Part 3 – The Name She Buried Six Years Ago
Part 3 – The Name She Buried Six Years Ago
The hallway erupted into chaos.
Armed guards flooded every entrance.
Titan's thunderous growl echoed through the mansion as he planted himself between Willa and the smoke-filled corridor.
Kendrick never reached for cover.
Instead...
He calmly pulled Penny behind him and stared directly at Willa.
"You said they weren't here for me."
His voice remained perfectly steady.
"They're here for you."
Willa's face had turned pale.
For six years...
She had rehearsed this exact nightmare.
She simply never imagined it would happen inside the Ashford mansion.
Another shot echoed downstairs.
One of Kendrick's security captains rushed forward.
"Boss!"
"The shooter escaped through the east balcony!"
Kendrick didn't even look away from Willa.
"Alive?"
"No."
"He jumped."
"Didn't survive."
Silence.
Professional assassins rarely chose suicide.
Unless...
Capture was never an option.
Kendrick slowly studied Willa.
She wasn't surprised.
She looked...
Heartbroken.
Almost as though she'd expected exactly this outcome.
"Who are you?" he asked again.
This time...
It wasn't a casual question.
It was an order.
Willa closed her eyes.
She knew the lie had finally ended.
"My name..."
She swallowed painfully.
"...isn't Willa."
Titan quietly rested his enormous head against her knee.
Almost encouraging her.
"My real name..."
"...is Amelia Sterling."
The room became perfectly still.
Several older guards exchanged confused looks.
One elderly adviser standing near the staircase suddenly gasped.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
Kendrick noticed immediately.
"You know that name?"
The old adviser looked at Amelia.
Then at Kendrick.
His hands were visibly shaking.
"I thought..."
"...she died."
Twenty-two years earlier...
The Sterling family had been one of the most respected financial dynasties in New York.
Unlike the Ashford Syndicate...
The Sterlings operated entirely within the law.
Banks.
Shipping companies.
Investment firms.
Their influence reached governments.
International markets.
Charities.
Then...
One night...
The entire family disappeared.
Official reports claimed their private jet exploded over the Atlantic.
No survivors.
Case closed.
Amelia slowly shook her head.
"It wasn't a plane crash."
"My parents never boarded the jet."
"They were murdered."
She looked directly toward Kendrick.
"And the people responsible..."
"...wanted everyone to believe we died together."
Kendrick frowned.
"Who?"
"I never knew."
"Only that someone betrayed my father."
"My mother hid me before they came."
"I escaped."
"My parents didn't."
The elderly adviser suddenly whispered something almost inaudible.
"The red ledger..."
Amelia froze.
Her breathing stopped.
"How do you know about that?"
Kendrick noticed every tiny reaction.
"What ledger?"
The old man looked uncomfortable.
"Years ago..."
"There were rumors."
"The Sterlings kept records."
"Every illegal payment."
"Every politician."
"Every judge."
"Every syndicate."
"A ledger powerful enough to destroy half the country."
Amelia slowly nodded.
"My father called it..."
"The Crimson Ledger."
"My mother died protecting it."
"I've spent six years hiding because everyone believed I knew where it was."
"And do you?"
She stared at Kendrick.
"I don't."
"I wish I did."
Before anyone could speak again—
Barrett walked calmly into the hallway.
He looked almost annoyed by the interruption.
"Boss."
"The shooter has been identified."
"Former military."
"No connections."
"Looks like a hired gun."
Amelia's heartbeat accelerated.
She watched Barrett carefully.
He wasn't asking questions.
He wasn't surprised she revealed her identity.
Almost...
As if he already knew.
Then she noticed it.
His watch.
A simple silver watch.
With a tiny lion engraved beside the crown.
Her vision blurred.
Six years earlier...
Hidden beneath the staircase of her parents' mansion...
She had watched through a crack in the wood.
She remembered boots.
Gunfire.
Her father's final scream.
And...
That exact watch.
The lion engraving.
She had never forgotten it.
Her breathing became ragged.
Barrett noticed.
He smiled.
Only slightly.
Only for a second.
But Amelia saw it.
She pointed directly at him.
"You."
Everyone turned.
Barrett laughed.
"I'm sorry?"
"I remember you."
His smile faded.
"You were there."
"I saw that watch."
"You murdered my father."
The room exploded into stunned silence.
Several guards instinctively reached for their weapons.
Barrett slowly clapped.
"Remarkable."
"I wondered whether your memory survived."
Kendrick's eyes narrowed.
"You know her."
Barrett sighed.
"I hoped this day would never come."
Then...
To everyone's disbelief...
He stopped pretending.
"The Sterlings should have disappeared forever."
"They almost did."
Amelia stepped backward.
"It was you."
"No."
Barrett smiled coldly.
"It wasn't only me."
He looked directly at Kendrick.
"Your father signed the order."
Every face turned toward Kendrick.
Even Titan stood up.
The words struck harder than the gunshots.
"My father..."
Kendrick's voice became dangerously quiet.
"...died fifteen years ago."
"He certainly did."
Barrett chuckled.
"But before he died..."
"He approved the operation."
"He believed the Sterlings were becoming too powerful."
Amelia felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Everything she believed...
Everything she'd spent six years running from...
Suddenly connected to the one man who had just saved her life.
Kendrick Ashford.
The son...
Of the man who allegedly ordered her family's execution.
Kendrick looked at Barrett.
"If you're lying..."
"I'm not."
Barrett slowly reached into his pocket.
He removed an old photograph.
Yellowed with age.
He tossed it across the marble floor.
Kendrick picked it up.
His face changed instantly.
The photograph showed two men shaking hands.
His father.
And Amelia's father.
Written across the back...
In faded ink...
"Partners... until one of us chooses power over loyalty."
Amelia stared at Kendrick.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither knew what to believe anymore.
Then...
Barrett quietly smiled.
"There's only one problem."
"The Crimson Ledger..."
He looked directly at Amelia.
"...was never lost."
"It has always been exactly where your mother hid it."
Amelia's eyes widened.
May you like
Because in that exact moment...
She finally remembered.
