Chapter 4: The Secret Beneath the Name
The first time I saw my own death certificate, I didn’t cry.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because sometimes your brain refuses to accept something so impossible that laughter is the only thing left.
“I’m dead?””
Nobody answered.
I looked at Adrian.
“You believe this?””
His expression was unreadable.
“I believe someone wanted the world to believe you were.””
“That’s not an answer.””
“No.””
He stepped closer.
“It’s a warning.””
I hated how calm he stayed.
My entire life had just cracked open, and he stood there like he was studying a chessboard.
“Who was I?”” I asked.
Adrian looked at the documents.
“That’s what we’re going to find out.””
“I don’t want your help.””
“You need it.””
“I survived ten years without you.””
“Yes.””
His voice softened slightly.
“But someone from your past just tried to erase you.””
I looked away.
I wanted to argue.
I wanted to tell him he was wrong.
But deep down, I knew.
The necklace.
The photograph.
The fake death.
None of it was random.
A memory flashed.
A woman’s voice.
A dark room.
A hand holding mine.
Don’t tell them your name.
I closed my eyes.
A headache hit suddenly.
“Wren?””
I opened them.
Adrian was watching me.
“You remembered something.””
I shook my head.
“No.””
He knew I was lying.
Before he could say anything, Elena’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Then her face changed.
“What happened?”” Adrian asked.
She slowly lowered the phone.
“Someone broke into the archive room.””
“What did they take?””
Elena looked at me.
“Nothing.””
That made Adrian’s eyes narrow.
“Then why call?””
“Because they left something.””
She handed him an envelope.
The paper was old.
Yellowed.
My name was written across the front.
Not Wren.
My real name.
The name I had never told anyone.
My hands went numb.
“How do you know that name?”” I whispered.
Nobody answered.
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
He looked at it first.
Then at me.
His face changed.
“What?””
He handed it over.
The photograph showed a young woman standing beside a man.
A man I recognized.
Not because I knew him.
Because I had seen him everywhere.
On television.
In newspapers.
In the history books.
The founder of Kane Enterprises.
Adrian’s father.
But that wasn’t what made my blood freeze.
It was the little girl standing between them.
Me.
On the back of the photograph, there was a handwritten message.
Three words.
Words that changed everything.
*She is yours.*
I looked up slowly.
“Adrian…”
He didn’t answer.
Because someone had just revealed a secret neither of us was prepared for.
I wasn’t a stranger who saved Adrian Kane.
I was the missing piece of the Kane family’s darkest secret.
May you like
And somewhere in New York…
Someone was terrified that I had finally been found.
