Page 47 of Blackwood

“Zeke,” I snap.

Ellie points, wild-eyed. “Okay, no more plot twists without warning. But first, we have to go back upstairs and make our dramatic exit before people think we died or eloped or something equally scandalous.”

She stands up and flips her hair. “Then we can come back and unpack this soap opera properly, from the beginning. I need a PowerPoint, a wine spritzer, and a personal assistant to help me process.”

Zeke crosses his arms. “What you need Whitmore, is a leash.”

“You offering, Zeke?”

Daddy smiles softly and tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “Go on, Sugar Bear. I’ll be right here when you get back.”

Ellie blinks. “Wait, you’re not coming?”

Zeke tilts his head back and runs a hand over his face. “Secret, remember? Jesus, Whitmore. You’d think someone with a private jet and a thousand-dollar skincare routine could follow basic op-sec.”

Ellie gasps and puts a hand over her heart. “Excuse you, this routine cost twelve hundred, and don’t act like you haven’t been staring.”

I loop my arm through hers, dragging her toward the elevator. “Come on, girl. Let’s get you back upstairs before Cal turns a champagne bottle into a felony and hijacks your spotlight. Again.”

As the elevator doors slide shut behind us, Ellie fans herself with one hand and whispers, “Holy shit, Bells. You’ve been sitting on the scandal of the century and didn’t even leak a teaser trailer?”

♥♥♥

ZEKE - Age 22

“Time to get our fucking story straight,” I say as soon as the girls leave the penthouse.

Henry doesn’t miss a beat. “We wouldn’t need a story if you’d just told Bella the truth from the beginning.”

“We went over this on the plane. I was a kid when I found her file. I didn’t know what it meant. Didn’t know who she was. I’ve been cleaning up that fallout ever since.”

I meet his glare dead-on. “But she isnotfinding out about her biological father. Not now. Not ever.”

“She got taken away from me because of you,” Henry spits out, chest rising fast. “You opened that fucking door. You triggered the whole damn thing.”

He’s not entirely wrong. After my parents died and I ended up in Miami all I had was my dad’s old laptop and his words.“Everything in this world bends, Zeke. Laws, people, promises. The one thing that doesn’t bend is code. It tells the truth, even when no one else will.”

I was eleven when I cracked the folder, just some encrypted archive buried in the drive. Thought it was some digital diary from a dead man.

It wasn’t.

It was the first Black Book I’d ever seen. It was names. Bank wires. Surveillance footage that made my skin crawl. Including thirteen seconds of grainy video. A baby being carried out theback of a hospital. I didn’t know who she was. Didn’t know what I was watching.

“This isn’t helping,” Tex mutters. “Y’all need to breathe before someone gets thrown through a wall.”

Henry ignores him, eyes locked on mine like I’m a loaded weapon. “You didn’t know,” he says, low and bitter. “And still you cost me everything.”

I don’t move.

“I lost years,Ezekiel. Watching the clock, wondering if she was dead. If she was scared. Hurt. Alone.”

His voice cracks, but he doesn’t stop. “You think a fancy apartment and stolen money makes it even? You think that all of this is some sort of penance? Think again.”

Nate’s voice cuts through the air like a shot. “Enough.”

He steps between us, eyes hard, shoulders squared.

“Henry, I get it. You’re pissed. You’re heartbroken. But so is he.So is she.And guess what?” He points a finger toward me. “Zeke shows the fuck up. Every time.”