CHAPTER 4: The First Secret

Damian stared at his assistant.

“Say that again.”Marcus swallowed.

“Someone accessed the old Carter account about twenty minutes ago.”Damian’s expression hardened.“Who?”

“We don’t know.”

“Then find out.”

“I’m trying. Whoever did it bypassed two layers of security.”Damian went still.Only three people had ever known the account existed.His father.Amelia’s father,and Damian.One of them was dead.One had been disgraced and buried beneath years of scandal,and the last,Damian looked toward the empty space where Amelia had been standing.His jaw tightened.“Pull every access log.”

“I already did.”

“And?”Marcus hesitated.“There’s something else.”Damian’s eyes narrowed.

“What?”

“The person didn’t just access the account.”Marcus handed him his phone.“They searched for one specific file.”Damian looked at the screen.

VAUGHN-CARTER AGREEMENT — ORIGINAL

For the first time that night, the controlled mask on Damian’s face cracked.“That file was destroyed.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Damian took the phone.“Where did they search from?”Marcus lowered his voice.“Your office.”Silence,Damian slowly lifted his eyes.

“My office?”

“Yes.”

“Who has access?”

“Me. You,security,and…”Marcus stopped.

“And who?”

“Your family.”

Damian’s grip tightened around the phone.His family.That narrowed the possibilities.And made the situation worse.Across the city, Amelia sat alone in the back of a taxi.The gala felt like a lifetime ago.She stared through the window as the lights of Manhattan blurred past her.For five years, she had believed leaving Damian would be the hardest thing she ever did.She had been wrong,the hardest part was realizing how long she had stayed.Her phone vibrated.She glanced at the screen,unknown Number.She almost ignored it,then another message appeared.You should not have signed those papers.

Amelia frowned,a second message followed.Your father never betrayed the Vaughns,her breath caught,she read it again.And again,nobody talked about her father.Not anymore.His name had become something people lowered their voices around.A failure,a disgraced businessman.The man who had supposedly ruined a powerful family and disappeared beneath the consequences.Amelia had grown up believing the same story.Until now,her fingers moved over the screen.Who is this?The reply came almost immediately.Someone who knows what really happened five years ago.

  Amelia’s heart began pounding,five years.The same year she married Damian,the same year her father’s company collapsed,the same year the Vaughn-Carter agreement was signed.A coincidence?She didn’t believe in coincidences anymore.Another message appeared.If you want the truth, don’t go home.Amelia stared at it.Then came the final message.And don’t trust your husband.She froze,her husband,not her ex-husband,her husband.Because whoever was behind the messages clearly knew something Amelia didn’t.She immediately called the number.It rang once,twice,then went dead.Amelia looked at the screen.For the first time since leaving the gala, fear replaced her anger.Not fear of Damian,fear of what she might discover.Damian was still standing in his office when Marcus spoke again.

“There’s one more thing.”

Damian looked up.

“What?”Marcus placed a thin folder on the desk.“This was found in the old records room.Damian opened it.Inside was a single photograph.Two men stood outside a corporate building.His father.And Amelia’s father,they were shaking hands.Damian stared,he had seen photographs of them before.But never this one,because on the back, written in his father’s handwriting, were six words:We were never supposed to lose.Damian’s blood ran cold,he turned the photograph over again.There was a date.

       Five years ago.

Three days before his father had ordered him to marry Amelia.Damian suddenly remembered something.Something he had buried for years,his father had never told him that the marriage was about protecting the Vaughn family.He had told Damian it was about revenge,he had told him the Carters had destroyed them.And Damian had believed him.

What if that had been a lie?His phone rang.Sophia.Damian stared at the name,he almost ignored it.Then he answered.

“What?”Sophia’s voice was unusually quiet.

“Damian… where are you?”

“At the office.”

“You need to come home.”

“Why?”Silence.Then she whispered,“Because someone came looking for me.”Damian’s eyes sharpened.“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“What happened?”

“I found something in my room.”

“What?”

Sophia took a shaky breath.“A photograph.”

Damian’s stomach tightened.

“What photograph?”Her voice dropped.

“It was a picture of Amelia.”He said nothing.

Then Sophia added,“She wasn’t alone.Damian’s fingers tightened around the phone.“Who was she with?”A pause.“The man your father claimed was dead.”The call ended.Damian stared at the phone.

For the first time in five years, one question mattered more than anything else.

     Was Amelia’s father really dead?