Outside the study the footsteps ceased.
Aria came to a stop.
Neither she nor Damien moved for a moment.
The old envelope lay open on the desk between them, Elena’s handwriting staring back at them like a warning from the past.
The marriage was not the beginning.
It had been a cover.
Another footstep echoed in the hall.
Slow .
Right.
Not the sound of someone trying to conceal.
Somebody wanted them to know they were there.
Damien stepped in front of Aria at once.
She caught his arm.
“‘Don’t.’
With his eyes, he looked at her.
“Stand back,” said he.
I am not hiding behind you.
Aria.
His voice was soft.
Strong.
The same masterful tone that had irritated her more than anything else about him.
But this time it wasn’t arrogance.
Fear only.
Not for him.
For her.
Aria turned toward the door.
“We don’t know who that is.
I know.” “Then don’t be in a hurry to get out there.”
Damien ground his teeth.
“Are you telling me I’m going to stand here and wait for whoever broke into this house to come through that door?
I think you should think before you do.”
A faint smile nearly crept onto his face.
Almost.
You’re starting to sound like me.” “No.” Aria let his arm fall.
“I’m beginning to sound like the woman you should have listened to years ago.”
Her words stung him more than she intended.
His face changed.
Neither spoke for a moment.
Then the footfalls came again.
Nearer.
Damien glanced at the door.
Aria took the envelope.
If someone entered the house, there was a reason.
She wouldn’t let fear make her sloppy.
She put Elena’s letter into her bag.
Damien saw it.
“What’re you taking that for?
“Someone wanted me to discover it.”
His eyes squinted.
Or someone wanted you to think so.”
Aria looked at him.
““Exactly.”
The door-handle moved.
Damien’s whole body stiffened.
The door opened.
There was nobody.
Just the empty hall.
Aria’s heart raced.
Damien took a step forward.
Stay here.
She ignored him and went on.
The hall was dark.
The lights hadn’t been switched on since they entered the house and the shadows from the tall windows extended across the floor.
““Richard?
Aria phoned.
No response.
Damien looked toward the stairs.
“Richard!”
Silence.
And then Noah appeared at the far end of the hall.
His face was tense.
Mr.
Laurent.
Damien swung around sharply.
“What?” ““The front security system just came back online.”
Aria scowled.
Just now?
Noah nodded.
“Someone turned it off from afar.
“I got some of it back.
Can you see who walked in?
No.” Noah’s expression grew hard.
But I can tell you one thing.
What?
It was more than a system crash.
He looked toward the study.
It was rerouted.”
Damien narrowed his eyes.
“Redirected to where?
In the study.”
Aria shivered.
“”So whoever came here wanted someone to find something.”
Noah nodded.
“Or wanted somebody here when they did.”
Damien gazed at her.
No one had to say what they were thinking.
The letter.
Richard disappearing.
The desk in a mess.
Old picture.
It had all happened too perfectly.
Somebody had been expecting them.
Aria went back into the study.
Search the room.
Noah glanced at Damien.
Damien nodded.
Go ahead.
Noah started searching the desk, the shelves, the cabinets and the drawers.
Aria stood next to the photo.
There were four adults staring at her.
Richard.
Her mom.
Elena.
VIC.
Throughout most of her life she had assumed that these families were connected only by her marriage to Damien.
But the picture told a different story.
Their link had been there long before she and Damien knew anything.
And whatever had happened twenty years ago had been important enough to bury away by all four adults.
Aria picked up the photograph
And on the back there was writing.
She turned it over.
The words were weathered.
But still legible.
Never let the kids find out.
Her stomach clenched.
“The children.
Damien came up to her.
“You mean us” Yes.
Why?
The words stared at Aria.
“That’s what we’re trying to get to.”
Noah stopped suddenly.
I’ve got something.
They both looked at him.
In his hand he held a small black box.
Aria knew it the moment she saw it.
“A recorder?”
Noah nodded.
It was under the desk.
Damien grabbed it.
“Anything on it?
I haven’t checked.”
Damien pushed the button.
Silence fell in the room.
Then a voice.
Richard’s voice.
Aria’s breath caught.
If you’re hearing this then something has gone wrong.”
Damien and Aria looked at each other.
The recording continued.
“”Aria, I don’t know if you’ll be hearing this alone or with Damien beside you.
Aria’s fingers curled up.
And Richard knew.
He’d known they might come together .But listen hard if Damien is around.
The tape cut.
Then Richard spoke again.
“Your families came to an agreement twenty years ago.
Damien’s face hardened.
“It wasn’t just about your marriage.”
Aria gulped.
The words sounded all too familiar.
“Something belonging to the Valmont family was stolen.”
Silence.
Aria’s eyes went wide.
Damien looked at her.
“”Stolen?
The recording went on.
“Something that should have died with Aria.
Aria felt the room tipping.
“With me?”
Damien looked at the recorder.
“Keep playing.”
Richard’s voice dropped.<“Your mother was the first to find out the truth.”
Aria’s heart started pounding.
“My mother?” She learned that someone inside the Laurent empire was moving assets, hiding records, forging ownership papers.
Damien stopped.
Noah looked at him.
“Monsieur Laurent…
Damien raised a hand.
“Stay listening.” Elena tried to stop it.
Richard’s voice wavered.
Victor tried to stop it.
Aria’s eyes hardened at the mention of Damien’s father.
“And your mother and I saw that the person who did it was more powerful than we thought.”
The recording popped.
Then Richard said the words that would change everything.
“We thought the only way we could keep the children safe was to keep them together.
Aria shut her eyes.
The wedding.
The promise*
The families.
And it all made sense.
But still something didn’t add up.
If the marriage was intended to protect her, why had it destroyed her?
Why had Damien been allowed to treat it as a duty?
What made her think for years she wasn’t wanted?
She opened her eyes.
“Keep on playing.”
The recording kept going.
“But we made a mistake.”
Damien moved closer.
“We thought the threat would disappear once Aria married into the Laurent family.”
A pause.
It did not.
The room fell silent.
“It just got more intense.
Aria’s breath grew easier.
Someone had done more than just arrange her marriage.
Someone had been waiting for it.
If you hear this, Damien, there’s something you need to know.”
Damien’s eyes remained on the recorder.
Your father didn’t tell you everything.
His face clouded.
“”Big surprise there.
Aria looked at him.
He sounded bitter; there was no denying it.
The recording continued.
“”But I didn’t either.
Aria was frozen.
Richard, too, had hidden something.
I didn’t tell Aria one truth.
If she knew it too young she would have been a target.
Aria’s eyes stung.
You should’ve told me.
Damien looked at her.
She had stopped talking to the recorder.
She was talking to the father who wasn’t there.
Aria, if you’re hearing this now, you’re of age.
On the recording, there was a faint sound.
Like Richard breathing in.
You were not just Richard Vale’s daughter.
Aria stopped breathing.
Damien glanced at her.
The recording went on.
“No, your inheritance was never just cash.
Aria’s heart was pounding.
“The Valmont fortune was built on something that was never meant to go outside the family.”
The recording stopped abruptly.
Static
Then quiet.
Noah looked the thing over.
The file ended.
Aria looked at him.
“”All of that?”
He nodded.
Damien took the recorder and looked at it.
How long was the recording?
Just shy of nine minutes.
And what was it we heard?
I figure six, maybe.
Damien looked at him.
Three minutes are gone.”
Aria’s blood ran cold.
Someone took them away.”
Noah nodded.
“Most probably.”
Damien glanced at the desk.
Can you restore the deleted part?
I’ll try.”
He connected the device to his laptop at once.
Aria looked again at the envelope.
Something was not right.
She’d seen it before.
But she knew now.
Too carefully had Elena’s letter been laid down.
Richard’s tape had been left behind with suspicious ease.
And Richard was gone himself.
It had been fixed up.
But why?
To tell them?
To scare them?
Or to take them somewhere else?
Aria opened the envelope once more.
Under the letter from Elena was another sheet.
She’d missed it.
Her hands got cold.
She drew it out.
It was not a letter.
It was a reprint of an old paper.
On the top there were several words.
VALMONT FAMILY TRUST
Damien approached.
What is that?
Aria looked down at the page.
I don’t know.
Her eyes went down.
Then he paused.
A name.
Her name.
Aria Valmont
Beneath that was a percentage of ownership.
Damien stared.
““Impossible.”
Aria’s voice was a mere whisper.
This says I owned some of the Valmont assets before I got married.'”
Noah looked up from his computer.
“How much?”
Aria said nothing.
She continued reading.
Then her expression changed.
Damien noticed that right away.
““What?
She turned the paper to face him.
His eyes moved down the page.
Damien Laurent looked genuinely stunned for the first time in his life.
“That’s not possible.
”Why?” That percentage because…
He hesitated.
Aria waited.
Damien.
He looked at her.
““How much.
He lowered his voice.
“More than one-half.
The room was silent.
Aria looked at the paper.
Over 50 per cent.
She had been more than merely associated with the Valmont fortune.
She was the controlling heir.
Someone had worked for years to make sure she never knew.
Damien saw her in a new light.
Not with a kind word.
Not with guilt.
Realization.
The woman he had treated as his quiet wife had more power than he could have ever imagined.
But before either of them could say a word Noah’s laptop went “shing”.
His eyes were on the screen .Mr.
Laurent.
Damien spun round.
What?
Noah’s face was pale.
“I recovered some of the deleted audio.
Aria moved closer.
“play it.
play it.
Noah pushed the key.
Static filed the room.
Then came Richard’s voice again.
But this time, he seemed afraid.
“”If they have found this recording, then they are already aware of Aria’s inheritance.”
Aria felt her stomach drop.
Richard continued.
And if they find out about the inheritance, they’ll go for the one closest to her.
Damien’s expression shifted.
“Me.
The recording continued.
“No.” A beat.
“”Not Damien.”
Aria scowled.
Richard’s voice faltered.
“Who is the closest person to Aria standing, the person who can open the Valmont trust?
Aria looked at the recorder.
Who?
“Richard answered.
“Aria herself.”
Silence.
Then another sentence.
“But there is one problem.
Stasis.
She doesn’t know that the trust was left to her.
Aria’s eyes widened.
The recording went crackle.
Richard’s voice was near a whisper.
“The person who transferred it to her is the same person who made Elena disappear.”
The sound faded.
Noah lifted his head slowly.
Damien turned to Aria.
Neither said anything.
Elena.
Vanishing.
Not dying.
Not found.
Aria’s mind flicked back to the old photo.
Exactly.
Back to the messages.
To the warning some one knew her.
To the woman standing with young Damien
To everything she had heard about Damien’s mother.
Her voice quivered.
““Not Elena.
Damien didn’t say anything.
He couldn’t do it.
The one truth he never doubted for years was his mother’s death.
Now it was all coming down.
His father had been lying.
Richard had lied.
The families had been lying.
And the woman he had once thought of as simply his wife might have been the heart of the entire conspiracy.
Noah’s phone rang then.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.”Mr.
Laurent…What.”It’s Richard.
Aria’s heart leaped.
Where is he?
Noah answered, slow.
We received a text from his phone.
Damien edged closer.
“What does it say?”
Noah turned the screen around to face them.
It was only two sentences.
You discovered the trust.
And below it:
Now go find the man who stole it.
Aria read the text.
Then another message came.
It was for her, personally.
Don’t trust Damien Aria.
Her breath hitched.
And below that, a final message.
He knows more about it than he’s told you.