The Woman Behind Everything
1656 Words
“She is your grandmother.”
My mother’s words seemed to freeze the air around us.
Victoria.
My grandmother.
The woman who had ordered my kidnapping.
The woman whose voice I had heard in my memories.
The woman Daniel feared.
I stared at Isabelle.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“My grandmother died before I was born.”
Isabelle looked at me sadly.
“That’s what your father wanted you to believe.”
My heart pounded.
“Why?”
“Because Victoria Carter was never the woman you thought she was.”
Daniel suddenly laughed.
It was a broken, bitter sound.
“You finally know.”
Adrian turned toward him.
“What does Victoria control?”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
“Everything.”
A car engine roared outside.
My mother looked toward the window.
“They found us.”
Adrian immediately reached for his weapon.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“We have to leave.”
I stared at him.
“You’re coming with us?”
“If Victoria knows you remember, none of us are safe.”
Adrian grabbed Daniel by the collar.
“Start talking.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“About what?”
“Victoria.”
Daniel looked at me.
“She built the Carter empire.”
I frowned.
“My father built it.”
“He believed he did.”
Daniel pulled away from Adrian.
“Your grandmother controlled the money. The accounts. The political connections. The people who made problems disappear.”
“And my father?”
“He tried to leave.”
My stomach twisted.
“He discovered what she was doing.”
Isabelle nodded.
“Your father wanted out.”
“What happened?”
“He threatened to expose her.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“She gave him one condition.”
“What?”
“Give her Amelia.”
My blood ran cold.
“Me?”
“She wanted you because you were the heir.”
I stared at him.
“I was a child.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“She believed controlling you would eventually give her control over everything your father owned.”
Adrian moved closer to me.
“She used Amelia as leverage.”
“Yes.”
“Then why take her memories?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Because Amelia saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.”
“The murder.”
Daniel nodded.
“But there was more.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
He looked at Isabelle.
“She saw Victoria.”
My mother closed her eyes.
I suddenly remembered the night.
The red door.
Rain.
My father’s voice.
A woman entering the study.
Her face was blurred in my memory.
But her voice wasn’t.
Cold.
Controlled.
Familiar.
“Give me the girl.”
I gasped.
Adrian caught my shoulders.
“What happened?”
“I remember her.”
Isabelle stepped closer.
“What did you remember?”
“She said…”
My voice trembled.
“She said, ‘Give me the girl.’”
Daniel went pale.
“She remembers.”
Adrian looked at him.
“And now?”
Daniel whispered, “Victoria will come herself.”
The front door exploded.
Gunfire erupted through the house.
Adrian pulled me to the floor.
“Down!”
Glass shattered.
Isabelle screamed.
Daniel ducked behind the wall.
Adrian crawled toward the doorway and fired once.
Someone outside shouted.
“Find Amelia!”
My heart raced.
The same command.
The same words from the mansion.
They weren’t looking for the ledger.
They were looking for me.
Adrian grabbed my hand.
“We’re leaving.”
“What about my mother?”
“She comes with us.”
“And Daniel?”
Adrian looked at him.
“He comes too.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian pulled him toward the hidden staircase.
“But you’re the only person who knows where Victoria keeps the ledger.”
Daniel stopped.
“You don’t understand.”
Adrian turned.
“Then explain.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Victoria doesn’t keep the ledger.”
My pulse quickened.
“Then who does?”
Daniel’s expression became terrified.
“Your father.”
Silence.
“My father is dead.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Your father died protecting the ledger.”
I stared at him.
“Where is it?”
Daniel pointed toward the floor.
“Under the place where he was killed.”
My breath caught.
“The Carter estate?”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“Blackwood mansion.”
Adrian froze.
“My mansion?”
Daniel nodded.
“Your father hid it there.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Why would he hide something from Victoria in my house?”
“Because Victoria never suspected him of trusting your family.”
I remembered the hidden archive.
The photographs.
The documents.
The silver key.
Suddenly, everything connected.
My father had left clues in the Blackwood mansion because he knew Victoria would search the Carter properties first.
The archive wasn’t only about exposing Daniel.
It had been designed to lead me somewhere.
Somewhere Adrian could help me reach.
My heart ached.
“He knew you’d come back.”
Adrian looked at me.
“What?”
“My father knew.”
I touched the silver key.
“He knew we’d find each other again.”
Something shifted in Adrian’s eyes.
“He believed I’d protect you.”
“He trusted you.”
Adrian looked away briefly.
“I don’t know if I deserved that trust.”
I stepped closer.
“You do now.”
His eyes met mine.
For a second, the gunfire disappeared.
His hand found mine.
“I meant what I said.”
“About the contract?”
“About you.”
My heart skipped.
“I don’t care how long the contract lasts anymore.”
He brushed his thumb over my hand.
“I don’t want an ending.”
I whispered, “Neither do I.”
His eyes softened.
Then he leaned closer.
Our foreheads touched.
“We’ll survive this.”
“Together?”
“Together.”
A gunshot shattered the moment.
Adrian pulled me behind him.
“Move!”
We ran through the hidden passage.
Isabelle followed.
Daniel came last.
The passage opened into the garden.
Three black vehicles waited beyond the trees.
Adrian stopped.
“They’re surrounding the property.”
Daniel looked at the cars.
“No.”
“What?”
Daniel’s face went white.
“That isn’t Victoria’s security.”
A woman stepped from the middle vehicle.
She wore a long black coat.
Her silver hair moved in the wind.
She looked directly at me.
I couldn’t breathe.
I knew her.
Not from photographs.
Not from memories.
From the voice.
“Amelia.”
My mother grabbed my arm.
“Don’t answer.”
The woman smiled.
“It’s been a long time.”
Adrian raised his weapon.
“Stay where you are.”
She laughed softly.
“You must be Adrian.”
His expression hardened.
“You know me.”
“Of course.”
She looked at me again.
“I’ve known about you since you were seventeen.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“What do you want?”
“Her.”
She pointed at me.
“She belongs to the Carter family.”
Adrian stepped in front of me.
“She belongs to herself.”
The woman’s smile disappeared.
“That is exactly what your father wanted you to believe.”
I felt a strange pull inside my chest.
“Victoria?”
She nodded.
“My dear Amelia.”
I stared at the woman who had haunted my memories.
“You ordered them to take me.”
“Yes.”
“You killed my father’s investigator.”
“I gave the order.”
“You erased my memories.”
“I protected my family.”
“You destroyed my life.”
For the first time, Victoria looked almost sad.
“No.”
She took one step forward.
“I gave you a life.”
My fists clenched.
“You stole my mother.”
Victoria glanced at Isabelle.
“She was never supposed to survive.”
My mother went pale.
Adrian raised his weapon higher.
“Enough.”
Victoria ignored him.
“Your mother betrayed me.”
Isabelle stepped forward.
“I protected my daughter.”
“You hid her from me.”
“Yes.”
“And now she remembers.”
Isabelle looked at me.
“She remembers enough.”
Victoria smiled.
“Not everything.”
My blood chilled.
“What else don’t I remember?”
Victoria’s eyes gleamed.
“The night you were taken, you weren’t the only person who disappeared.”
I stared at her.
“What do you mean?”
She reached into her coat.
Daniel suddenly shouted.
“No!”
Victoria pulled out an old photograph.
She held it toward me.
I stepped closer.
My father stood beside a teenage boy.
My breath caught.
The boy was Adrian.
But standing behind them was someone else.
A little girl.
Me.
And beside me—
Another child.
A boy I didn’t recognize.
On the back of the photograph, written in my father’s handwriting, were four words:
HE IS YOUR BROTHER.
I looked at my mother.
She was crying.
Adrian stared at the photograph in disbelief.
Daniel backed away.
And Victoria smiled.
“Now you know why I could never let you remember.”
The world tilted beneath my feet.
I had spent five years believing Adrian was the person I had lost.
But apparently, five years ago, I had lost someone else too.
Someone who shared my blood.
Someone my entire family had erased from my memory.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the garden, a man was watching us.
A man who had just received one message.
SHE REMEMBERS.
His reply was immediate.
THEN IT’S TIME TO BRING HER BROTHER HOME.
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