The Contract Changes
1578 Words
The shout from upstairs echoed through the mansion.
“Find Amelia Carter!”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Adrian immediately pulled me behind him, his body becoming a shield between me and the danger closing in.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
He turned sharply.
“Amelia—”
“I’m not hiding anymore.”
The words came out steadier than I felt.
Five years ago, I had been the girl who believed everyone else’s version of my own memories. I had accepted that Adrian abandoned me. I had accepted that my childhood memories were fantasies. I had accepted that my mother was dead.
Tonight, I was done accepting.
I tightened my fingers around the silver key.
“I want the truth.”
Adrian stared at me for a long moment.
Then something in his expression softened.
“Then we get it together.”
Margaret stepped toward the archive shelves and pushed against a narrow wooden panel.
A hidden passage opened.
“There’s a second exit,” she whispered. “It leads to the underground garage. Go.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll slow them down.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Margaret gave me a sad smile.
“You’ve spent enough of your life losing people because of my family’s secrets. Let me do this one thing for you.”
Before I could answer, footsteps thundered across the floor above us.
Adrian grabbed my hand.
“Now.”
He pulled me into the passage.
The hidden door slid shut behind us.
Seconds later, several armed men stormed into the archive.
At their center was a tall man in a black coat.
My uncle.
Daniel Carter.
He stopped in the middle of the room and stared at the empty space where we had stood.
Then his gaze fell upon the open archive.
His face drained of color.
“No.”
One of the men approached.
“The documents are gone.”
Daniel’s expression twisted with fury.
“Find them.”
“What exactly are we looking for?”
Daniel slowly turned toward the photograph on the table—the photograph of me and Adrian as children.
“The ledger.”
The man frowned.
“What ledger?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“The one that proves who really controlled the Blackwood empire.”
His words sent a chill through the room.
Because suddenly, I understood.
The archive had never been the final answer.
It was only the door.
Adrian and I reached the underground garage.
I stumbled against the wall, breathing hard.
He immediately steadied me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
His eyes searched my face anyway.
I pulled my hand away gently.
“You knew my uncle was involved.”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because suspicion isn’t proof.”
“And now?”
Adrian looked toward the mansion above us.
“Now we have a reason to stop trusting everyone.”
I stared at him.
Everyone.
Including Margaret?
The thought hurt.
My gaze dropped to the contract marriage ring on my finger.
“Adrian…”
He waited.
“This contract was supposed to protect my father’s company.”
“It was.”
“It was supposed to be temporary.”
“Yes.”
“And we agreed there would be no emotions.”
His expression changed.
“That was before someone tried to kill you.”
I looked up.
“What are you saying?”
He stepped closer.
Close enough that I could feel the warmth of him.
“The contract changes tonight.”
My heart skipped.
“How?”
“No more separate bedrooms.”
I blinked.
“Adrian—”
“No more pretending we’re strangers.”
He gently took my hand.
“And no more clause saying we can’t fall in love.”
I stared at him.
“That clause was your idea.”
“I know.”
“Why remove it now?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because I’ve spent five years regretting losing you.”
My eyes burned.
“I thought you didn’t want me.”
“I never stopped.”
The words broke something open inside me.
For five years, I had imagined a hundred explanations for why Adrian disappeared.
Not once had I allowed myself to imagine that he had been hurting too.
I whispered, “Then why did you let me believe you abandoned me?”
“Because I was trying to keep you alive.”
He brushed his thumb over my knuckles.
“And because I was a coward.”
My breath caught.
Adrian leaned closer.
“I thought if I stayed away, they couldn’t use you against me.”
His eyes held mine.
“I was wrong.”
The garage seemed to disappear around us.
For one fragile moment, there were no secrets, no killers, no contract.
Only us.
I lifted my hand and touched his chest.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be afraid of what happens when the contract ends.”
His fingers slid gently along my cheek.
“Maybe we shouldn’t wait until then.”
Our faces moved closer.
My heart raced.
His breath touched my lips.
Five years of regret seemed to collapse into one heartbeat.
I looked at him, still trying to understand the man in front of me.
“You’re really changing the contract?”
His mouth curved faintly.
“I’m changing what I can control.”
“And what can’t you control?”
His gaze dropped to my lips.
“You.”
My pulse jumped.
He lifted my hand and pressed a slow kiss against my knuckles.
“I can protect you. I can fight for you. I can tear apart every person who comes after you.”
His voice softened.
“But I can’t control whether you love me.”
I swallowed.
“And if I do?”
“Then,” he whispered, “for once, Amelia, I won’t run from it.”
Not this time. Not ever again.
Then—
BANG!
A gunshot exploded somewhere above us.
We separated instantly.
Adrian pulled me against his chest.
Another shot echoed through the mansion.
Then silence.
His phone vibrated.
He looked down.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
YOU FOUND THE ARCHIVE.
A second message arrived.
BUT YOU STILL DON’T HAVE THE LEDGER.
My stomach tightened.
Then the final message appeared.
YOUR MOTHER DOES.
Everything inside me stopped.
“My mother…”
Adrian looked at me.
“She’s alive.”
I could barely breathe.
For years, I had mourned a woman I barely remembered.
Now, suddenly, the dead woman in my memories had become a living person somewhere in this city.
My mother.
Alive.
And someone knew exactly where she was.
Adrian reached for my hand.
“This isn’t just your family’s secret anymore.”
I looked at our joined hands.
“No.”
My fingers tightened around his.
“It’s ours.”
A deafening alarm suddenly erupted above us.
The mansion lights flashed through the garage entrance.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“We have to move.”
He reached for the car door.
I caught his wrist.
“What about the ledger?”
“We find it.”
“And my mother?”
“We find her too.”
His gaze locked with mine.
“And I swear, Amelia, no one takes you from me again.”
The words warmed me despite the fear clawing through my chest.
Then another sound reached us.
A door slamming.
Footsteps.
Someone was coming down the stairs.
Adrian immediately pushed me behind the car.
The footsteps stopped.
Silence.
Then his phone vibrated again.
No message.
A photograph.
My blood ran cold.
It showed a woman standing beside an old house.
A woman with my eyes.
My mother.
Below the photograph was a single line:
SHE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU.
I stared at the screen.
“She knows I’m coming.”
Adrian’s face darkened.
“Then we get to her before they do.”
Above us, the alarm continued screaming.
But somewhere inside the mansion, Daniel Carter was making a phone call.
His voice was low and furious.
“I’ve lost the archive.”
A woman answered.
“Then you know what comes next.”
Daniel hesitated.
“She has the silver key.”
“I know.”
“She knows about the ledger.”
Another pause.
“And she knows her mother is alive.”
The woman’s voice became colder.
“Then Amelia Carter cannot reach her.”
Daniel swallowed.
“And Adrian?”
Silence.
Then the woman spoke.
“If he gets in the way, kill him too.”
The call ended.
Daniel slowly lowered the phone.
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
Because he knew the woman on the other end of the line.
And he knew exactly what she was capable of.
In the garage, Adrian opened the car door for me.
I climbed inside, still staring at the photograph of my mother.
A single question burned through my mind.
If my mother had been alive all these years…
Why had she never come back for me?
And why had she been waiting for me now?
Adrian got behind the wheel.
The engine roared.
As we sped away from the mansion, neither of us noticed the small red light blinking inside the rearview mirror.
A hidden tracker.
Someone was already following us.
And whoever it was knew exactly where we were going.
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