His Obsession

Chapter 3: Sophie

Amelia didn't go straight home.

She sat in her car outside the Blackwood Tower parking garage for almost ten minutes, phone in her lap, staring at her father's contact photo.

She almost called him.

Instead, she called Sophie.

"You're calling me at ten p.m.," Sophie said, picking up on the second ring. "This better be good gossip. Please tell me your scary boss finally smiled and it broke his face."

"Soph, I need to ask you something serious."

Sophie's tone shifted instantly. "Okay. What's wrong?"

Amelia took a breath. "Has Dad ever mentioned Blackwood Enterprises? Like, ever? Even in passing?"

There was a pause. Too long a pause.

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Because I saw his name," Amelia said. "In a contract. At work. Daniel Carter, consultant, verified 2019. That's Dad, Soph. That has to be Dad."

"It's not that rare a name…"

"That's what I told myself too. But then I asked my boss about it, and he didn't deny it. He just told me I shouldn't have seen the file." Amelia's voice shook slightly. "Sophie. Why would you pause before answering me?"

Silence again. Longer this time.

"Sophie."

"I don't know anything for certain," Sophie said finally, careful, like she was choosing each word. "But a few years ago…I think it was 2019, actually…Dad went away for two weeks. Said it was a work trip. He came back different. Quieter. He and Mum argued about something, and neither of them would say what."

Amelia's chest tightened. "Different how?"

"I don't know. Just... off. Like something happened. I asked him about it once and he told me to drop it. So I dropped it." Sophie hesitated. "Amelia, what company do you work for again?"

"Blackwood Enterprises."

Another silence.

"That name," Sophie murmured. "That sounds familiar. I feel like I've heard Dad say it before. Just once. A long time ago."

Amelia's hands went cold around the phone.

"Said it how?"

"I don't remember exactly. It was late, he thought I was asleep. He was on the phone with someone, and he sounded... scared, Amelia. Dad never sounds scared."

Amelia didn't sleep that night either.

She lay in the dark, replaying every version of her father she knew…steady, reserved, the kind of man who fixed things quietly and never raised his voice. A man who had never once, in twenty years, mentioned Lagos's most powerful family.

She thought about Adrian's face when she'd said her father's name. The stillness. The way his jaw had locked, just for a second, like he was holding something back by force.

You shouldn't have seen that file.

Not I don't know him.

Not you're mistaken.

By morning, Amelia had made a decision. She wasn't going to wait for Adrian to tell her the truth. She was going to find it herself…starting with the one place she wasn't allowed to go.

Rule eight.

You are not allowed on my private floor.

She smiled grimly at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

She'd never been good at following rules she didn't understand.