MARRIED TO THE COLD Tycoon

chapter 9 : The Memory She Forgot ll

A voice whispering her name.

She pressed her hand against her temple.

Then the pain came.

Sharp.

Sudden.

She gasped.

Adrian caught her.

"Isabella."

"I remember something."

"What?"

"A door."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

She closed her eyes.

The memory became clearer.

A little girl stood in a dark hallway.

Her father knelt beside her.

He was crying.

Behind him stood Eleanor Blackwood.

And another man.

An older man.

He wore a black ring bearing the raven symbol.

Isabella heard her father whisper:

If anything happens to me, remember this man.

The girl nodded.

Then her father pressed the silver pendant into her hand.

The older man smiled.

And said:

"One day, you'll marry his son."

Isabella's eyes snapped open.

Adrian stared at her.

"What did you see?"

She couldn't speak.

"Isabella."

She looked at him.

Her face had gone white.

"I've seen him before."

"Who?"

"The man who leads the Consortium."

Adrian's expression hardened.

"Who is he?"

Tears filled her eyes.

"I don't know his name."

She swallowed.

"But I remember what he said."

"What?"

She looked directly at Adrian.

"He said one day I'd marry you."

Silence.

Victoria slowly closed her eyes.

Adrian stared at Isabella.

The marriage contract.

The attacks.

The Consortium.

The wedding.

None of it had begun when Isabella met Adrian.

It had begun when she was a child

Twenty years ago.

And suddenly the entire arrangement looked different.

Adrian reached for her hand.

"Isabella..."

She pulled away.

"You knew."

His eyes widened.

"What?"

"You knew this marriage was connected to me before you proposed."

"No."

"Then why did you choose me?"

"I chose you because you were in danger."

"That's not the whole truth."

"It is."

"Then why did the Consortium want the wedding?"

Adrian had no answer.

Victoria stepped forward.

"Because the marriage completes something your fathers started."

Adrian looked at her.

"What?"

Victoria's expression was grim.

"The Consortium has spent twenty years waiting for Adrian Blackwood to marry Isabella Hart."

"Why?"

Victoria looked toward the window.

"Because your marriage will give them access to both families' hidden assets."

Adrian's expression hardened.

"And if we refuse?"

Victoria looked at Isabella.

"They'll kill everyone connected to you."

The room fell silent.

Outside, thunder rolled across Sydney.

Then Isabella noticed something on the floor.

A small black envelope.

Nobody had seen it arrive.

She picked it up.

Inside was a single photograph.

Her father.

Eleanor.

Adrian's father.

And the mysterious man from her memory.

But this time, there was something else.

Written across the bottom of the photograph were four words:

SEE YOU AT THE WEDDING.

Adrian stared at the photograph.

Then his phone rang.

Unknown number.

He answered.

A man's voice whispered:

"Mr. Blackwood."

"Who are you?"

"You've spent your entire life searching for the man who destroyed your family."

Adrian's eyes hardened.

"Where are you?"

A soft laugh.

"Closer than you think."

"Show yourself."

"I already have."

The line went dead.

Adrian slowly lowered the phone.

Isabella looked at him.

"What did he say?"

Adrian looked toward the hallway.

His expression had become ice.

"He said he's already inside the house."

The lights suddenly went out.

Victoria screamed.

A gunshot exploded somewhere upstairs.

Then another.

Adrian grabbed Isabella.

"Stay with me."

They moved through the darkness.

A third gunshot echoed.

Then silence.

The emergency lights came on.

A guard lay unconscious near the staircase.

Beside him was a black card.

Adrian picked it up.

The raven symbol was engraved into it.

Underneath were six words:

THE WEDDING IS IN THREE DAYS.

Isabella stared.

"Three days?"

Adrian nodded.

Then the card's second line became visible beneath the emergency light.

AND YOUR FATHER WILL GIVE YOU AWAY.

Isabella stopped breathing.

Because somewhere deep inside her memory, she already knew what those words meant.

Her father wasn't dead.

He was coming to the wedding.

And whoever had arranged the marriage had been waiting twenty years for that moment.