Queen's Strike Back

The First Move

QUEEN’S STRIKE-BACK

Chapter 2 — The First Move

The envelope remained on my desk long after midnight.

I had read the letter so many times that I could almost recite every word.

Your father's disappearance was not an accident.

Six words.

Six words that had turned everything I believed about my past upside down.

For eight years, I had believed my father abandoned me.

Everyone said the same thing.

He had been exposed.

He had stolen millions from the company.

When the investigation began, he disappeared before he could face the consequences.

That was the story I had grown up with.

The story that had destroyed my family.

The story that had followed me everywhere.

But now I had a photograph.

My father.

Ethan Blackwood's father.

And a third man whose identity I didn't know.

All standing together on September 14, 2017.

The same year my father's life fell apart.

I turned the photograph over.

Nothing.

No name.

No explanation.

Just a small handwritten number in the bottom corner.

17.

My fingers tightened around the photograph.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

My eyes moved to the unfamiliar man's face.

There was something about him.

Something that bothered me.

I had seen that face before.

But where?

I stood up and walked toward the bookshelf.

My father's old photographs were packed into a wooden box at the very back. I hadn't opened it in years.

For a moment, I hesitated.

Then I pulled it out.

Dust covered the lid.

I wiped it away and opened the box.

Photographs.

Old documents.

Letters.

A few newspaper clippings.

And memories I had spent years trying to forget.

I began searching.

Five minutes.

Ten.

Nothing.

Then I found an old photograph from a charity dinner.

My father was standing beside several businessmen.

I stared at the faces.

One.

Two.

Three.

My breath stopped.

There he was.

The same man from the photograph.

I picked up the picture with trembling fingers.

At the bottom was the date.

December 2016.

So this wasn't a random meeting.

They had known each other before September 2017.

I searched through the box again.

This time, I wasn't looking for my father.

I was looking for him.

And eventually, I found something.

A newspaper clipping.

The headline read:

BLACKWOOD INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES MAJOR PRIVATE INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP

My eyes moved down the page.

The Blackwood name appeared repeatedly.

Then I saw another name.

Victor Hale.

I froze.

Hale.

My eyes immediately went to the photograph from the wedding.

Victoria Hale.

Ethan's bride.

My heart began pounding.

"No..."

I grabbed another document.

Victor Hale had been one of the major investors connected to Blackwood Industries.

And according to the article, he had worked closely with my father.

I sat down slowly.

For years, I had thought my family's downfall began with my father's actions.

But what if it didn't?

What if someone had deliberately destroyed him?

And what if the Blackwoods knew?

A sound came from downstairs.

I immediately stopped breathing.

Someone was in the house.

I closed the box.

The footsteps came again.

Slow.

Heavy.

I looked toward the bedroom door.

My phone was on the table.

I reached for it.

The footsteps stopped.

Silence.

Then—

Knock. Knock.

My entire body stiffened.

"Clara?"

Ethan.

Of course.

I almost laughed.

After everything that had happened today, he still had the nerve to come here.

I opened the door only halfway.

"What do you want?"

His expression was different from earlier.

The confidence was gone.

"I'm sorry."

I stared at him.

"You're going to have to be more specific."

"For what happened today."

I almost smiled.

"Which part?"

He lowered his eyes.

"All of it."

I stepped into the hallway.

"You humiliated me in front of everyone."

"I know."

"You stood beside another woman and announced that you couldn't marry me."

"I know."

"And you expected me to stand there and pretend everything was fine."

"I never expected that."

"Then what did you expect?"

He didn't answer.

That silence told me enough.

I folded my arms.

"You should go, Ethan."

He looked at me.

"There is something you need to know."

My expression changed slightly.

"What?"

He glanced toward the staircase.

"Not here."

I studied him carefully.

"Then where?"

"Tomorrow. I'll tell you everything."

"Everything?"

He nodded.

"About your father."

My heart stopped.

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

"How do you know about my father?"

His jaw tightened.

"My father told me something before he died."

I stepped closer.

"What did he tell you?"

Ethan looked away.

"I can't tell you here."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not sure who is listening."

A cold feeling moved through me.

I looked down the hallway.

Nobody.

Then I looked back at him.

"Tomorrow," he repeated. "Ten in the morning. The old Blackwood library."

He turned to leave.

"Ethan."

He stopped.

"If you're lying to me..."

He looked over his shoulder.

"I'm not."

Then he walked away.

I closed the door.

My mind was racing.

Ethan knew something.

Something about my father.

Something his family had kept hidden.

I returned to my room and locked the door.

The photograph was still on the desk.

I picked it up again.

My father's face.

Ethan's father's face.

Victor Hale's face.

Three men.

One secret.

And suddenly, the number written on the back didn't feel random anymore.

17.

I looked at the date again.

September 14, 2017.

Then I remembered something.

My father disappeared on September 17.

Three days later.

My hands went cold.

I had always believed he disappeared because he was running from the police.

But what if those three days were important?

What happened between September 14 and September 17?

I opened my laptop and searched through old records.

Company reports.

News articles.

Financial documents.

Anything connected to Blackwood Industries and my father's company.

Then I found something.

A transaction.

September 16, 2017.

A large transfer had been made from one of my father's company accounts.

But there was something strange.

The account receiving the money wasn't my father's.

It belonged to a private company.

Hale Holdings.

I stared at the screen.

Victoria Hale.

Her father.

Their family.

The Blackwoods.

My father.

Everything was beginning to connect.

And if I was right, my father's disappearance wasn't the beginning of the story.

It was the aftermath.

I closed the laptop.

For the first time in eight years, I wasn't interested in proving my father innocent.

I wanted to know who had destroyed him.

And I was going to find out.

No matter how powerful they were.

No matter how many secrets I uncovered.

They had spent eight years believing Clara Whitmore was a broken girl with nothing left.

Tomorrow, I would make my first move.

And this time...

I wouldn't be the one getting hurt.