“Who were you ordered to kill?”
My voice sounded strangely calm.
Damien didn’t answer.
That frightened me more than anything Evelyn had said.
I took a step toward him.
“Damien.”
His eyes remained on mine.
“I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
Victoria quietly moved toward the door.
I looked at her.
“Don’t leave.”
She stopped.
“This concerns you too.”
Damien exhaled slowly.
“Five years ago, I received a message from the Crimson Circle.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did it say?”
“That someone had to be eliminated.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
The room seemed to shrink around me.
I laughed once, but there was nothing funny about it.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they believed you would eventually uncover everything.”
“And you agreed?”
His jaw tightened.
“I was twenty-three.
My father was dead.
My family was falling apart.
I was angry, confused, and desperate for answers.”
“So you agreed to kill me.”
“Yes.”
The word hit harder than I expected.
I stepped backward.
“Did you come to my father’s funeral?”
“Yes.”
“Were you watching me?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know who I was when you hired me?”
“Yes.”
My eyes burned.
“And the whole time…”
“I never intended to hurt you.”
“You were ordered to!”
“I know.”
“Then why did you hire me?”
His voice dropped.
“Because I couldn’t kill you.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
He continued.
“The first time I saw you, you were standing beside your father’s grave.”
I remembered that day.
Rain.
Black umbrellas.
My mother’s trembling hands.
Damien had been standing across the cemetery.
I’d never known why.
“You looked terrified,” he said.
“But you didn’t cry.”
I swallowed.
“I thought you were strong.”
“You didn’t know me.”
“No.”
He took a step closer.
“But I wanted to.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t.”
“Amara—”
“Don’t make this romantic.”
His expression broke.
“It isn’t.”
“Then what is it?”
“Regret.”
The word hung between us.
“I spent five years regretting that I ever accepted the mission.”
I looked away.
“Did you ever tell your father?”
“No.”
“Your mother?”
“No.”
“Victoria?”
He glanced at her.
“She knew.”
I turned sharply.
“You knew?”
Victoria nodded.
“Damien refused to carry out the order.”
“And what happened?”
“They gave him another.”
My heart stopped.
“What other order?”
Damien’s eyes darkened.
“To make sure I never discovered the truth.”
I stared at him.
“So they weren’t trying to kill me.”
“No.”
“They were trying to control you.”
“Yes.”
I suddenly understood.
The threats.
The investigation.
The people watching us.
The attacks.
They weren’t simply hunting me.
They were using me to control Damien.
I whispered,
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew you’d leave.”
“You were right.”
His eyes closed.
“I know.”
I walked outside.
The cold air hit my face.
I needed space.
I needed to breathe.
Behind me, the door opened.
Damien didn’t come closer.
He simply stood there.
“Amara.”
I turned.
“Do you love me?”
He went still.
I waited.
“Tell me the truth.”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“When did you start?”
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
He looked at me.
“Maybe the first time you argued with me.”
Despite myself, I almost smiled.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You called me arrogant.”
“You were arrogant.”
“You threw a folder at me.”
“You deserved it.”
His mouth curved slightly.
Then the smile disappeared.
“I knew I was in trouble when I started worrying about whether you would come home safely.”
I looked down.
“Damien…”
“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I don’t expect you to trust me.”
“I don’t.”
“I know.”
He stepped closer.
“But I’ll spend the rest of my life earning both.”
My eyes filled with tears.
I hated him for making me want to cry.
I hated myself even more for still loving him.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Because the first time I held a gun to you…”
He paused.
“I realized I would rather die than pull the trigger.”
My heart broke.
Before I could respond—
A gunshot rang through the trees.
Damien grabbed me.
We fell behind a stone wall.
Another shot.
Then another.
Victoria shouted from inside the lodge.
“THEY FOUND US!”
Damien drew his gun.
“How?”
I looked at the black key in my hand.
The tracker.
I understood.
“They followed the key.”
Damien’s eyes widened.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Amara.”
“If they want the key, they want me.”
“Exactly.”
He grabbed my hand.
“Which means we’re getting rid of it.”
A figure appeared between the trees.
Then another.
Then three more.
Damien fired.
The attackers scattered.
Victoria ran outside.
“We need to leave!”
“Where?”
“There’s a tunnel beneath the lodge.”
Damien looked at me.
“Can you run?”
“Yes.”
“Stay with me.”
We ran.
The tunnel was hidden beneath the fireplace.
Victoria pressed a stone.
The floor opened.
A staircase descended into darkness.
I looked at her.
“How many secrets does your family have?”
“Too many.”
We hurried down.
Damien closed the entrance behind us.
For several minutes, all we could hear was our breathing.
Then Victoria stopped.
“There.”
A metal door stood at the end of the tunnel.
Damien approached it.
“What is this?”
Victoria looked at me.
“Your mother built it.”
My heart raced.
“For what?”
“To hide the truth.”
She looked at the black key.
“Open it.”
I inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Inside was a small room.
A desk.
A computer.
Hundreds of files.
And one photograph pinned to the wall.
I walked toward it.
My breath caught.
It was a photograph of me.
But I was a child.
Maybe six years old.
Standing beside a man I’d never seen before.
A man with Damien’s eyes.
I turned slowly.
“Who is that?”
Victoria’s face went pale.
“Adrian.”
My biological father.
The man Evelyn had claimed to have killed.
I stepped closer to the photograph.
On the back was a date.
Three years after Adrian’s supposed death.
I stared.
“He was alive.”
Victoria didn’t answer.
“Wasn’t he?”
Still nothing.
I turned toward her.
“You said Evelyn killed him.”
“I believed she did.”
“You lied.”
“I didn’t know.”
Damien picked up a file from the desk.
His face changed.
“What?”
He opened it.
I moved closer.
Inside was a photograph of Adrian.
Alive.
Standing outside a hospital.
And beside him—
my mother.
Pregnant.
My breath caught.
The date was written underneath.
Twenty-four years ago.
I looked at Victoria.
“My mother was pregnant with me.”
“Yes.”
“But Jonathan wasn’t my biological father.”
“No.”
I looked at Damien.
He was staring at another document.
“What did you find?”
He slowly lifted his eyes.
“Amara…”
“What?”
He handed me the file.
My name was printed across the top.
SUBJECT: AMARA BELL
Underneath it was a single sentence:
THE HEIR MUST NEVER DISCOVER HER TRUE IDENTITY.
My fingers trembled.
Then I turned the page.
There was a photograph of Damien.
Taken twenty-four years ago.
Beside him was a newborn baby.
Me.
I stared at the photograph.
Damien was only four years old.
Yet he was holding me.
My blood ran cold.
“Damien…”
He looked as shocked as I was.
“I’ve never seen this.”
At the bottom of the photograph was a handwritten note.
I read it aloud.
> “When they grow up, keep them apart.”
My eyes met Damien’s.
“Why?”
Victoria whispered the answer.
“Because the Circle knew your families would eventually unite.”
I frowned.
“Unite how?”
She looked between us.
Her face was filled with fear.
“Because the old prophecy said…”
She swallowed.
“…the heir of the Circle would destroy it by falling in love with the heir of the Vale family.”
Silence.
Damien stared at me.
I stared back.
And suddenly, our love didn’t feel like an accident anymore.
It felt like something someone had been terrified of for decades.
Then the computer screen flickered on by itself.
A video began playing.
Evelyn appeared on the screen.
She smiled directly at us.
“Hello, Amara.”
My blood turned cold.
“You finally found the room.”
She leaned closer to the camera.
“And now you know why Damien was never supposed to love you.”
The screen went black.
Then one final message appeared:
THE TWO HEIRS MUST NEVER UNITE.
Damien reached for my hand.
This time, I didn’t pull away.
Because whatever happened next—
we were facing it together.