"No. No, this... this can't be real."
The paper slipped from her hands as she stumbled back. The name kept flashing before her eyes-
Leona Marcella Cruz.
Her real name?
"I've never heard that name before," she whispered, her voice shaking.
Damian picked up the file again, flipping through the documents.
There were more-hospital records, a photo of a newborn baby, and a signed adoption paper.
Signed by Alejandro Cruz.
The same man Amara had spent years blaming for her mother's death.
She looked at Damian. "So... what? I'm his daughter?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at the paper again, then at her, his face unreadable.
"It's possible," he said finally. "Everything here says you were born to him and your mother. But they never married. Your mom took you and disappeared when you were barely a year old."
"But why would she hide me?" she whispered.
"To protect you."
They both turned. A voice echoed across the empty warehouse.
Standing by the back door... was Cruz.
---
Damian's POV
His jaw clenched the moment he saw Cruz walk in, hands up, like this was some casual meeting. Damian stepped in front of Amara instinctively.
"You've got five seconds to turn around before I do something you'll regret."
Cruz chuckled. "If I wanted to hurt her, Damian, I would've done it already. You think this is about revenge? No. I just want what was mine."
He looked at Amara now, eyes cold but... familiar.
"She looks just like her mother."
Amara stepped forward. "If what you're saying is true-then why chase me like a criminal?"
"You were stolen from me," Cruz said darkly. "Your mother betrayed me. She ran with you, faked your identity, and made sure you'd grow up hating me."
"You gave me a reason to hate you!" she fired back. "You killed her-"
"I didn't," Cruz snapped.
Silence.
"I loved her. But she found out things-things she wasn't supposed to know. She planned to take them public. That's why she died."
Damian narrowed his eyes. "So you're saying someone else had her killed?"
Cruz looked away. "There's a man... more dangerous than me. And now that Amara is digging, he'll come for her too."
---
Amara's POV
Her legs nearly gave out.
Everything she thought she knew was... a lie?
Her mother didn't just run. She didn't just hide.
She died protecting the truth-and that truth was now Amara's burden to carry.
Suddenly, everything felt heavier.
More dangerous.
And more real.
Damian stepped closer, his voice low in her ear.
"We're not letting him near you again. I don't care what blood runs in your veins-you're with me now."
And in that moment, Amara didn't care about bloodlines either.
But something in Cruz's eyes warned her...
This story? It wasn't over yet.
Not even close.
He watched Amara closely.
She looked pale. Fragile.
But beneath her silence, he saw it-
The fire. The determination.
She wasn't going to crumble.
"She deserves the whole truth," Damian said coldly to Cruz. "No more secrets. No more half-answers."
Cruz sighed and pulled something from his coat pocket-a worn-out photograph.
It was a woman. Young. Smiling. Holding a baby with dark curls and big eyes.
"My mother..." Amara whispered, taking the photo with trembling fingers.
"She was everything to me," Cruz said softly. "But the moment she tried to break away from my world, I lost her. She discovered files... documents that could destroy men in high places. She hid them, then vanished with you. And now..."
He stared directly at her.
"Now they know you exist."
Amara looked up sharply. "Who?"
But Cruz didn't answer.
Instead, he turned and walked toward the shadows. "You need to leave the country. Both of you. Before they come."
Damian stepped forward, grabbing Cruz by the collar. "Who's coming, Cruz?"
He didn't flinch. "The man your father once served. The same man who made your family disappear."
Damian's hands dropped.
That name...
He hadn't heard it in over a decade.
---
Amara's POV
The room felt colder now. Like something had shifted.
She turned to Damian. "What did he mean by that? Your father-?"
But before he could answer, his phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He hesitated, then answered.
A distorted voice came through, low and threatening:
"You've gone too far, Damian Blackwood. Let her go. Or we finish what we started with your family."
The line went dead.
Damian's knuckles turned white as he lowered the phone.
Amara touched his arm. "What's going on?"
He looked at her-haunted, furious, and protective all at once.
"I thought I buried this part of my past. But it looks like it just dug itself back up."
Amara's heart pounded. "Are we in danger?"
He nodded once. "We always were. But now... they've declared war."
---
Late that night...
Amara stood by the window of Damian's penthouse suite, watching the lights flicker across the city skyline.
Everything had changed.
She wasn't just a girl trying to survive.
She was a target.
And the man she was falling for?
He was hiding a past just as deadly as hers.
She hugged her arms around herself.
"Amara," Damian's voice came behind her.
She turned, and he stood there holding something small in his hand-an old locket.
"I found this in your mother's file. It's yours."
She took it, opened it... and inside, a tiny photo of her mother. And next to it-a folded slip of paper.
Three words were written in faded ink:
"Don't trust him."
Amara's POV
She stared at the paper inside the locket.
"Don't trust him."
Her breath caught in her throat. Her fingers trembled as she held the slip, its edges worn from time.
Who was it meant for?
Her mother had written this. Had she meant Cruz?
Or Damian?
Amara turned to him slowly. His eyes were on her, unreadable-dark and stormy like the night behind him.
"You found this in her file?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
He nodded once. "Yes."
"Why didn't you read the note?"
"I did," he replied, quietly. "But I didn't want to show it to you then. I wasn't sure how you'd take it. Now..." He paused. "Now I think you deserve to see everything."
She clenched the locket tighter, heart racing. "Who do you think she meant?"
He took a step closer. "Cruz? Probably. Me?" He looked into her eyes, unflinching. "I don't blame you if you do."
She held his gaze. "Do you trust yourself, Damian?"
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he closed the distance between them. The air grew thick with things unsaid.
"I don't trust many people, Amara," he said, voice low. "But you... you're the one person I want to trust me."
For a moment, the world around them disappeared. It was just him, her, and the war between love and fear. Between truth and lies.
And then-BANG!
The sound shattered the silence.
Both of them dropped to the floor as glass from the window exploded inward, a bullet whizzing past where Amara had stood seconds ago.
"Get down!" Damian barked, shielding her with his body.
Screams echoed from outside the building. Chaos erupted in the hallway.
Damian pulled her toward the panic room hidden behind a panel in the wall.
"Someone knows you're here," he muttered. "And they just sent a message."
He slammed the door shut behind them, locking them into silence.
Amara clutched his arm, heart hammering. "They tried to kill me."
He stared at her.
"No," he said darkly. "They tried to kill both of us."
---