Chapter 3 - The Accident Was Never an Accident
My brother Ethan was twenty-four.
Before the accident, he had been loud, reckless, funny, and impossible to control.
After the accident, he became quiet.
Too quiet.
He remembered little about the crash.
A wet road.
Headlights.
A truck.
Then darkness.
When I visited him, he was sitting by the hospital window.
“You're married.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently.”
He frowned.
“To Luke?”
“To Gabriel.”
His expression changed.
“Gabriel Moretti?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stared.
“You're joking.”
“I wish.”
He looked at me carefully.
“Is he good to you?”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe that's something.”
I sat beside him.
“You remember anything about the accident?”
He hesitated.
“Something.”
“What?”
“A car.”
“What about it?”
“It had a Moretti emblem.”
My stomach dropped.
“You're sure?”
“No.”
“You said emblem.”
“I think it was a small silver symbol.”
Gabriel's family crest.
I told him nothing.
That night, I showed Gabriel the hospital file.
He read it.
His face became unreadable.
“The vehicle that hit Ethan was never found.”
“Why?”
“The police report said it fled.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“Then somebody was hiding it.”
He looked at Arthur.
“Find every camera within five miles of the accident.”
Arthur nodded.
Two hours later, the footage arrived.
We watched it frame by frame.
At 11:42 p.m., Ethan's car entered the intersection.
At 11:43, another vehicle appeared.
Black SUV.
Tinted windows.
A silver Moretti crest on the grille.
Gabriel stood.
“That car belongs to the family.”
My heart sank.
“To whom?”
He zoomed in.
The driver was barely visible.
But the passenger wasn't.
Luke.
I stared.
“No.”
Gabriel said nothing.
I replayed it.
Luke.
My fiancé.
My husband for twenty minutes.
The man who had told me our future was real.
He had been there the night my brother nearly died.
Gabriel's voice was quiet.
“I'm going to find out why.”
“You'll protect him.”
“No.”
“You said you always protected him.”
“I did.”
“And now?”
“I protect you.”
I looked at him.
The words should have comforted me.
Instead they terrified me.
Because if Luke had been responsible, then this was no longer a broken engagement.
It was war.
We confronted him at Moretti headquarters.
Luke entered the room.
Gabriel placed the photograph on the desk.
Luke stared.
“Explain.”
Luke's face went pale.
“It wasn't me.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I was following someone.”
“Who?”
Luke looked at me.
“You.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“I wasn't following Ethan.”
“Then why were you following me?”
Luke lowered his head.
“Because I thought you were in danger.”
I laughed.
“You were the danger.”
“No.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“She was being watched months before the crash.”
“By whom?”
“I didn't know.”
Gabriel slammed the photo on the desk.
“You expect me to believe this?”
Luke looked exhausted.
“I knew something was wrong.”
“Then tell us.”
Luke finally did.
Someone inside the Moretti family had been tracking financial records connected to me.
Someone had been using my father's old business contacts.
Someone had asked questions about Ethan.
Someone who wanted access to my family.
Why?
Because my father, years earlier, had once handled accounts for the Moretti organization.
I had never known.
I stood.
“My father?”
Luke nodded.
“He kept records.”
Gabriel looked shocked.
“Records of what?”
“Deals.”
“Which deals?”
Luke swallowed.
“The original Callahan agreement.”
Silence.
I couldn't breathe.
“My father knew about this?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was he never mentioned?”
Luke's eyes moved to Gabriel.
“Because he disappeared.”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“How?”
Luke hesitated.
“Everyone believed he ran.”
I whispered.
“He didn't.”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
Luke looked at me.
“He was killed.”
The room tilted.
Gabriel stepped closer to me.
I shook my head.
“No.”
Luke continued.
“There was an internal dispute.”
“Who ordered it?”
He didn't answer.
Gabriel did.
“The family council.”
Luke nodded.
My father's death had never been an accident.
My family had been tied to the Moretti organization long before I knew its name.
And now my brother's accident had reopened a wound everyone had tried to bury.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
Gabriel found me in the library.
“You should rest.”
“I can't.”
He sat across from me.
“What do you need?”
“The truth.”
He nodded.
“I'll give you everything.”
I looked at him.
“Even if it destroys your family?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I won't let another generation pay for the last one.”
His answer stayed with me.
We spent hours reading my father's records.
At 3:00 a.m., I found a hidden note.
My hands shook.
“What?”
Gabriel leaned closer.
The handwriting was my father's.
Claire,
If you ever find this, never trust a man who tells you your life is for your protection.
I stared.
Gabriel's face changed.
There was a second paragraph.
The Moretti family has a secret arrangement concerning my daughter. She was never meant to know.
I looked at Gabriel.
“What arrangement?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know.”
I read the final line.
When Gabriel Moretti marries Claire, the council will open the Black Ledger.
My blood ran cold.
“What is the Black Ledger?”
Gabriel stood.
“I thought it was a myth.”
“Apparently not.”
He looked at the note again.
“Your father knew I'd marry you someday.”
I stared.
“No.”
“The arrangement existed before Luke met you.”
I felt sick.
“You mean this was planned before I was even old enough to understand it?”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“I swear I didn't know.”
I believed him.
That frightened me more.
May you like
Because if Gabriel hadn't known, someone else had planned our marriage decades ago.
And someone had been patiently waiting for the right moment to activate it.
