Chapter 3

His face changed. "Think carefully."

"The Carter family's port permits, shipping ledgers, and the protection agreement your father left behind—they're all still in Blake family hands."

I looked at him and smiled.

"So you knew from the very beginning. I wasn't the one who couldn't leave you. You've been holding the entire Carter family over my head this whole time."

Daniel clenched his jaw. I pressed my hand against his wrist to hold him back.

I could feel him trembling. He wanted to confront Lucien even more than I did.

But he looked down at me and waited. Let me decide for myself.

I held him back and walked into the study to collect my things.

The engagement photo was gone from the wall. My red clothes had been stuffed into a cardboard box. The broken silver bells were in a plastic bag.

Sophia stood in the doorway, expression smug, looking at me with undisguised contempt.

"I was worried the color red would remind you of the fire, so I put them away for you."

The next second, the arrogance on her face morphed back into that pathetic, bullied look.

"Don't misunderstand—I wasn't trying to take your place… Emily, I'm sorry…"

She bowed her head. Lucien stepped in front of her.

"She didn't mean it. Stop assuming the worst about everyone."

As punishment, the next day the Blake family issued an internal directive.

All my clearances were suspended.

Lucien cited my "emotional instability" and recommended that Carter family operations temporarily defer to Sophia's coordination.

He was trying to hollow me out.

…

I returned to the old Carter family docks. My people swarmed around me immediately.

"Emily, can we hold on to the North Port line?"

"Are the brothers' settlement payments getting delayed?"

"When's the protection money from the Blakes coming through?"

I flipped to the last page of the ledger.

If the Blake family cut funding, the Carter old guard could last half a month at most.

Daniel stood outside the door. Didn't come in.

He was afraid of overstepping. Afraid I'd see through feelings he'd hidden for years.

After dark, Lucien showed up at the docks.

"Hand over the Carter family vault key to Sophia."

I raised my head. "What did you just say?"

"Your leg can't handle fieldwork right now. Sophia knows the Carter family's old accounts. She can hold things together for you."

I clenched my fists.

My father left me three things before he died.

A voice recorder with his final words.

A key to the Carter family vault.

A loyalty roster of the Carter old guard.

The recording was his voice, naming me as his successor.

The key opened an underground vault containing shipping credentials, protection lists, and debt contracts.

The loyalty roster held the names of everyone who'd bled beside him.

These weren't assets. They were the roots of the Carter family.

Lucien pushed an authorization form in front of me.

"Sign the temporary proxy. The succession meeting can't wait."

I glanced at it. The authorizer line was blank. The proxy line read: Sophia.

"No," I said.

Lucien frowned. "Don't let pride make your decisions."

I pushed the document back.

"My father left these to me. They aren't resources for the Blake family to reassign."

He clenched his jaw. "We'll be married eventually. Everything the Blakes have will be yours too."

"You don't need to fight me over a few old keepsakes."

I asked him: "Are you really going to take my father's dying words and use them to placate Sophia?"

A ringtone cut through the tension. Lucien pulled out his phone and played a voice message.

Sophia's voice floated out: "Lucien, don't pressure Emily. I just worry that without someone managing the Carter old guard, things will fall apart internally."

"If Emily doesn't agree, then forget it."

Lucien killed the screen.

"She was raised by your father too. You have the Carter heir's seat—she deserves something as well."

What a joke.

I looked at him, unflinching. "If your father also had a foster son, and your fiancée told you to hand over your inheritance—would you do it?"

Lucien went silent.

"I won't give it up." I said it one final time, and I meant it.

Lucien turned, grabbed the spare key from the desk, and strode out.

"The vault needs a security audit. Someone will come tomorrow to do an inventory."

But when I opened the safe the next day, it was empty. The recorder, the vault key, the loyalty roster, the draft authorization—all gone.

I sent Daniel my location, then pressed record on my phone.

This time, I was keeping evidence.

I rushed to the Blake family's high council meeting.

Sophia stood at the head of the long table holding the key, accepting the gaze of every person in the room.

She addressed the assembled representatives:

"The Carter family can't go without leadership right now."

"Emily has been emotionally unstable since her injury. She's no longer fit to take over."

"I was adopted by Mr. Carter as a child. I know the old port. I'm willing to serve as interim proxy for Carter family affairs."

People in the room nodded.

She raised her hand, signaling the sound engineer to play the recording. "This is what Mr. Carter left for me."

The instant before the engineer hit play, I dragged my leg to the front of the crowd.

"Sophia. Give me back the recorder, the key, and the roster."

Her smile froze. Tears flooded her eyes instantly.

"Emily, I know you don't like me."

"But today is the day the Carter old guard chooses sides. People's lives are riding on what happens at this table."

"Can you please not destroy what everyone's worked for?"

Cameras swung toward me. I looked at them all. "That recorder holds my father's dying words."

Sophia stared at me for several seconds, then handed the recorder to the sound engineer.

"Since Emily objects, let's play it right here and prove I haven't taken anything of hers."

The speakers came to life. It wasn't my father's voice. It was Sophia's.

"I used to be afraid of fire. Afraid of the old port."

"But Mr. Carter told me—as long as you're alive, you keep moving forward."

"If the Carter family ever needs me, I won't step back."

On the large screen behind her: Carter Family Interim Proxy—Sophia.

I lunged forward to pull the recorder free. Two bodyguards blocked me. My leg slammed into the corner of the conference table. The wound tore open, blood seeping through the gauze.

Sophia leaned close and lowered her voice:

"Emily Carter, you can't hold on to the Carter family, and you can't hold on to Lucien."

"Do you know what it feels like to be forgotten?"

She stared at me. No tears in her eyes now—only satisfaction.

"It took everything I had to make him recognize only me. What makes you think you can compete?"

I looked up at her, remembering the fire.

She'd been in Lucien's arms, looking over his shoulder at me with a taunting gaze.

At the time, I thought the pain was making me hallucinate.

Now I was sure. She'd seen me.

She'd known I was there the entire time.