One year later...
The city greeted the morning with its usual
restless energy.
Cars filled the streets, horns sounded
impatiently from every direction, and people hurried along the sidewalks with
coffee in hand and somewhere important to be.
Amelia moved through the crowd with her bag over
one shoulder, her phone in one hand and a notebook tucked beneath her arm.
A year ago, she had been worried about finding
any job at all.
Now she was working as a junior journalist for a
local news outlet.
It wasn't the career she'd originally imagined
for herself, but she'd discovered something she hadn't expected.
She liked asking questions.
She liked digging through information.
And most of all, she liked finding the story
hidden underneath what people wanted everyone else to see.
Maybe the café had been more than a temporary job
after all.
It had given her the confidence to stop waiting
for the perfect opportunity and start creating her own.
"Amelia! Wait!"
She slowed and turned.
Beth hurried toward her, slightly out of breath,
her phone clutched in one hand.
The moment she reached Amelia, she grabbed her
arm.
"I have news."
Amelia stared at her.
"You said that last year."
Beth's mouth dropped open.
"That was one time."
"That was several times."
"And this time it's actually important."
Amelia laughed.
"Okay. Tell me."
Beth's entire face lit up.
"Jacob asked me out."
Amelia blinked.
"Jacob?"
"Yes, Jacob."
"The Jacob you've been working with for almost a
year?"
"The same Jacob."
"And he finally asked?"
Beth nodded enthusiastically.
"Properly. No work excuse. No vague invitation.
He actually asked me on a date."
Amelia smiled.
"Finally."
"I know!"
Beth laughed.
"Ten months, Amelia. Ten whole months of subtle
flirting and pretending there was nothing happening."
"You both sound exhausting."
"We were being careful."
"You were being ridiculous."
Beth bumped her shoulder.
"Whatever. The point is, he wants something
serious."
Amelia's smile softened.
After everything that had happened with Kale, she
was glad to see Beth genuinely happy again.
Kale had been exciting.
Jacob seemed steady.
Maybe that was what Beth needed.
"I'm happy for you," Amelia said.
"I know."
Beth slipped her arm through Amelia's.
"And what about you?"
Amelia frowned.
"What about me?"
"You've been single for a year."
"And?"
"Nothing."
Beth grinned.
"I'm just surprised you haven't found someone."
"I'm busy."
"You're always busy."
"Exactly."
Beth laughed.
Amelia smiled, but her thoughts briefly drifted
somewhere she hadn't intended them to go.
Xavier.
It had been a year since that night outside
Dakota's Café.
A year since she had last seen him.
At least, not in person.
She'd occasionally come across his name in
business articles or financial reports. Steel Corporation had expanded rapidly
over the past year, and Xavier's name seemed to appear wherever the company
did.
Amelia had never forgotten him.
She had simply learned not to think about him
every day.
Mostly.
"Amelia?"
She blinked.
Beth was looking at her.
"You disappeared again."
"Sorry."
"What were you thinking about?"
"Work."
Beth gave her a skeptical look.
"Sure."
Before Amelia could respond, a commotion farther
down the street caught their attention.
A crowd had gathered outside a tall glass
building.
Reporters.
Cameras.
Security.
Amelia's curiosity immediately took over.
"What happened?"
Beth looked toward the crowd.
"I don't know."
Amelia's eyes narrowed.
She recognized the building.
Her steps slowed.
The large silver letters across the entrance were
impossible to miss.
STEEL CORPORATION.
Her stomach tightened.
Of course.
She should have kept walking.
Instead, she moved toward the crowd.
"Amelia," Beth called after her.
"I'll be back."
She slipped between two reporters and raised her
notebook.
The building's main entrance opened.
Security stepped aside.
Several executives emerged.
And then she saw him.
Xavier Steel.
He walked through the revolving doors surrounded
by assistants and security, dressed in a dark suit that made him look exactly
like the man she remembered.
Except there was something different about him.
He seemed more distant.
More controlled.
More powerful.
Amelia stopped.
As if sensing her presence, Xavier's gaze moved
across the crowd.
Then it found her.
Everything around Amelia seemed to quiet.
Their eyes met.
For one brief moment, neither of them looked
away.
Then Xavier's lips curved into the faintest
smile.
He remembered her.
Of course he did.
Amelia forced herself to look down at her
notebook.
She was here as a journalist.
Not a woman who had once stood outside a café
wondering why a stranger made her heart beat faster.
She raised her pen.
"Focus."
She began taking notes.
The crowd eventually started to disperse, but
Amelia remained nearby, watching the building.
Something about the whole situation bothered her.
There were too many security personnel.
Too many reporters.
And judging by the questions she'd overheard,
something significant had happened inside the company.
She turned to Beth.
"I'm going to look into this."
Beth sighed.
"I knew you were going to say that."
"I need to know what's happening."
"You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"No."
Beth shook her head.
"Fine. Just be careful."
Amelia nodded.
She meant to be.
That evening, Amelia sat at the small dining
table in Beth's apartment, her laptop open and several documents scattered
around her.
Beth sat across from her, scrolling through her
phone.
"What exactly are you looking for?"
"I don't know yet."
"That sounds reassuring."
Amelia ignored her.
She searched through recent reports about Steel
Corporation, comparing financial announcements, company expansions, and older
articles about Xavier.
Nothing immediately stood out.
But something kept bothering her.
There were gaps.
Small ones.
A company acquisition that had received
surprisingly little coverage.
An executive who had suddenly disappeared from
the company's public reports.
A project that had been announced and then
quietly removed from the website.
Amelia leaned closer to the screen.
"What are you hiding?"
"You're talking to a website now," Beth said.
"I'm thinking."
"Looks like arguing."
Amelia laughed softly.
She continued scrolling.
Then her phone buzzed.
She glanced at the screen.
An email.
No sender name she recognized.
Her smile disappeared.
She opened it.
There was only one sentence.
Not everything is as it seems. Watch your back,
Amelia Winters.
Her fingers went cold.
She read it again.
Then again.
"Beth."
Something in Amelia's voice made Beth look up.
"What?"
Amelia turned the phone toward her.
Beth's expression changed immediately.
"Who sent that?"
"I don't know."
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"I don't think so."
Amelia stared at the message.
Her mind moved through every possibility.
Her work.
The article.
Steel Corporation.
Xavier.
Then, unexpectedly, another thought surfaced.
Her parents.
She had spent years accepting the explanations
she'd been given about them.
They had always been private.
There had always been things they refused to
discuss.
As a child, Amelia had never questioned it.
But now...
She wasn't so sure.
"What if this has something to do with my
family?" she whispered.
Beth looked at her carefully.
"Do you have a reason to think that?"
"No."
Amelia swallowed.
"Not yet."
That was the problem.
She didn't know what the message meant.
She didn't know who sent it.
And she certainly didn't know whether Xavier had
anything to do with it.
But for the first time, Amelia wondered if the questions
she had spent years ignoring were finally beginning to demand answers.
She looked back at the email.
One sentence.
That was all it had taken to make the world she'd
built feel slightly less safe.
And somewhere beneath the fear, curiosity began
to take hold.
Amelia had always been good at asking questions.
Now she had one of her own.
Who was warning her—and what did they know?