CHAPTER 42: THE WOMAN IN THE OLD PHOTOGRAPH

I couldn't stop looking at the photograph.

The woman beside Alexander was smiling, but there was something about her expression that made me look twice. She wasn't simply standing next to him for a formal photograph. Her body was turned slightly towards him, and one hand rested on his arm. Alexander, who rarely appeared relaxed in public photographs, seemed comfortable in her presence.

He looked younger, perhaps twenty years old. His dark hair was longer, his face less severe, and his grey eyes seemed almost free of the weight he carried now. Behind them stood the entrance of the Blackwood Grand Hotel.

I enlarged the image again.

It was the same woman I had met at the gallery.

Clara Bennett.

I remembered her elegant green suit, her intelligent questions, and the way her expression had changed when I mentioned Blackwood International. At the time, I had thought she was simply interested in the company's history. Now I wondered whether she had approached me because she already knew who I was.

Why had she asked about Alexander?

And why had someone decided that I needed to see this particular photograph?

The dark car outside my apartment was still on my mind when I heard a knock at the door. I checked the security viewer before opening it.

Alexander stood outside.

His expression changed when he saw my face.

"Amelia?"

"Come in."

He stepped inside, looking around briefly before noticing my phone on the table. I didn't waste time pretending everything was fine.

"I received another message."

His shoulders stiffened. "From the same number?"

I nodded and handed him my phone.

He studied the photograph in silence. His eyes moved from Clara's face to the building behind them. Then he enlarged the image, examining the details carefully.

"Where did you get this?"

"It was sent to me last night. After the message about Clara."

He looked at it again.

"Do you recognise her?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.

"Yes."

"Who is she?"

He placed the phone down and rubbed his jaw.

"Her name is Clara Bennett. She worked closely with me during a difficult period of my life. Before I took full control of Blackwood International, she was involved in several projects connected to the company's property division."

"Your father employed her?"

"Yes. She worked with him before she began working more closely with me."

I sat opposite him.

"Was she important to you?"

Alexander took a moment before answering.

"She was someone I trusted. We spent a lot of time working together, and for a while, I considered her a friend. But things became complicated after an incident involving the company."

"What kind of incident?"

He looked towards the photograph again.

"Something happened that affected several people. There were questions about company records, decisions made by senior executives, and information that shouldn't have been accessible to certain individuals. Clara was involved in that situation."

"Was she responsible?"

"I don't know everything she knew, Amelia. That's the truth. After the incident, she disappeared from my professional life. She stopped attending meetings, communication became difficult, and eventually she was no longer part of the company."

"Did she leave voluntarily?"

"I never received a clear explanation."

I leaned back, trying to understand how someone could disappear from such an important part of his life without leaving a proper explanation.

"Why didn't you tell me about her?"

Alexander looked directly at me.

"I didn't think it was relevant to our new beginning."

I let out a quiet breath.

"Alexander, someone has sent me a photograph of you standing beside her at a hotel connected to Richard's disappearance. The same person knows where I live. They are asking me questions about the night Evelyn disappeared. How can you say this isn't relevant?"

He lowered his eyes.

"You're right."

"I don't need to know every detail of your past. I'm not asking you to explain every friendship or every decision you made before we met. But when someone uses your past to threaten me, I have a right to know what I'm dealing with."

"I understand."

"There's a difference between privacy and secrecy. Privacy means you have parts of your life that belong to you. Secrecy means you hide something that could affect someone else's life."

He was quiet.

Then he moved closer and sat beside me.

"I've spent years keeping certain things separate," he said. "I convinced myself that if I didn't speak about them, they couldn't affect the people around me. But I can see how that becomes another way of controlling the situation."

I looked at him. "I don't want to be protected by being kept in the dark."

He reached for my hand.

"I won't do that again."

I wanted to believe him, but I had learned that promises were easy to make when nothing difficult was being asked of someone.

"Then tell me what happened."

He looked down at our joined hands.

"I need to confirm a few things first. I don't want to give you a version of events based on memories that may be incomplete. But I will tell you the full story, including what I don't know."

"How long?"

"A day or two. Maybe less."

I nodded slowly. "I'll give you that time. But don't mistake my patience for permission to hide something."

"I won't."

For a moment, the room became quiet. Then Alexander pulled me gently towards him. I rested my head against his shoulder, listening to the steady sound of his breathing.

I wanted the evening to return to what it had been before the messages, before the photographs, before the past began reaching into our lives again.

But the past was no longer waiting quietly.

His phone rang.

He checked the screen. "It's Victoria."

He answered immediately.

"Victoria, what's happened?"

I couldn't hear her clearly, but I saw Alexander's expression change as she spoke. He stood and walked towards the window.

"Which file?" he asked.

A pause.

"No. Who requested it?"

Another pause.

"Was the request authorised?"

His voice had become colder.

I stood slowly, watching him.

"Don't release anything yet," he continued. "Preserve the request, the access logs, and the original file. I want to know exactly who accessed it and when."

He ended the call.

"What is it?" I asked.

Alexander turned towards me.

"Someone has requested an old employee's personnel file from the Blackwood company archive."

"Whose file?"

He hesitated.

"Clara Bennett's."

My stomach tightened.

"Why would someone request her file now?"

"That's what Victoria is trying to establish. The request came through an internal archive system, but the person who initiated it used an access route that hasn't been active for years."

"Could it be connected to the messages?"

"I think so."

He picked up his jacket, then stopped as if reconsidering whether to leave.

"Alexander, what aren't you telling me?"

He looked at me for a long moment.

"There's something about that incident fifteen years ago that I never understood. I believed the matter had been investigated and closed. But if someone is requesting Clara's file now, it may mean the investigation was never finished."

I glanced at the photograph on the table.

Clara's smile seemed almost unsettling now, not because it proved anything, but because I had no idea what she had been hiding behind it.

Alexander's phone vibrated again. He read the message, and his face became unreadable.

"What is it?" I asked.

He turned the screen towards me.

It was a photograph of an old personnel record. Most of the writing was blurred, but one line was clearly visible.

EMPLOYEE STATUS: TERMINATED  EFFECTIVE DATE: 14 NOVEMBER, FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.

Below it was a handwritten note.

DO NOT REOPEN WITHOUT AUTHORISATION FROM A. BLACKWOOD.

I looked up at him.

"Did you write that?"

Alexander stared at the note.

"No."

His voice was barely above a whisper.

He looked at Amelia and said, "I think someone is trying to reopen a case we believed was closed."