Chapter 4 - The Man Who Erased My Past
The person holding the file didn't knock.
He didn't need permission.
He walked out of the elevator like he owned the building.
Like he knew exactly where he was going.
Adrian's security team moved instantly.
Three men raised their weapons.
But Adrian lifted his hand.
"Wait."
Everyone stopped.
I looked at him.
"Why?"
His eyes stayed on the stranger.
Because Adrian Vale wasn't looking at him like an enemy.
He was looking at him like a ghost.
The man stepped closer.
He was older.
Late fifties maybe.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
A calm expression that somehow felt more dangerous than anger.
He carried a black folder.
My name was written across the front.
SELENA HART.
I felt my stomach tighten.
"Who are you?"
My voice sounded smaller than I wanted.
The man looked at me.
Not with curiosity.
With recognition.
"I knew your mother before she became Claire Hart."
My mother stepped forward.
"Don't."
The man's eyes moved toward her.
"You still protect her?"
My mother's face turned pale.
"You have no right to be here."
The man smiled slightly.
"I have every right."
Adrian moved closer.
"Richard."
The name left his mouth like a warning.
The man smiled.
"So you remember me."
I looked at Adrian.
"You know him?"
Adrian didn't answer.
That was becoming his most frustrating habit.
The man named Richard placed the folder on the table.
"I came because you deserve the truth."
My mother immediately shook her head.
"No."
Richard looked at her.
"You had twenty years."
Silence.
"You had twenty years to tell her."
My heart started beating faster.
"Tell me what?"
Nobody answered.
I laughed quietly.
Again.
That exhausted laugh.
The one that came when reality became too strange to process.
"I am standing in a room with my supposedly dead mother, a mafia boss who somehow knows my family, and a stranger holding a file with my name."
I looked at all of them.
"And nobody wants to explain?"
Richard opened the folder.
"I do."
Adrian stepped forward.
"No."
Richard looked at him.
"You don't get to decide anymore."
Something changed in Adrian's expression.
A memory.
A regret.
Something I couldn't understand.
Richard pulled out a photograph.
He placed it on the table.
It was another picture of my mother.
But younger.
Much younger.
She wasn't alone.
She was holding a baby.
Me.
On the back of the photograph was handwriting.
My mother's handwriting.
I recognized it immediately.
Because I had kept old birthday cards from her my entire life.
The message was short.
If anything happens to me, Adrian must find her.
My hands went cold.
I looked at Adrian.
"Why is your name on this?"
He didn't speak.
Richard answered for him.
"Because Adrian was the reason your mother disappeared."
My mother closed her eyes.
"Richard."
But it was too late.
I turned toward Adrian.
"What does he mean?"
Adrian's face was unreadable.
For the first time since I met him, I didn't see confidence.
I saw guilt.
"You knew me before tonight."
It wasn't a question.
It was a realization.
He didn't deny it.
That hurt more.
"How?"
Adrian looked at the photograph.
"Because I promised your mother I would protect you."
The room became silent.
"Then why didn't you?"
His eyes met mine.
And for the first time, Adrian Vale looked like a man who had lost.
"Because I failed."
I wanted to be angry.
I wanted to scream.
But the truth was too big.
It sat between us like something alive.
Richard opened another document.
"Your mother wasn't running away twenty years ago."
I looked at Claire.
She looked down.
"She was hiding you."
"From who?"
Richard didn't answer immediately.
He looked at Adrian.
"Tell her."
Adrian stayed silent.
I felt something inside me break.
"Tell me."
His jaw tightened.
"The Hart family was involved with people they shouldn't have trusted."
"People like you?"
The question came out sharper than I expected.
Adrian didn't look offended.
Maybe because he deserved it.
"No."
He paused.
"People worse than me."
Richard placed another file on the table.
"This is why Ethan Cross approached you."
I froze.
"Ethan?"
My mother looked at me.
"Yes."
My fingers curled.
"What does Ethan have to do with this?"
Richard opened the file.
Inside were photographs.
Documents.
Messages.
And one picture that made my blood run cold.
Ethan.
Standing beside Richard.
Years ago.
"You know him."
Richard nodded.
"I helped create the person he became."
I stared at the photograph.
"No."
The man I dated.
The man who controlled me.
The man who pretended to love me.
He wasn't random.
He wasn't just a cruel ex-boyfriend.
He had been placed in my life.
My mother reached for me.
"I tried to keep you away from him."
I stepped back.
"How long did you know?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Since before you met him."
The betrayal hurt more than the fear.
Everyone had been making decisions about my life.
Everyone except me.
"You all watched me."
"No," Adrian said.
I looked at him.
"You did."
His voice became quieter.
"I watched because I was trying to keep you alive."
"And you thought lying to me was protecting me?"
He had no answer.
That was the answer.
Richard closed the folder.
"There is something else you need to know."
I looked at him.
"What?"
He reached inside.
He pulled out an old key.
A small silver key with a number engraved on it.
My mother's face changed immediately.
"Where did you get that?"
Richard looked at her.
"From the place you hid the original evidence."
Adrian stepped forward.
"What evidence?"
Richard smiled.
"The evidence that proves who really ordered your father's death."
I stopped breathing.
My father.
A man I barely remembered.
A man everyone told me died in an accident.
"You said my father died."
My mother looked away.
"I said what I had to say."
The room felt like it was collapsing.
My entire life was built on things people decided I could handle.
But nobody ever asked me what I wanted to know.
Adrian took the key from Richard.
His fingers tightened around it.
"Where is this from?"
Richard looked toward me.
"Your childhood home."
My blood froze.
"That's impossible."
"My childhood home was sold."
Richard shook his head.
"No."
He looked at Adrian.
"Someone made sure Selena believed that."
Adrian stared at the key.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
A few seconds later, his face changed.
"What happened?"
Silence.
Then:
"Are you sure?"
He looked at me.
I knew before he spoke.
Something was wrong.
"Adrian?"
He lowered the phone slowly.
"Someone accessed the old Hart property."
My mother covered her mouth.
"No."
Richard looked terrified for the first time.
"Who?"
Adrian didn't answer.
He looked at the key in his hand.
Then at me.
"Selena..."
I felt a cold wave pass through me.
"What?"
His voice became barely a whisper.
"The person who opened the house..."
May you like
A pause.
"Used your fingerprint."
