Chapter Three : The Photograph
1759 Words
Elena
Elena didn't sleep.
By two in the morning, the warning on her phone was still replaying in her head.
Leave Voss International.
Lucien Voss isn't the man you think he is.
She had deleted the call log.
She had blocked the number.
She had even convinced herself that the caller was simply trying to frighten her.
But fear had never been the problem.
Curiosity was.
Elena had always been curious.
It was the reason she had graduated near the top of her class. The reason she could spend hours dissecting a problem everyone else had dismissed. The reason she had accepted a position at Voss International despite every instinct telling her that something was wrong.
And now she had proof.
Not enough proof.
But something.
She opened the photograph again.
The old picture showed Lucien's father standing outside the Voss estate.
Beside him stood a woman whose face had been scratched away.
Elena had spent months trying to identify her.
She had assumed the woman was Isabella Vale.
Her mother.
But Lucien's investigator had apparently discovered something different.
Elena wasn't Isabella's biological daughter.
The thought made her chest tighten.
Then who was she?
Her entire childhood had been built around one woman.
Isabella.
Her mother.
The woman who had raised her alone.
The woman who had always refused to talk about Elena's father.
The woman who disappeared when Elena was seven.
For years, Elena had believed Isabella abandoned her.
But six months ago, she'd discovered the first clue that suggested otherwise.
A box hidden beneath a loose floorboard in their old house.
Inside had been documents.
A key.
Several photographs.
And a single note.
If I disappear, never trust the Voss family.
Elena had been seventeen when she first found the box.
She had kept it hidden ever since.
Until now.
She opened the drawer beside her bed and removed the small black box.
Her fingers trembled as she lifted the lid.
The silver pendant rested inside.
Except—
It wasn't alone.
Beneath it was a photograph she'd never shown anyone.
A photograph of a baby.
A newborn wrapped in a white blanket.
On the back, written in faded ink:
Elena — 14 March.
She had always assumed it was her.
But suddenly she wasn't sure.
She turned the photograph over again.
There was something else written beneath the name.
A single word.
Voss.
Elena stopped breathing.
---
Lucien
"Say it again."
Adrian stood across the room holding a file.
"Elena Vale isn't Isabella Vale's biological daughter."
Lucien stared at him.
"Then who is?"
"We don't know."
"You told me you investigated everything."
"I did."
"Then investigate harder."
Adrian placed the file on the desk.
"There's something else."
Lucien opened it.
"Elena's birth records are incomplete."
"How incomplete?"
"Her original birth certificate doesn't exist."
Lucien's eyes narrowed.
"Everyone has a birth certificate."
"Not Elena."
Adrian handed him another document.
"This is the certificate she currently uses. It was issued when she was seven."
"By whom?"
"Her mother."
Lucien's expression darkened.
"That's impossible."
"Not legally. Isabella registered her as her daughter after leaving the city."
"Leaving?"
"Yes."
Lucien leaned back.
"Where did they go?"
"That's where it gets strange."
Adrian lowered his voice.
"There are no official records of Isabella Vale between the year your father died and the year Elena entered school."
Lucien stared at him.
"Seven years."
"Exactly."
He closed the file.
"Find the missing years."
Adrian nodded.
"And Lucien?"
"What?"
"You should know something about the pendant."
Lucien looked up.
"What?"
Adrian pulled out a photograph.
"This symbol."
He pointed to a tiny engraving on the back of the pendant.
Lucien stared.
He knew it immediately.
A black serpent wrapped around a crown.
The symbol of the Voss family.
But it had disappeared from the family crest decades ago.
"Where did you get that photograph?"
"It was taken from an old archive."
Lucien's voice became quiet.
"Who used this symbol?"
Adrian hesitated.
"Your grandfather."
Lucien's eyes hardened.
"My grandfather died before I was born."
"Yes."
"And?"
Adrian looked at him.
"He had another child."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Lucien slowly stood.
"Who?"
"We haven't confirmed the name."
"Find it."
Adrian nodded.
Lucien turned toward the window.
Suddenly, Elena's presence in his life made sense in the worst possible way.
She hadn't simply walked into his company.
Someone had brought her there.
And if the pendant belonged to his grandfather...
then Elena's existence could threaten the entire Voss empire.
---
Elena
The next morning, Elena arrived at Voss International earlier than usual.
She had made a decision.
She was going to find the truth.
Not because Lucien had frightened her.
Not because someone had threatened her.
But because she was tired of living with questions.
She entered the executive floor.
Mara was already there.
"You're early."
"I couldn't sleep."
Mara looked at her carefully.
"Everything okay?"
"Fine."
It was a lie.
Mara studied her face.
Then she glanced at the pendant beneath Elena's blouse.
"You should take that off."
Elena stiffened.
"Why?"
Mara's expression changed.
"Because Mr. Voss told you to."
"He didn't explain why."
"He doesn't explain himself."
"Apparently."
Mara sighed.
"Elena."
"Yes?"
"Some advice."
Elena waited.
"Do your job."
"I intend to."
"Then don't investigate things that aren't your business."
Elena's eyes narrowed.
"What exactly do you think I'm investigating?"
Mara didn't answer.
She walked away.
Elena watched her.
Another warning.
Another person who knew something.
She was beginning to realize that Voss International was full of people who knew pieces of a story she hadn't been told.
At 9:00 a.m., Lucien entered.
He barely acknowledged anyone.
He walked straight into his office.
Elena followed with his schedule.
"Your 9:30 meeting has been moved to eleven."
"Why?"
"Mr. Hale requested the change."
Lucien stopped.
"Denied."
"He said it was urgent."
"Then he can wait."
Elena made a note.
"Your investor call is at ten."
"Cancel it."
"Why?"
His eyes lifted.
"Because I said so."
She stared at him.
"You told me yesterday not to blindly follow orders."
A brief silence.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"You remembered."
"Unfortunately."
He walked toward his desk.
"Good."
She placed the tablet down.
"There's another matter."
"What?"
"The pendant."
His expression immediately hardened.
"Remove it."
"No."
Lucien looked at her.
"Excuse me?"
"You still haven't told me why."
His jaw tightened.
"You don't need to know."
"Then I'm not removing it."
For several seconds, they simply stared at each other.
Then Lucien walked toward her.
Slowly.
He stopped close enough that Elena had to tilt her head to maintain eye contact.
"Do you always make things difficult?"
"Only when people refuse to give me reasonable explanations."
"You don't know what you're asking for."
"Then tell me."
His gaze dropped to her lips for the briefest moment.
Elena noticed.
So did he.
Something shifted in the air.
Neither moved.
Lucien's hand lifted.
For one breathless second, Elena thought he was going to touch her.
Instead, his fingers stopped inches from the pendant.
His voice became barely audible.
"That necklace has gotten people killed."
Elena's heart stopped.
"What?"
He lowered his hand.
"Forget I said that."
"Lucien—"
"Go to your desk."
It was the first time she had called him by his first name.
They both noticed.
His expression darkened.
"Don't call me that."
"Why?"
"Because you work for me."
"And?"
"And there are boundaries."
Elena's heart was pounding.
"Then why do you keep standing so close to me?"
Lucien froze.
For a moment, something raw crossed his face.
Then he stepped back.
"Leave."
Elena did.
But she didn't miss the way his hands clenched after she walked away.
---
Lucien
He hated her.
At least, that was what he told himself.
He hated the questions.
The defiance.
The way she looked at him without fear.
Most of all, he hated how easily she disrupted the control he'd spent years building.
He opened his desk drawer.
The old photograph was still there.
His father's photograph.
He placed it beside Elena's employee file.
Two images.
Two secrets.
One impossible connection.
Then he noticed something.
The photograph of the mysterious woman had been damaged around the pendant.
Lucien picked up a magnifying glass.
There was a tiny mark beneath it.
A number.
14-03.
His eyes widened.
March 14.
Elena's birth date.
He immediately called Adrian.
"Come to my office."
Ten minutes later, Adrian arrived.
Lucien showed him the photograph.
"Look."
Adrian stared.
"That's Elena's birthday."
"Exactly."
Adrian looked troubled.
"Coincidence?"
"No."
Lucien picked up Elena's file.
"Nothing about her is a coincidence."
---
Elena
At 6:15 p.m., Elena remained alone in the office.
Everyone else had gone.
She was reviewing documents when she heard footsteps behind her.
She turned.
Lucien stood at the end of the corridor.
"You're still here."
"So are you."
His eyes narrowed.
"You shouldn't be working this late."
"I'm finishing the financial report."
"I told you to go home."
"You also told me to protect your time."
A pause.
"And?"
"I haven't finished."
He walked toward her.
"You're stubborn."
"So I've been told."
He stopped beside her desk.
His gaze fell to the document.
Then to her pendant.
"Elena."
She looked up.
"What?"
"Where exactly did your mother get that?"
"I don't know."
"Ask her."
"She's gone."
His expression changed.
"You mean she's dead?"
"I don't know."
Lucien stared at her.
Elena's voice softened.
"She disappeared when I was seven."
Something in his face became distant.
"Seventeen years ago."
"Yes."
"When did she give you the pendant?"
"When I was six."
Lucien went completely still.
"Six."
Elena nodded.
"Why?"
He didn't answer.
He simply looked at her.
Then his phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
Adrian.
Lucien answered.
"What?"
Adrian's voice was urgent.
"Lucien, we found the name."
Lucien turned away from Elena.
"Whose?"
"The missing child."
A pause.
"Your grandfather's second child."
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Tell me."
Adrian spoke.
And whatever he said made all the color drain from Lucien's face.
Elena watched him carefully.
"What is it?"
Lucien slowly turned around.
His eyes met hers.
For the first time since she'd met him, Elena saw something she had never seen before.
Fear.
Not anger.
Not suspicion.
Fear.
He lowered the phone.
"Elena..."
She stood.
"What?"
His voice was barely a whisper.
"Your mother didn't steal that pendant."
He looked at the necklace.
"She was protecting it."
Elena's heart pounded.
"From whom?"
Lucien stared at her.
"From my family."
A silence.
Then he said the words that would change everything:
"Because the blood running through your veins may be Voss blood."
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