Someone knew

ANASTASIA POV

Someone had been looking for me long before I ever knew there was anything to find.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Rafe’s discovery had followed me through breakfast, through the guarded hallways of the compound, and into the secure room where the contents of my mother’s box still covered the table. 

Twenty years.

Someone had searched confidential records connected to me for nearly twenty years. That meant this hadn’t started when my mother died or It hadn’t started when the men broke into my apartment. It started while I was still a child. I stared at the photographs spread across the table.

For years, I’d believed my childhood had been painfully ordinary. It had been my mother, our small home, school, birthdays, scraped knees and the quiet routines that made up our life. But perhaps it had only looked ordinary because Clara had worked very hard to make it that way. I picked up one of the photographs. My mother stood outside a building in London, younger than I remembered her, her hair loose around her shoulders. She was smiling at whoever had taken the picture.

I turned it over..Just a date. My fingers tightened around the edges.

“She lied to me.”

Jaxon stood on the other side of the table. He hadn’t said much since Rafe’s call. He had spent most of the morning making arrangements, moving people around the compound and ordering another security sweep.

Now he watched me carefully.

“Your mother kept things from you,” he said. “That isn’t the same as lying about everything.”

“It feels like it. How can I look at any part of my childhood the same way now?”

Jaxon didn’t answer immediately. I knew he understood. His own life had been built around secrets, loyalty and people who expected him to survive without asking too many questions. Maybe that was why he always seemed to know when I was about to fall apart.

I turned back toward the box. There had to be something else. Clara had left the letter addressed to me, but the blackout had interrupted it before I could finish reading. The missing document had been recovered, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that the box contained more than we’d discovered. I lifted the photographs one by one then I noticed something beneath the false bottom.

“Wait.”

Jaxon came around the table. I slid my fingers underneath the thin wooden panel and lifted. A small envelope was hidden beneath it. My name was written across the front.

ANASTASIA.

My breath caught.

“This one is yours.” Stepping back to let me take it.

 I opened it carefully. Inside was a single folded sheet of paper. The handwriting was unmistakable. My mother’s. I unfolded it.For a moment, I couldn’t read. My vision blurred before the the words came into focus.

My dearest Anastasia, If you’re reading this, they found you.

My heart dropped as I looked up at Jaxon. He was reading over my shoulder, his expression hardening. I continued.

I prayed this day would never come. I wanted you to have a normal life, even if that meant you hated me for the things I refused to explain. There are things about my past that I could never tell you while you were young. Not because you didn’t deserve the truth, but because knowing it would have made you a target.

She had expected this, the break-in, the box. Everything. I kept reading.

If they have found you, then the protection I built around your life is gone.

My chest tightened.

Protection.

That was what she had called my ordinary life, hiding place. The little flat, the routines, the school, the friends I rarely saw—all built to conceal me.

There will be things you learn that frighten you. There will be people who tell you they can protect you. Some will mean it. Some will use your fear to control you. Do not trust anyone simply because they claim to know me.

I paused. That sounded like Clara, careful, protective, always thinking three steps ahead. Then I reached the final lines.

But there is one person I believe you can trust.

My heart began beating faster as I read the next sentence.

Trust the man who carries the scars.

I stopped.For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe. Slowly, I lowered the letter. The room had gone completely quiet. I looked at Jaxon. He was staring at the page and then his eyes met mine. Neither of us spoke. I knew exactly who Clara meant. The scars, the  tattooed hands, the old marks across his knuckles, the faint line near his jaw that I’d noticed the first night I met him. The man who had stood between me and armed men without knowing whether I would ever trust him.

Jaxon looked away first.

“She knew,” I whispered. “She knew you would come for you.”

“She knew I would protect you .” He looked back at me. “I promised her.” I folded the letter carefully.

My emotions were too tangled to name. Anger at my mother. Fear of the people who had been searching for me. Confusion over the father I had never known. And beneath all of it, something I hadn’t expected. Trust. Not  completely though but enough to make me realize why Clara had chosen him. I stepped closer.

“Did she ever tell you why?”

Jaxon’s eyes remained on mine.

“No..I’ve told you everything I know.”

I studied his face and I believed him.Not because he had given me proof but because Clara had. She had known this day would come. She had known I would eventually stand in a room like this, surrounded by pieces of a life I didn’t understand. And she’d left me one final instruction. Trust the man who carries the scars. My gaze dropped briefly to Jaxon’s hands.

Then returned to his eyes.

“She chose you,” I said softly, stepping closer. “She chose you to protect me... but I think she knew you would do more than that.”

Jaxon went still, holding my gaze until heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway.

Rafe appeared at the doorway, his expression grim.

“Jax found something else.” Rafe’s eyes moved between us. The fragile moment disappeared. Jaxon straightened.

“What did you find?”

Rafe looked directly in my eyes.

“The records weren’t just being searched. Someone was tracking every major change in your life.”

The words chilled me. School, addresses, employment, everything. Someone had watched me grow up, carefully observing the life my mother had hidden me inside. I looked back at Jaxon, wondering what would happen when the person who had been watching from the shadows finally decided to step into the light.