humming growing louder inside his bones. He had a name now. Hawthorne but it tasted like poison on his tongue.

And somewhere out there, his mother was still missing.