CHAPTER FIVE NOT AN ACCIDENT

NAYA'S POV

There were no flowers, no music, no family sitting in rows. No one was crying happy tears or whispering to each other about how beautiful everything looked. No white arch or candles or soft lighting.

It was a small room with a long table, three chairs and a window that looked out onto an empty car park. Mr. Cole was standing at the head of the table holding a document, and reading from it in the same flat tone he might use to summarize a quarterly report.

"We are gathered to witness the legal union between Lucien Knight and Naya Whitlock," he said.

I sat in the chair to Lucien's left. He sat straight, both hands resting on the table, his face showing nothing. He had not looked at me since I came in. He was staring straight ahead the way a person looks when they are already thinking about something else.

I rubbed my fingers together in my lap. They were cold.

Legal union. It wasn't a marriage of husband and wife.

Mr. Cole placed the document in front of Lucien and pointed to the line. Lucien picked up the pen and signed without reading a single word. One smooth motion and the pen was back on the table.

Mr. Cole turned the document toward me.

"Miss Whitlock."

I looked at the paper.

After I signed, everything would change. The life I had before, the apartment, the two jobs, the daily visits to the hospital, the careful management of every cent, all of it would change. I would belong, at least on paper, to a man I had spoken to once.

My fingers reached for the pen. I signed.

Naya Whitlock.

Mr. Cole pointed to a second line on the page. I looked at it.

Naya Knight.

I wrote it slowly.

I put the pen down and stared at the name for a moment longer than I should have.

Naya Knight. That was me now. For one year, that was who I was.

"It is done," Mr. Cole said.

Lucien stood immediately. He buttoned his jacket and checked his watch.

"I have a meeting," he said to no one in particular.

I looked up at him. "Right now?"

He glanced at me. It was the first time he had looked at me directly since we sat down.

"Yes," he said. "My assistant will take you to the house."

He turned to Mr. Cole. "Handle the paperwork." Then he walked out.

The door closed and the room was very quiet.

I sat there and looked at the door for a moment.

Mr. Cole cleared his throat softly. "Congratulations, Mrs. Knight."

The name felt like it belonged to someone else. I turned to him and managed a small smile. "Thank you."

He began gathering the papers and I stood up slowly, smoothed my dress, and walked out.

* * *

The first place I went to was the hospital.

When I pushed Lily's door open, she was awake and sitting up. The color in her face was much better than it had been in weeks. Just a little though but enough to notice.

Her eyes found me immediately and she smiled.

"You look nice," she said. "Where did you go?"

I sat down beside her and took her hand. "Just somewhere I needed to be."

She studied me the way she always did. "You look different today."

"Different how?"

She thought about it. "Like something happened. Like you made a decision and you're not sure yet if it was the right one."

I looked at our joined hands. "The surgery went well. The doctor says you're recovering exactly as expected."

"I know. He told me this morning." She squeezed my fingers. "How did you get the money, Naya? Really."

"I told you already. I found help."

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "The man who helped you. Is he good?"

The question caught me off guard. I opened my mouth and nothing came out right away.

"He... helped when no one else would," I said carefully.

Lily nodded slowly, looking at my face. "Then he must be a good person. People who help when no one else will, those are the ones that matter."

I looked away toward the window. Outside, a cloud moved slowly across a pale blue sky.

"I hope you're right," I said.

She squeezed my hand again and closed her eyes.

* * *

In the evening, a black car was waiting for me outside the hospital. The driver was standing beside it and when he saw me he opened the rear door.

"Mrs. Knight," he said.

I stopped for just a second when I heard the name. Then I nodded and got in.

The drive was long. I watched the city change outside the window, the busy streets giving way to quieter roads, and then eventually to a wide gate that slid open automatically as the car turned in.

The house appeared through the windscreen.

I had expected something large but this was not just large. It was the kind of house that existed in films and in magazines and in the imagination of someone sitting in a hospital waiting room at two in the morning with nothing to do but dream about a different life. Wide stone steps led up to a double front door. The gardens on both sides were neat and perfectly maintained even in the early evening light.

The car stopped and the driver opened my door.

I stepped out and stood there for a moment, looking up at the front of the house.

"This is where I live now," I muttered under my breath.

A woman in a black uniform was waiting at the top of the steps. She tilted her head slightly when I reached her.

"Welcome, Mrs. Knight. I am Mrs. Lucy. I manage the household. If you need anything at all, you can come to me."

"Thank you," I said.

She led me inside. The entrance hall was wide and high-ceilinged. A chandelier cast soft light over everything. The floors were polished dark wood and the walls were hung with paintings that looked like they belonged in galleries.

I followed her up the staircase and down a long corridor.

She stopped at a door and opened it.

The room inside was bigger than the entire apartment Lily and I had shared. It was a large bed with white linen. A window seat was overlooking the garden. A wardrobe stood along one wall with thick carpet underfoot.

"Your things will arrive tomorrow," Mrs. Adeyemi said. "There are clothes in the wardrobe already, just a few things to get you through tonight. The bathroom is through there." She gestured. "Dinner will be ready at eight if you would like to come down."

"Is Mr. Knight home?" I asked.

Her face remained polite and neutral. "Not yet, ma'am. He is usually home late."

She left and closed the door softly.

I stood in the middle of the room and turned slowly.

It was beautiful but somehow completely, utterly strange.

I sat on the edge of the bed and pressed my hands flat against the soft white covers.

After a while I stood up and decided to walk around. I needed to know the shape of the place, where the rooms were, and where the doors were. I had always been like that when I was nervous. I needed to map things.

I moved down the corridor. Most of the doors were closed. I passed what looked like a guest room, then another one, then a room with a piano I could see through the half-open door.

Then I came to a door at the end of the corridor that was a little bit opened and I pushed it gently.

It was an office. There was a large desk in dark wood in the middle, bookshelves were on the wall. A lamp stood on the desk casting a cone of yellow light over the surface. Everything was very orderly and very neat. It smelled faintly of paper and… cologne maybe.

I stepped inside.

I should not have. I knew that but I was already inside and looking at the books on the shelves when my eyes drifted to the desk.

There was a file on it. Closed, with a cover sheet on top. I looked at the title printed in bold letters.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. LUCIEN KNIGHT.

I stood dead on the spot.

I looked at the door behind me, then at the file. I should have walked away but I opened it.

Inside it, there were photographs, printed reports, lists of names with notes beside them in small and precise handwriting.

I turned to the second page. My eyes skimmed through it quickly. Then they stopped.

At the top of the page, in a box labeled PRIMARY SUSPECT, was a name.

Edward Whitlock.

I stepped back and the file slipped from my hands. It hit the floor and the pages fanned out around my feet.

I stood there looking at my father's name on the floor of Lucien Knight's office.

Edward Whitlock. My father.

Someone had tried to kill Lucien Knight and the man they believed was behind it was my father.

The room felt like it was tilting. I pressed my hand against the bookshelf to steady myself. I could hear my own breathing becoming fast and shallow.

I knelt down slowly and gathered the pages back into the file. My hands were shaking as I placed it back on the desk, exactly where it had been, exactly as it had been.

Then I walked out of the office and closed the door quietly behind me.

I walked back down the corridor to my room. I went in and sat on the bed and put my face in my hands.

Now the question that had been sitting at the back of my mind since that moment outside Lucien's office that first day, the moment I heard him say my father's name, that question came all the way forward and stood right in front of me.

Lucien Knight had not chosen me by accident.

He had known exactly who I was when he said yes to that post in the cyber cafe. He had known my name and my father's name and he had agreed to marry me with that knowledge already in his hands.

The contract was not just a business arrangement.

I was part of something much bigger than I had understood when I walked into that hotel with a file under my arm, hoping to save my sister's life.

I lifted my face from my hands and looked at the door.

The house was quiet except for the ticking of the clock.

I had signed. Lily was safe. There was no going back now but whatever Lucien Knight wanted from this arrangement, it was not just a wife for public appearances.

I was certain of that now.

The only question left was what I was going to do about it.