Chapter 6

• Sienna didn’t speak.
• Adrian didn’t either.
• They both stood there, the flash drive still warm in her hand, the man in the gray suit already gone. The front door was still cracked open.
• Adrian finally closed it. Click. The lock sounded louder than it should’ve.
• His eyes met hers, but only for a second. He looked away first. Not because he was afraid. But because he didn’t want to say what she already knew.
• His uncle had been shot.
• And this wasn’t random.
• Sienna’s fingers curled tighter around the flash drive. “Are you going to the hospital?” she asked.
• He nodded once. “Yeah.”
• “You’re not calling the police?”
• “They’re already involved. But they won’t find anything.”
• “How do you know?”
• He looked at her again. This time, longer. “Because the people behind this… they don’t leave mistakes.”
• Sienna stepped forward, but only slightly. “You said Thomas made sure my father died. Is this… retaliation?”
• Adrian didn’t answer right away; his hand slid through his hair, then down to his neck. He looked tired, like this was something he’d been waiting for—but not like this.
• “I don’t know,” he said. “Not yet.”
• “But you think someone’s coming for you too.”
• He gave a short nod. No fear, just a fact.
• Sienna swallowed. “Then why give me the flash drive now?”
• “Because if something happens to me, I need you to know what’s real. What’s not. What this family actually did.”
• She stared at him. “And marrying me was part of that?”
• “No, that was personal.”
• That stopped her. “What the fuck? Personal how?”
• He looked at her, quiet again. His expression didn’t change much. But there was something untold behind his eyes. Like he’d said too much or not enough.
• “We don’t have time for this right now,” he said.
• He turned to grab his coat. But Sienna stayed where she was.
• “I’m coming with you.”
• Adrian paused. “No.”
• “I’m not staying here,” she said quickly. “Not alone. Not after what I just fucking saw.”
• He studied her face. He must’ve seen something in it because, after a second, he nodded.
• “Fine. But don’t speak unless I tell you to. Don’t trust anyone, not even the nurses.”
• Sienna followed him out the door.
• The car ride was quiet and tense.
• Adrian didn’t speak. His eyes were just fixed forward. Sienna kept looking down at the flash drive in her lap. She hadn’t let it go since she left his office; she couldn’t.
• Her father’s voice was still ringing in her ears.
• “Find the girl. She knows the name.”
• What name? What the hell had she known?
• And why did they want it hidden?
• They reached the hospital in under twenty minutes. Adrian’s driver pulled straight up to a private entrance. Thank goodness there were no reporters or cameras. Just two men in black suits standing at the door.
• One nodded. “Mr. Blackwell.”
• “How bad is it?” Adrian asked.
• “Chest wound. They stopped the bleeding, but he’s unconscious. Doctors say he might not wake up for a while.”
• Adrian didn’t move.
• Sienna watched him. His expression didn’t change, but his fingers tightened into fists.
• “Who knows about this?” he asked.
• “Just internal security and a few board members. For now.”
• “And who leaked it to them?”
• “We don’t know yet.”
• Adrian said nothing, just walked past them.
• Sienna followed, staying close but silent.
• Inside, everything was white. The kind of quiet that didn’t feel peaceful, just tense.
• They reached the room at the end of the hall. A nurse stepped out as they arrived. She looked young and nervous.
• “He’s stable,” she said. “But still unconscious. No visitors allowed inside until the doctor—”
• Adrian pushed past her.
• The nurse flinched but didn’t stop him. Sienna hesitated, then followed him in.
• The entire room smelled like antiseptic. Thomas Blackwell lay on the hospital bed, pale, motionless. There was a thick bandage across his chest, an IV in his arm, and a monitor beside his head.
• Adrian walked to the edge of the bed. He stared down at his uncle for a long time.
• “You knew this was coming,” he muttered. “You saw it, and you still didn’t say anything.”
• Sienna stood behind him. She wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or the man lying there.
• “You told me to wait, to bide my time. You told me this was our empire,” Adrian went on. “So where is it now? Where’s all that power?”
• No answer, of course.
• Thomas didn’t even move.
• Adrian turned suddenly and walked out of the room without a word. Sienna followed again, but faster this time.
• “Adrian—”
• He stopped in the hallway and looked back at her. “Do you want to go home?”
• She shook her head. “No.”
• He nodded, almost like he expected that.
• “I have to make a call,” he said. “Wait here.”
• He went into another hallway.
• Sienna sat down on a bench, her heart still beating too fast. The flash drive was still in her hand. She kept on staring at it.
• Then, without thinking, she stood and walked down the hall. Past a nurse’s station and into a small waiting room with a computer on the desk.
• No one was in there.
• She sat down fast and plugged in the flash drive.
• Fail-safe loaded.
• She opened another video; it was her father again. This one was shorter; the date was three days before his death.
• “They’ve already moved the money,” he said into the camera. “They’re using shell accounts, Offshore. If she can find the trail, she can prove it all. But if she sees this—if Sienna sees this—it means I failed. And if I failed… then I’m sorry.”
• The clip cut off.
• Sienna just sat there, staring.
• He hadn’t been paranoid; he definitely hadn’t been delusional.
• He’d been right.
• She unplugged the drive, went up, and walked straight into Adrian.
• He’d come back silently. Stood there in the doorway, looking at her.
• “You really don’t listen,” he said.
• She didn’t flinch. “My father knew all of it.”
• “Yeah,” Adrian said. “He did.”
• “And he tried to stop it.”
• “And they killed him for it.”
• She stared at him. “And what about you? Are you next?”
• Adrian didn’t blink. “Not if I get to them first.”
• He stepped aside. “We’re done here.”
• They left the room.
• But as they turned the corner, one of the security guards was waiting. He leaned close and whispered to Adrian.
• “There’s been movement at the estate.”
• “What kind of movement?”
• The guard’s eyes flicked toward Sienna, then back. “Someone broke into your father’s study.”
• Adrian’s face went hard. “Who?”
• “We don’t know yet. No cameras picked up anything, but something was taken.”
• Sienna looked between them. “What was taken?”
• Adrian didn’t answer.
• He was already walking again, faster now.
• Sienna chased after him. “What the fuck was taken, Adrian?”
• He didn’t stop; he didn’t even slow.
• But he said just loud enough for her to hear:
• “The key.”
• Sienna froze.
• “What key?”
• Adrian didn’t turn back. “The one that unlocks everything.”
• And then he was gone—already on the phone, already barking orders.
• Sienna stood in the middle of the white hallway, heart pounding.
• The flash drive was still in her hand, the files still incomplete.
• And now something important was missing.
• Stolen.
• “What the hell is happening?!”
• And Sienna wasn’t sure if Adrian even knew who it was.
• She didn’t go after him this time; she just stood there, frozen, as the hall resounded with Adrian’s voice on the phone, and the words “the key” repeated in her head. But when she looked up, she saw something even worse.
• At the end of the hallway… someone was watching her, and they didn’t look away.