Page 72 of The Billionaire’s Contract Bride

Chapter Sixteen: Terms of Surrender

Locker 714 was empty.

Aria stared into the narrow metal compartment while commuters surged through Blackthorne Grand Terminal behind her.

“Do not touch the interior,” Damien said from her shoulder, flanked by plainclothes security.

“Why?”

“Because someone reached it first.”

A perfect rectangle of dust marked the bottom shelf. Whatever had been resting there had been removed recently.

Lucien pulled up the terminal’s digital logs on a tablet. “Opened four days ago with a master override authorization.”

“Whose authorization?” Aria asked.

“Station executive office.”

Damien’s jaw tightened. “Augustus.”

Aria turned toward him. “Your grandfather had the evidence this entire time?”

The realization hit her like physical sickness. Even her kidnapping had been a spectator event for men waiting to profit from whichever Blackthorne prevailed.

Aria leaned closer to the open compartment. Scratches marred the rear metal wall.

Letters had been carved into the steel:

E.V. — TRUST NO BLACKTHORNE.

Her father’s initials. Below them, almost hidden beneath the bottom lip:

THE COPY IS WITH THE ONE WHO SAVED HIM.

Aria looked back at Damien. “My father saved you.”

“Yes.”

“Did he give you a copy?”

“No.”

“Who else did he save?”

Damien’s silence was heavy enough to draw Lucien’s sharp gaze.

“Your mother,” Damien said quietly.

The roar of the terminal receded into static.

“My mother knew?”

“She knew enough to go into hiding after Elias died.”

“And you let me believe she was completely ignorant.” She didn’t acknowledge that her mother had also kept it silent. That her mother had not said anything when Damien stood outside her hospital room.

“She begged me never to tell you.”