CHAPTER 005
1043 Words
CHAPTER 005
ADRIAN'S POV
The storm outside was not. It was already broken. Rain pounded the glass walls of the Blackwood boardroom, streaming like cracks, like the empire itself was tearing.
I sat at the head of the table, the slick oak between me and them—my kin, my enemies, my scavengers. Their faces shone in the cold light, each of them waiting for me to slip. I could see it in the way their eyes held onto me, some challenging me to say something, others sneering at my silence.
Uncle Richard coughed loudly to shut the whispers down. His gold rings jingled against the glass in his hand as he reclined in his chair.
“Adrian,” he drawled, “the leaks won’t leak themselves.” The press is closing in. Our competitors are laughing. Someone intimate to you is giving them what they need.
The words hit like rocks in my gut.
Whispers spread through the air—thin, pointed whispers, intended to be a fluke but loud enough for me to hear.
“Someone close…”
'Who could access those files?'
“Not one of us, I am sure”
I stayed still. I couldn’t show them one crack.
And then Cassandra moved closer. She didn't have to yell. The room leaned in to hear her.
"It's clear," she said suavely. Amelia Hart.
I froze.
Cassandra’s mouth twisted into a half-smile. She enters your life, unexpectedly. None of that, no background, no history with this family. But secrets that only someone who was trusted could find their way into the papers start to show up. Odd, isn’t it?”
My knuckles went white on the table.
"She wouldn't," I said.
“Oh, Adrian." Cassandra's laugh was gentle, condescending, venomous. “You’re blinded. It's not your fault. Men are always falling too deep.” She c****d her head, her eyes snapping. “-But the rest of us do see it. She won you over into your bed, into your trust. What was she looking for, if not this?"
The words pierced. A murmur of assent swept the table.
"She used him."
“Classics”
“Knew it was coming.”
Heat rose up my chest, burning. I stood, my chair scraping against the floor with a scrape.
"Over, this meeting is done."
No one stopped me. They didn't have to. The poison was already there.
By the time I arrived at my penthouse, the storm had accompanied me. The silence crushed down upon her, punctuated only by the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the wall. I walked the floor, my reflection dogging me across the glass windows.
Could she?
No Amelía. She was not like Cassandra or Richard or the rest of the pack. She had treated me like a person, not just a Blackwood.
And the whispers clung to me like darkness.
I picked up my phone, thumb floating. My chest was tight, as if it were a struggle to breathe.
I dialed.
The line rang. Once.
Then her voice. “Hello?”
Relief and pain at the same time. My throat constricted.
“Amelia.” I swallowed. “I have to see you.”
A pause. Her breath in the line, even, careful.
"Now," I said more harshly than I intended. “Please.”
Silence stretched. My hand shook.
"You think you can just call me after " She snapped her words.
Her voice shattered something in me.
“Amelia—”
The line snapped. Dead.
I looked at the phone with a hollow feeling in my chest. I clenched my jaw.
I could not forget it. I had to go to her.
Her building always had a faint scent of rain and old wood. The hallway lights flickered, casting shadows onto the walls. My shoes slapped the floor with each step, growing louder with each one.
Her door was just in front of her. I raised my hand and I knocked.
The stop seemed like an eternity. Then the door swung open, just a little, enough for her to stand outlined in the light.
Her eyes, those eyes that had held me, were now unyielding, shut off.
"What is it you want, Adrian?"
Her voice sliced me deeper than any rival could have.
I made myself look at her. “Tell me.”
She frowned. “Sabes?”
"If it's you. Are you the one spilling the tea?
The moment the words were out, I wanted them back.
Her lips parted as shock gave way to pain.
"You think I—"
Her voice broke. Her shoulders froze.
“Amelia…”
She laughed, hard, sour. “So that is why you came here? To charge with me? Not to speak of. Not to bother. And just to smear their venom on me.”
"I don't wanna believe it." My voice was hoarse. “But they are saying—”
“Let them say it!” she snapped. “Let them gag on it! But you don’t put that on me.”
I tried to grab her, but she pulled back, her body shaking with anger.
‘You already made your decision, Adrian,’ she whispered. “You decided doubt.”
Her eyes sparkled, her jaw clenched. She was barely holding on by a string, and I had been the one who had cut them.
“Go.”
The door creaked. The lock turned. Final.
I stood there, looking at the wood; my chest was crushed.
I leaned my forehead against the door, mouthing into the quiet. What have I done?
The hall light flickered once. Twice.
Then it went black.
I jerked my head up.
A shape moved at the far end of the hall, tall and imposing. Still. Watching.
My heart rate had shot up.
‘Who's there?’
Silence.
The shadow moved, quick, moving toward the stairwell.
I ran. My feet stomped the floor. By the time I reached the stairs, the place was empty. Only the echo of footsteps remained, dying away into nothing.
The storm raged on the other side of the windows. My hand was shaking.
Had I dreamed of it?
Or was someone else in this building watching her?
And if it was not me they were after.
Was Amelia in peril?
- Writer
