Chapter 6

After my supervisor left, I was quickly moved to Adrian's executive assistant office.

In front of the whole office, he started asking about my day, checking in on me, being attentive in that unmistakable way.

Word spread fast. Everyone knew that the new intern, Hazel Harrington, was actually Mr. Sterling's fiancée.

When my grandfather and the Sterlings set up the engagement, part of the arrangement was that the Sterlings would help keep searching for me. He'd also left a massive trust in my name.

Only the Harringtons and Alistair Sterling — who'd signed as trustee — knew the details.

The day I turned twenty-one was the day I'd inherit the trust.

Which was why the Sterlings had chosen that exact day for the engagement party.

I suspected Sienna had never mentioned that detail to Adrian.

When I thought about it carefully, the only relative in the Harringtons who had ever truly loved me was my grandfather. The one who never got to see me come home.

A shame, really — he'd put so much thought into all of it.

The Sterlings could give me lifelong wealth, sure. But Adrian wasn't my home.

I kept working like nothing was different, let Adrian fawn all over me. When he couldn't hold back any longer and invited me to dinner, I brought a tiny GPS tracker I'd bought online, and showed up perfectly cheerful.

If Adrian and Sienna were planning to destroy me at the engagement, I wasn't going to just stand there and take it.

That very expensive dinner, both of us hiding agendas, tasted like nothing.

Polished Adrian stumbled through every professional topic I brought up. But when it came to nightlife and luxury and indulgence, he was an encyclopedia.

My supervisor had been right. Beautiful packaging. That was all he was.

"When it comes to the fun life, my uncle's the real pioneer of the family. I don't know why the old man dotes on him like he hung the moon..."

There was jealousy, barely concealed, under Adrian's words.

At the mention of Damien, my ears pricked up.

"Um... what does he like to do?"

"Rock climbing, racing, skydiving, name it. His temper's a nightmare. We see him once or twice a year, tops. These last few Christmases even Alistair couldn't get him to show up. Who knows what hole he was in."

My heart skipped. Every Christmas Damien had missed at home — he'd actually been in Wickham, with me.

"Now that he's finally back and taking over the business, the old man turned around and handed him the group's flagship subsidiary. Just like that. My father worked at the group for decades —"

Adrian didn't mention that his own father had blown two of Sterling Group's subsidiaries off the map with bad decisions. Or that Damien, back less than six months, had pulled them into the black — aggressively.

On the ride home, I quietly slipped the tracker into Adrian's car.

When we parted, looking at the face I'd carried with me since I was eleven, I finally let myself ask the one thing I'd always wanted to ask.

"Adrian... that stuffed doll you gave me back then..."

"What doll?"

Adrian looked genuinely confused.

"Never mind..."

"Oh — that hideous big-eyed thing?"

He caught on.

"My uncle picked that up somewhere. When the family sent me to go meet you, he told me to give it to you as a welcome gift..."

When I was eleven, the Sterlings had been the first to track down my whereabouts.

Could it have been...?

My heart started to pound.

The person who'd actually found me — could it have been Damien?