Chapter 6: The Man Who Chose the Lie
Amelia watched the frozen image on the projector screen.
Nathan's face stared back at her from seven years ago.
Younger.
More confident.
Before the expensive suits.
Before the awards.
Before the carefully constructed reputation.
Before she knew the truth.
Or at least...
Before she knew a version of the truth.
The theater remained completely silent.
Vanessa didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
The video had done enough damage.
Amelia looked at the screen again.
Nathan was standing outside a café.
Speaking with someone.
Someone whose face was hidden by shadows.
But his voice...
His voice was unmistakable.
"Once she marries me, Blackwood will never know what happened."
Those words had been carved into her memory.
A sentence could be short.
A sentence could be quiet.
A sentence could still destroy seven years of a person's life.
Amelia slowly turned toward Vanessa.
"Where did you get this?"
Vanessa didn't answer immediately.
That hesitation told Amelia everything.
"You didn't find it."
"No."
"Someone gave it to you."
Vanessa looked away.
"Yes."
"Who?"
The woman who had spent months pretending to be Nathan's secret lover suddenly looked exhausted.
"I don't know."
Amelia almost laughed.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
Vanessa looked directly at her.
"I expect you to understand something."
"What?"
"I have been running from this person longer than you have."
The screen turned black.
The projector continued making a faint clicking sound.
Like a machine trying to remember something that no longer existed.
Amelia folded the video file into her mind.
Not emotionally.
Logically.
That was how she survived.
Nathan had known her identity before their marriage.
That changed everything.
The question wasn't whether he had lied.
He had.
The question was why.
Money?
Power?
Revenge?
Or something worse?
"What happened after this video?"
Vanessa crossed her arms.
"Three months later, you married him."
"And?"
"And Nathan gained access to something he never had before."
"My family?"
Vanessa nodded.
"Not directly."
"Then what?"
"Information."
The answer chilled her.
Amelia understood immediately.
People often underestimated information.
Money could be replaced.
Companies could recover.
But knowledge...
Knowledge was a weapon that never became outdated.
When Amelia returned to the Blackwood Foundation, Thomas was waiting.
One look at her face told him something had changed.
"You know."
It wasn't a question.
Amelia placed the video drive on the table.
"How long?"
Thomas stared at it.
"How long did you know Nathan was connected to my family?"
Thomas remained silent.
That was enough.
Amelia's expression hardened.
"Thomas."
"I didn't know everything."
"That isn't an answer."
He sighed.
"Your father knew Nathan before you met him."
The room became painfully quiet.
"How?"
"Through a business program."
"Designed to find young talent?"
Thomas nodded.
"Yes."
Amelia laughed once.
A cold, humorless sound.
"So my father introduced him to the world."
"Not intentionally."
"Then why?"
Thomas hesitated.
"Because Nathan was different back then."
Amelia looked at him.
"Different how?"
"He was ambitious."
Everyone was ambitious.
That wasn't an answer.
Thomas continued.
"He was poor. Hungry. Intelligent. Your father respected that."
Amelia walked toward the window.
"And then?"
"Then your father discovered Nathan was willing to cross lines."
"What lines?"
Thomas looked down.
"The kind your father spent his entire life preventing people from crossing."
For years, Amelia believed her father had been controlling.
Overprotective.
Too suspicious.
Now she wondered if those instincts had been warnings.
Warnings she ignored.
She remembered Nathan's first meeting with her father.
It was brief.
Strange.
Arthur Blackwood had been polite.
But distant.
Afterward, Nathan joked.
"Your father doesn't seem to like me."
Amelia had defended him.
"He doesn't trust easily."
Nathan smiled.
"He should."
At the time, she thought it was confidence.
Now...
She wondered if it was arrogance.
That night, Amelia finally called her father.
The phone rang twice.
Arthur answered.
"I was wondering when you would."
No greeting.
No surprise.
He knew.
Of course he knew.
Amelia closed her eyes.
"Did you know about Nathan?"
Silence.
The kind only powerful people could create.
Not empty.
Heavy.
"Yes."
The honesty hurt more than a lie.
"How long?"
"Before your wedding."
Her grip tightened around the phone.
"And you let me marry him?"
"I tried to stop you."
"You warned me he was dangerous."
"Yes."
"You didn't tell me why."
Another silence.
Then Arthur said:
"Because if I told you everything, you would believe I was controlling your life."
Amelia's voice became colder.
"And now?"
"Now you believe I wasn't controlling enough."
That answer stopped her.
Because it was painfully accurate.
"Tell me everything."
Arthur didn't answer.
"Now."
A long pause.
Then:
"Nathan Cole wasn't looking for a wife when he met you."
Amelia closed her eyes.
The sentence she had feared.
"He was looking for a way into Blackwood."
"Why?"
"Because someone promised him something."
"Who?"
Arthur's voice changed.
For the first time, she heard something she rarely heard from him.
Fear.
"Amelia..."
"Who?"
"The same person who has been moving behind Nathan for years."
A pause.
"The person who created this entire situation."
Lightning flashed outside her window.
Then Arthur said:
"Daniel Voss."
The name returned.
The investor.
The payments.
The hidden accounts.
The man connected to Nathan.
The man who seemed to exist behind every shadow.
"Why would Daniel want me?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet.
"Because your mother found something before she died."
Amelia froze.
Her mother.
A subject her father almost never discussed.
"What did she find?"
"Evidence."
"Of what?"
"That Daniel Voss wasn't building an empire."
Arthur's voice lowered.
"He was building control."
The call ended twenty minutes later.
Amelia sat alone in the dark.
Her entire life had become a puzzle.
Except now she understood something terrifying.
The missing pieces weren't missing.
Someone had taken them.
And hidden them from her.
Her laptop suddenly received a notification.
Unknown sender.
One attachment.
A document.
The title appeared.
BLACKWOOD SUCCESSION FILE.
Her blood ran cold.
Because only three people should have had access to that file.
Her father.
Thomas.
And herself.
She opened it.
The first page contained a handwritten note.
Not from Nathan.
Not from Vanessa.
Not from Daniel.
From her mother.
A woman who had been dead for ten years.
The message was only one sentence.
Amelia, if you are reading this, your father has failed to protect you.
She stared at the screen.
Then the second line appeared.
And Nathan Cole is not the person you should be afraid of.
Amelia stopped breathing.
Because suddenly...
The enemy she had been chasing...
May you like
Might have been running from someone too.
End of Chapter 6
