My Ex-Girlfriend’s Older Sister Got Stood Up At An Art Gallery… So I Asked, “Can I Sit with You ?
Chapter 7
The first thing we did was find Amelia’s mother.
The files contained the location.
An old mansion outside the city.
We went with federal agents.
The house was empty.
No Clara.
No Victor.
But there was a basement.
Inside, we found surveillance equipment.
Hundreds of photographs.
Amelia.
Sophie.
Me.
Our families.
The pictures went back fifteen years.
Someone had been watching us long before we knew.
Amelia stood frozen.
“Why?”
The agent said,
“Because your families were connected to Blackwater.”
“What is Blackwater?”
“A private financial network.”
“Illegal?”
“Originally no.”
The agent explained.
It had been created by the three founders to protect corporate assets.
Then Victor turned it into a secret money-moving system.
He stole millions.
Framed employees.
Killed witnesses.
And manipulated their families.
I looked at Amelia.
“Your father tried to stop him.”
She nodded.
“And mine.”
The agent opened another file.
“There’s more.”
A company had been created using my name.
A company I had never heard of.
Its purpose?
To hold the stolen assets until I was old enough to control them.
Amelia’s name appeared beside mine.
“Why me?”
The agent answered.
“Because your fathers planned to merge the companies.”
Amelia looked at me.
“Our marriage?”
“What?”
“The documents said the two heirs would control Blackwater.”
I frowned.
“They wanted us married.”
“Maybe.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“That’s what Victor wanted people to believe.”
She opened another file.
The original succession documents.
There was no marriage condition.
We only needed to act together.
Victor had lied.
He had separated our families by fear.
Sophie had been forced to leave me.
Amelia had been kept away from me.
Everything had been designed to prevent us from discovering the truth.
Then Amelia found something else.
A recording.
Her father.
He was speaking directly to her.
“Amelia, if you ever see this, I need you to understand.”
He paused.
“Daniel was never your enemy.”
Amelia began crying.
“He was the person I trusted most.”
Then the recording showed something unexpected.
Her father was speaking to Lucas.
Lucas looked terrified.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
He whispered.
“Victor will kill me.”
Her father replied,
“Then help us stop him.”
The recording ended.
Amelia stared.
“Lucas tried to help.”
“But he stood you up.”
“He was threatened.”
We found Lucas’s location.
A motel room.
He was injured.
Badly.
He looked at Amelia.
“I’m sorry.”
She helped him sit.
“Where’s my mother?”
“Victor has her.”
“Why?”
“She knows where the final ledger is.”
“Where?”
Lucas swallowed.
“Your father’s office.”
Amelia frowned.
“We searched it.”
“Not the visible office.”
“Then where?”
Lucas looked at me.
“Your father’s workshop.”
I remembered the photograph.
My father had built things there.
The workshop had been demolished years ago.
Except it hadn’t.
A portion had been preserved beneath the company’s old warehouse.
We went there.
Behind a steel wall was a hidden room.
Inside was the final ledger.
And a second photograph.
My father.
Amelia’s father.
And me.
As a child.
I stared.
“How?”
Amelia looked confused.
Then we found the date.
I was nine.
Our families had known each other for years.
We had been connected before Sophie.
Before the breakup.
Before everything.
Maybe before either of us understood why.
