Chapter 3: The Carter's files
1918 Words
Elena couldn't breathe.
For several seconds, the room seemed to disappear around her.
There was only one thing she could hear.
The Carter files are missing.
Her father's name.
In Adrian Blackwood's office.
On a phone call he clearly hadn't expected her to hear.
Adrian ended the call and slowly lowered his phone.
His expression was unreadable.
Elena stood.
“What did you just say?”
Adrian looked at her.
“I was handling a business matter.”
“That wasn't what I asked.”
He slipped his phone into his pocket.
“The conversation wasn't about you.”
“My name is Carter.”
“I know.”
“And you just asked someone about Carter files.”
His jaw tightened.
“Elena—”
“What Carter files?”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
She almost laughed.
“You literally said it.”
“I said the Carter files were missing.”
“Exactly.”
“And I don't know why they're missing.”
“Who are they about?”
Adrian didn't answer.
Elena stepped closer.
“Are they about my father?”
The question hung between them.
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel Carter?”
Elena's heart jumped.
He knew his name.
“You know him.”
“No.”
“You just said his name.”
“Because you told me your father's name during the interview.”
Elena froze.
She had.
But something about his answer didn't satisfy her.
“You've never met him?”
“No.”
“Your grandfather never worked with him?”
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
Adrian's patience seemed to disappear.
“I don't know every person my grandfather did business with thirty years ago.”
“My father wasn't just some random person.”
“I didn't say he was.”
“Then what are the Carter files?”
“I told you. I don't know.”
Elena studied his face.
He looked genuinely irritated.
Not nervous.
Not guilty.
Irritated.
That should have reassured her.
It didn't.
Because Adrian Blackwood was a powerful man surrounded by people who knew how to hide things.
Maybe he was simply very good at lying.
She reached for the contract.
“Forget it.”
Adrian's eyes followed her.
“You're leaving?”
“Yes.”
“You haven't answered my proposal.”
“I need time.”
“Take it.”
She picked up the folder.
Then stopped.
“Who was on the phone?”
“My head of archives.”
“And why does he have files with my father's name?”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“That's what I'm going to find out.”
Elena looked at him.
For the first time, she couldn't tell whether he was telling the truth.
That frightened her.
Because she had expected Adrian Blackwood to be irrelevant.
A useful husband.
A convenient doorway into Victoria Laurent's world.
She hadn't expected him to be connected to her father's past.
And if he was...
She needed to know how.
---
Adrian watched Elena walk out of his office.
The door closed behind her.
He remained still.
Something about her bothered him.
Not because she had rejected him.
He was used to people rejecting things.
It was the way she had looked at him when he mentioned the Carter files.
She hadn't looked surprised.
She had looked afraid.
Then suspicious.
Like she already knew there was something to find.
Adrian picked up his phone.
He called the number from earlier.
The line connected almost immediately.
“What exactly is missing?” Adrian asked.
A man's voice answered.
“Everything connected to Daniel Carter.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Who authorized the archive search?”
“No one.”
“Then why were you looking?”
There was silence.
“Sir, the files were flagged this morning.”
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
Adrian walked toward his desk.
“Tell me everything.”
The man hesitated.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“The files were last accessed three years ago.”
Adrian stopped.
“Three years?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“We're still checking.”
Adrian's gaze shifted toward the door Elena had just walked through.
Three years.
That was when Daniel Carter had died.
And Elena had just returned.
Coincidence?
Probably.
But Adrian had learned a long time ago that coincidences were often just secrets waiting to be discovered.
“Find out who accessed them.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And don't tell anyone.”
“Understood.”
Adrian ended the call.
He leaned against his desk.
For the first time, he wondered if hiring Elena had been a mistake.
Then he remembered her eyes.
He remembered the way she challenged him.
The way she refused to be intimidated.
And, annoyingly, the way her hand had felt in his.
He frowned.
That was irrelevant.
He needed a wife.
Not feelings.
Certainly not feelings for a woman he'd known for less than an hour.
---
Elena stepped out of the building and immediately called Sophia.
“Tell me you're not in trouble.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“Not yet.”
“What happened?”
“I met Adrian Blackwood.”
There was a pause.
“And?”
“He offered me a marriage contract.”
Silence.
Then—
“I'm sorry. What?”
“A marriage contract.”
“Like...marriage?”
“Yes, Sophia.”
“You went for a job interview and came back with a husband?”
“I didn't say yes.”
“Yet.”
Elena smiled.
“You know me too well.”
“What happened?”
Elena looked back at the Blackwood building.
“He mentioned my father.”
Sophia's voice became serious.
“What?”
“There are files in Blackwood International's archives connected to Daniel.”
“You're sure?”
“I heard Adrian himself talking about them.”
“And?”
“He says he knows nothing.”
“Do you believe him?”
Elena hesitated.
“No.”
Sophia sighed.
“Elena…”
“I know.”
“You're thinking about accepting the contract.”
Elena looked at the folder in her hand.
“Yes.”
“Because of Victoria.”
“Yes.”
“And because it gives you access to Blackwood.”
“Yes.”
“That's dangerous.”
“I know.”
“Elena—”
“I need to find out what's in those files.”
Sophia went quiet.
Then she asked softly,
“And what if Adrian isn't lying?”
Elena frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“What if he really doesn't know anything?”
Elena stared at the building.
That possibility had crossed her mind.
But she wasn't ready to accept it.
“Then I'll find out what his family knows.”
“And if you fall for him?”
Elena scoffed.
“That's not going to happen.”
Sophia laughed.
“You said the same thing about every man you've ever dated.”
“Adrian isn't my type.”
“You've known him for forty minutes.”
“I know enough.”
“What?”
Elena remembered his dark eyes.
His deep voice.
The way he had looked at her.
She shook the thought away.
“He's arrogant.”
“Handsome?”
“Unfortunately.”
Sophia burst out laughing.
“I'm hanging up.”
“You're avoiding the question.”
“No, I'm avoiding you.”
“Call me after you sign the contract.”
“I haven't agreed.”
“Yet.”
The call ended.
Elena looked down at the folder again.
One year.
Twelve months.
A marriage that wasn't supposed to be real.
It could give her everything she needed.
Access to Victoria.
Access to Blackwood International.
And perhaps...
access to the truth about her father.
She opened the contract.
Her eyes moved over the terms.
Separate bedrooms.
No emotional obligations.
Public appearances together.
Confidentiality.
One-year duration.
And a generous financial settlement.
Elena reached the final page.
There was one handwritten note beneath Adrian's signature.
No lies.
She stared at it.
A bitter smile touched her lips.
That's going to be a problem.
Because Elena already had one enormous lie.
She wasn't marrying Adrian because she needed money.
She wasn't marrying him because she wanted his protection.
She was marrying him because she wanted access to a woman who had destroyed her family.
And she intended to use every advantage Adrian gave her.
---
The next morning, Elena returned to Blackwood International.
She walked into Adrian's office without knocking.
He looked up from his laptop.
“You're late.”
“I wasn't scheduled to be here.”
“Yet you came.”
She placed the contract on his desk.
“I have conditions.”
Adrian leaned back.
“I assumed you would.”
“You don't control my finances.”
“Fine.”
“I will keep my job.”
“You can.”
“I maintain my own apartment.”
“Fine.”
“I don't want your money.”
Adrian's eyebrow lifted.
“You're rejecting the compensation?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't need it.”
He studied her.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
She ignored him.
“And one more thing.”
“What?”
“I don't want you asking questions about my personal life.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“You're asking me not to ask questions while you've spent the last twenty-four hours asking me questions.”
“Exactly.”
“That seems fair.”
Elena stared at him.
“Are you always this irritating?”
“Yes.”
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Adrian noticed.
His gaze lingered on her face.
Something shifted between them.
The silence suddenly felt different.
Elena looked away first.
“Do we have a deal?”
Adrian stood.
He walked around the desk and stopped in front of her.
Too close.
Elena instinctively took half a step back.
He noticed.
“Are you nervous?”
“No.”
“Your answer was too fast.”
“I'm not nervous.”
“Good.”
He held out his hand.
“Then let's make this official.”
Elena looked at his hand.
Then at his face.
She placed hers in his.
His fingers closed around hers.
Warm.
Firm.
And once again, that strange spark traveled through her.
Neither of them moved.
Adrian's gaze dropped briefly to their joined hands.
Then returned to her eyes.
“One year,” he said quietly.
“One year.”
“No feelings.”
“No feelings.”
“No lies.”
Elena's heart skipped.
She forced a smile.
“No lies.”
Adrian released her hand.
Neither of them noticed the way their expressions had changed.
Neither of them knew that the moment they signed that contract, their carefully separated worlds would begin colliding.
And neither knew that somewhere inside Blackwood International...
someone had just opened a file that had been sealed for three years.
A file bearing one name:
DANIEL CARTER.
And beneath it was a photograph.
A photograph Elena had never seen before.
Her father is standing beside Adrian's grandfather.
Both men were smiling.
And on the back of the photograph, written in Daniel Carter's handwriting, were six words:
“If anything happens to me, run.”
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