LOGINI walked down the aisle to marry the man I was supposed to hate. Adrian Blackwood was older, powerful, devastatingly attractive—and the last man I should have wanted. He was also the man I once caught leaving my mother’s bedroom. So when he offered to save my dying family business in exchange for marrying me, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Or so I thought. Because the moment Adrian became my husband, the rules changed. His hands lingered too long. His eyes followed me when he thought I wasn't looking. Every heated argument between us seemed to end with us standing far too close, fighting an attraction neither of us was willing to name. And the worst part? I wanted him. But Adrian wasn't the only one keeping secrets. My father didn't die in an accident. My mother knows why. And Adrian has been protecting the truth for sixteen years. Now forbidden desire is pulling me deeper into a marriage built on lies, while someone is determined to make sure I never discover what really happened the night my father died. I married my mother's secret lover. Now I'm falling into his bed, his secrets, and a passion I was never supposed to feel. But when I uncover the truth, I may discover that the man I thought stole my mother's heart has been protecting mine all along. He was my mother's forbidden secret. Now he's my husband. And I can't decide what's more dangerous—wanting him or discovering why he chose me.
View MoreDaniel's letter arrived at 8:16 that evening, but I knew something was wrong before Reed finished opening the files. There were three photographs of the same document, each taken from a slightly different angle, followed by a scanned copy Daniel had managed to retrieve from an old encrypted folder. The paper was yellowed around the edges, and a faint crease ran through the middle, suggesting it had been folded and unfolded several times before being placed in storage. Daniel had written a short message explaining that he had kept the original in a locked cabinet at home, separate from the administrative files he had transferred to the project controller's office. He had not touched it in years, he said, and had only remembered its location after Amelia questioned him. I read his message twice, then looked at Adrian. "He says he kept it because he thought someone might eventually ask why the correspondence had disappeared." "That is possible," Adrian replied. "But we should not confuse
The second request existed. Reed found it in a secondary archive maintained by the trust's former records contractor. It had been submitted four days after Daniel's first request, with a subject line that immediately caught my attention: Request for Original Suspension Authority and Identification of Authorizing Officer. "Daniel wasn't satisfied with the first answer," I said. Adrian studied the screen. "He wanted the original order and the name of the person who authorized it." "Where is the request?" Amelia asked. "The registration entry survived, but the attachment is missing," Reed explained. "There's also a response field marked unavailable. We don't yet know whether the document was deliberately removed or lost during migration." Catherine examined the timestamp. "He was asking who suspended the restoration review and whether that person had the authority to do so. That's important." Amelia looked troubled. "Why didn't he tell us?" "We should ask him before deciding what
I did not sleep that night, not because I believed the anonymous message, but because I could not stop thinking about the difference between what Daniel had told us and what the message claimed he had done. He had admitted accepting an administrative appointment, authorizing payments, and signing a receipt for materials transferred to the project controller’s office. He had also admitted requesting a copy of Administrative Order 17-B, the order that suspended the restoration review three days after Edmund signed the authorization intended to restore our original identities. Yet he had not mentioned receiving a notice, retaining correspondence, or keeping any record of the suspension. That omission might have been an ordinary failure of memory, a deliberate attempt to conceal something, or precisely the kind of gap our anonymous sender wanted us to interpret as guilt.Adrian was awake beside me when I finally turned away from the window. His office lights had remained on for most of th
“Call my father.”Amelia's voice cut through the silence before I could decide what to say. She stood beside the table, staring at the photograph of Daniel Hart's signature on my phone as if looking at it long enough might force the truth to reveal itself. Her hands were trembling, but when Adrian began to tell her we needed to verify the document first, she shook her head.“No. I understand that the signature might be fake, and I understand that a name in a record doesn't prove someone ordered anything. I've heard all of that. But Daniel is my father, and his name is connected to the same project that has controlled my life since I was a child. I want to hear what he says before another person decides what I'm allowed to know.”I understood the anger beneath her words because I had lived with its quieter version for most of my life. People had hidden information from me in the name of protection, and each revelation had shown me how much that protection had cost. Adrian had promised






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