CHAPTER 4: THE TRUTH THEY BURIED
365 Words
Chapter 4: The Truth They Buried
The masked men stormed the library, but Adrian was faster.
He pulled Ivy behind a towering bookshelf as bullets shattered the windows. The hidden passage behind the shelves slid open, revealing a narrow tunnel beneath Blackridge Manor.
"Run!" Adrian shouted.
They raced through the dark passage until they reached a steel door leading into an abandoned underground archive. Dust-covered shelves stretched in every direction, filled with boxes labeled with dates and names.
Adrian stopped before a locked cabinet and entered a code.
Inside was a thick file with one name on it.
IVY DAWSON.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Birth records. Photographs. Newspaper clippings. Medical reports.
Then she saw the truth.
She wasn't an orphan by accident.
Her parents had uncovered a secret organization that trafficked stolen identities and manipulated powerful families through blackmail. When they refused to stay silent, they were murdered in the house fire that the authorities had called an accident.
To protect Ivy, someone erased every record of her childhood and hid her identity. Years later, the organization found the last surviving evidence of her past and secretly auctioned it to the highest bidder.
Adrian had bought it before the criminals could destroy it forever.
"I never bought your life," Adrian said softly. "I bought the only proof that it existed."
Tears filled Ivy's eyes.
"So you were trying to save me..."
"From the very beginning."
Suddenly, the steel door burst open.
The leader of the masked men stepped inside.
"You've learned too much," he sneered.
Adrian stood between the gunman and Ivy.
"You'll have to go through me."
A fierce struggle followed. Adrian fought with everything he had while Ivy used a fallen metal rod to stop another attacker.
Sirens echoed above them.
The police, tipped off by Adrian days earlier, surrounded the estate.
Within minutes, the criminals were arrested.
The nightmare that had haunted Ivy since childhood was finally over.
As dawn broke over Blackridge Manor, Adrian looked at her with a gentle smile.
"You finally have your yesterday back."
Ivy shook her head.
"No."
She stepped closer and took his hand.
"I've found something even better."
"My tomorrow."
By Jasmine
- Writer
