Chapter 4 - The Secret Sebastian Could Never Allow Her to Tell
Amelia had not stolen money.
She had stolen photographs.
Twenty-three of them.
Sebastian had believed she knew nothing about finance, shell companies or development agreements. He had spent years treating her like decorative furniture at dinners where powerful men spoke freely around her.
That arrogance had become his mistake.
Three nights before Penelope’s wedding, Amelia had entered Sebastian’s study while he showered.
She was searching for her passport.
Instead, she found a second safe hidden behind a painting.
Sebastian had once entered the code while Amelia stood behind him carrying coffee.
He had never noticed she was watching.
The safe contained contracts, banking ledgers and copies of private agreements.
Amelia had photographed everything with the burner phone.
“The phone is damaged,” she told Adrian.
They were sitting in his office while Marco connected the device to a recovery system.
“But the memory might still be intact.”
Marco looked up.
“Give me twenty minutes.”
Adrian stared at Amelia.
“What did you recognize?”
“Names.”
“Arthur?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
“City officials. Attorneys. Developers.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“And Rossi?”
Amelia hesitated.
“Yes.”
Marco’s hands stopped over the keyboard.
Adrian’s expression became unreadable.
“Which Rossi?”
“I don’t know.”
“There are not many.”
“I saw the surname beside several payments.”
Adrian stood.
For the first time, Amelia saw something close to genuine concern in his face.
“My organization has never done business with Croft.”
“I’m telling you what I saw.”
“I believe you.”
That answer surprised her.
Adrian walked to the window.
If Sebastian was moving money under the Rossi name, he could be creating evidence that made Adrian appear responsible for crimes he had never authorized.
“What kind of payments?” Marco asked.
“Construction companies. Security contracts. One shipping company.”
Marco looked at Adrian.
Adrian cursed softly.
“What?”
Amelia asked.
“There was a warehouse raid three months ago,” Marco said. “Weapons were found inside a building associated with one of our former companies.”
“Former?”
Adrian turned.
“We sold it eighteen months earlier. Someone manipulated public records so the property still appeared connected to us.”
Amelia understood.
“Sebastian?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
Adrian’s eyes turned cold.
“To make me fight Arthur Harrington.”
Marco added, “And make Arthur believe Adrian was attacking his properties.”
Amelia suddenly saw the larger design.
Sebastian was not merely cruel.
He had been engineering a war.
“Why would he want that?”
Adrian answered.
“Waterfront redevelopment.”
Amelia remembered conversations.
Huge projects.
Billions of dollars.
Rezoning.
Ports.
Hotels.
Luxury towers.
“If the Harringtons and Rossis destroy each other…”
“Croft buys what remains,” Adrian finished.
Marco removed the memory chip from Amelia’s phone.
“Let’s see what we have.”
The recovered images appeared one by one.
Some were blurry.
Others were clear enough to read.
Adrian moved closer.
Amelia watched his face harden with each photograph.
Shell corporations.
Political donations.
Payments to private investigators.
Bribes disguised as consulting fees.
Then Marco stopped.
“Adrian.”
The screen showed a transfer of $2.4 million.
The recipient was listed as Rossi Strategic Holdings.
“That company doesn’t exist,” Adrian said.
“It does now,” Marco replied.
“Who owns it?”
Marco typed.
Several seconds passed.
Then his expression changed.
“Registered eighteen months ago in Delaware.”
“To?”
“A nominee trust.”
“Beneficiary?”
Marco stared at the screen.
“Luca Moretti.”
Adrian went completely still.
Amelia sensed immediately that the name mattered.
“Who is Luca?”
Adrian did not answer.
Marco did.
“Adrian’s uncle.”
The room fell silent.
Luca Rossi Moretti had served as an adviser to Adrian’s father and later became one of Adrian’s most trusted senior lieutenants.
He had known every property, every account and every weakness inside the organization.
“And where is he?” Amelia asked.
Marco looked grim.
“Downstairs.”
Minutes later, Luca entered Adrian’s office.
He was almost sixty, silver-haired and elegantly dressed.
He smiled at Amelia.
“So this is our accidental bride.”
Adrian did not smile.
“Sit.”
Luca noticed the screen.
His expression shifted almost imperceptibly.
Adrian saw it.
“Recognize the company?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
Luca looked at the screen again.
“Should I?”
“Rossi Strategic Holdings.”
Luca shrugged.
“People use our name all the time.”
Marco turned the laptop.
“And this?”
A company registration appeared.
Luca’s name.
His smile disappeared.
“This is fabricated.”
“Maybe.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“But Sebastian Croft paid that company eleven million dollars in eighteen months.”
Luca stood.
“Are you accusing me?”
“I’m asking.”
“You brought some frightened girl here and now you’re trusting stolen photographs over family?”
Amelia flinched at the contempt in his voice.
Adrian noticed.
“Sit down.”
Luca ignored him.
“She could be working for Croft.”
Adrian’s stare sharpened.
“Sit.”
This time Luca obeyed.
Adrian leaned over the desk.
“Did you take money from Sebastian?”
“No.”
“Did you falsify ownership records?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange the warehouse raid?”
“No.”
Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked it.
Then looked at Adrian.
“What?”
Marco handed him the phone.
Security footage.
Someone entering the estate medical wing the previous evening.
The figure wore a guard uniform.
But the identification record belonged to a man who had been off duty.
The camera caught the intruder’s face briefly.
Luca looked at the screen.
His color changed.
Adrian saw it.
“You know him.”
“No.”
“Wrong answer.”
Luca stood suddenly.
His hand moved toward his jacket.
Marco reached faster.
Within seconds, Luca was against the wall.
Adrian stared at his uncle.
“Tell me you weren’t reaching for a gun.”
Luca said nothing.
Marco removed a pistol.
Amelia stood frozen near the desk.
Adrian’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Who is the man in the footage?”
Luca smiled.
“You have bigger problems than him.”
Adrian walked closer.
“What does Sebastian want?”
“What every intelligent man wants.”
“Money?”
“Control.”
“And Amelia?”
Luca’s gaze moved toward her.
For the first time, she saw how valuable the photographs had made her.
“She has enough evidence on that phone to put Croft away for the rest of his life.”
Amelia’s stomach tightened.
Adrian stepped between them.
“You don’t look at her.”
Luca laughed.
“Careful, nephew.”
“About what?”
“You kidnapped her twelve hours ago and already you’re behaving like she belongs to you.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“She belongs to herself.”
Amelia stared at him.
Luca’s smile disappeared.
Marco escorted him out.
Adrian immediately ordered the entire estate locked down.
Every guard changed.
Every communication line checked.
No one entered.
No one left.
But the danger had already moved closer.
That evening, Amelia stood in the kitchen with Evelyn.
The doctor had insisted she eat something.
“Stress will not help either of you,” Evelyn said.
Amelia touched her stomach.
“I don’t know how to stop being afraid.”
“You don’t.”
Amelia looked at her.
“You learn that fear can exist without making every decision for you.”
Amelia swallowed.
“Did Adrian tell you to say that?”
Evelyn laughed.
“Adrian Rossi has never told me what to say successfully in his entire life.”
For the first time in days, Amelia smiled.
It lasted only seconds.
An alarm sounded.
Not loud.
Three short tones.
Evelyn’s face changed.
“What is that?”
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the kitchen.
Amelia stopped breathing.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Fast.
Then a man shouted.
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Evelyn grabbed Amelia’s arm.
“Come with me.”
They moved toward a service passage.
Another shot.
Then another.
Someone had entered the house.
“Sebastian,” Amelia whispered.
Evelyn pulled her toward a hidden stairwell.
But before they reached it, a figure stepped from the darkness.
Amelia recognized him instantly.
The same man from the security footage.
He raised a weapon.
“Ms. Hastings.”
Evelyn stepped in front of her.
The man smiled.
“Mr. Croft wants his property returned.”
Amelia’s fear vanished beneath something hotter.
“No.”
The intruder stepped closer.
“You don’t have a choice.”
A voice came from behind him.
“She does.”
Adrian emerged from the darkness.
The intruder turned.
Too late.
Marco struck the weapon from his hand.
A violent struggle followed.
Amelia backed against the wall while Evelyn shielded her.
Within seconds, the intruder was restrained.
Adrian looked past him.
Directly at Amelia.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Adrian approached slowly.
This time she did not move away.
His hand stopped inches from her shoulder.
“May I?”
Amelia understood.
She nodded.
Adrian gently touched her arm.
Just enough to reassure himself she was standing.
Nothing more.
Something changed between them in that moment.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Trust.
Small and fragile.
But alive.
Marco dragged the intruder toward the basement.
Before disappearing, the man laughed.
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
The intruder smiled through bloodied lips.
“You’re protecting the wrong thing.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
The man looked directly at Amelia.
“Croft doesn’t care about the phone anymore.”
Amelia felt cold.
“Then what does he want?”
The man smiled wider.
May you like
“The baby.”
---
