Chapter 5 The First Real Betrayal

> You opened a grave.

Now I'll dig yours.

Text message

Amelia's hand was trembling.

The sniper scope photo still glowed on her screen.

Leo. Standing outside the penthouse. Coffee cup in hand. Oblivious.

A red dot on his chest.

> "Get away from the window!" she yelled.

Leo barely had time to register her tone before she lunged, slamming into him and dragging him sideways behind the marble kitchen island.

A second later, the floor-to-ceiling window shattered.

Glass exploded inward. A sharp, silenced shot echoed like thunder.

> "What the hell "

> "Sniper," she gasped, voice shaking. "Someone just tried to kill you."

Leo looked up at the hole in the glass. The red bloom in the curtain.

> "You're sure that was for me?"

> "The photo came to me, Leo. With your name on the bullet."

They locked eyes.

All heat, all tension gone.

Only survival now.

> "Security detail's on their way," he muttered, pulling her into a crouch. "We stay low. We don't leave this floor."

> "We're not waiting for backup," she said.

> "Then what's your plan?"

> "I'm going to the source."

Chloe arrived fifteen minutes later pale, shaky, and clutching a leather folder.

> "I swear I didn't know anyone would get hurt "

> "Someone just put a gun on Leo," Amelia snapped. "Start talking."

> "It wasn't me!" Chloe cried. "It was never me I was being used. I only gave him copies. I swear."

> "You said 'him.' Who is he?"

> "I don't know. Not exactly. He never showed his face. Everything came through a courier. But I heard something. A name. A codename."

> "What name?" Leo demanded.

> "Thorne."

Amelia froze.

That name didn't come from the Roth family.

It came from her mother's past.

> "That was the name my mother used in her legal memos before she died."

Leo stiffened.

> "You're saying the same person who buried your mother is the one hunting us now?"

> "Or someone trying to finish what she started."

Amelia and Leo left the penthouse within the hour. Chloe stayed behind, under protection.

The new destination: the safehouse estate outside the city. No press. No surveillance. No windows without ballistic glass.

Leo sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, head bowed.

> "I don't care if I'm a target," he said. "But you "

> "Don't say it," Amelia said. "Not if you mean to walk away."

> "I mean to stay," he said. "But I need to know what this is."

> "What what is?"

> "Us."

She walked to him.

Dropped to her knees.

Took his hands in hers.

> "This is real. This is dangerous. And this " she kissed his knuckles, slow and aching " might be the only part of this mess that hasn't lied to me."

He pulled her up, fast.

Their kiss wasn't desperate.

It was final.

That night, Amelia went through her mother's old files.

Encrypted folders. Legal memos.

One stood out: "TRIAL_1989_HB-LSR"

She clicked.

A list of names populated the screen.

One of them was marked with a red tag:

Sebastian Thorne – Primary Witness (Suppressed)

Leo leaned over her shoulder.

> "He was going to testify against your father?"

> "He did." Her voice was shaking. "My father made it disappear."

Then

A new alert flashed in her inbox.

From: UNKNOWN

Subject: Tell Leo he's not the only Vance with a secret.

Attachment: PHOTO

She opened it.

Her stomach dropped.

Leo's younger brother. Ethan.

Shaking hands with Sebastian Thorne.

> "No," Leo breathed. "That's not possible."

But it was.

"Tell me this is fake."

Leo's voice was nothing like his usual confident register. No flirty undertone. No cocky edge.

Just raw.

He stared at the photo. Ethan Vance. Smiling. Shaking hands with a man Leo had only seen in court transcripts and nightmares.

Sebastian Thorne.

> "There's a chance," Amelia said slowly, "that Ethan didn't know who he was meeting."

> "No. Ethan isn't stupid. Naive? Maybe. But not blind."

> "We don't know the context "

> "Amelia," Leo cut in. "That man is tied to the woman your father buried. And now he's smiling at my brother like they're planning brunch."

> "We'll find out the truth."

> "And what if the truth is that my family helped bury yours?"

Silence. Then, softer:

> "Then we decide what to do together."

Leo stood, pacing the safehouse's living room, tension bleeding off him like heat. His shirt hung open, chest rising and falling.

> "I should've seen this coming."

> "How could you?"

> "Because I knew Ethan was slipping. He's been different for months. Avoiding me. Making shady business moves behind my back."

He ran a hand through his hair.

> "My father always said: loyalty or legacy. You can't have both. Maybe Ethan listened too well."

> "Or maybe someone made him think you betrayed him."

Leo turned to her.

> "How do you do that?"

> "Do what?"

> "Still believe in people after everything they've done to you."

She didn't answer.

Just walked toward him, slow, measured, magnetic.

> "Because someone once believed in me before I earned it."

He didn't resist when she pressed her hand to his chest.

Didn't stop her when her lips brushed his neck.

But when her hands slid lower, he caught them.

> "If we go there now..." he whispered.

> "We've already gone too far."

They made love like people who had nothing left to hide.

It wasn't rough this time.

It was deliberate. Slow. Strategic. Every kiss a reassurance. Every touch a confession.

When it was over, they lay in silence.

Amelia traced a scar across Leo's chest.

> "How'd you get this?"

> "Fell through a glass table trying to impress a girl I didn't even like."

> "How old?"

> "Fourteen."

> "She like it?"

> "She liked my brother."

He laughed, bitter.

> "Story of my life."

> "Not anymore."

She rested her head on his shoulder.

> "You have me."

The next morning, Leo received a notification from his private server.

Unauthorized access attempt.

Internal breach traced to: Vance Enterprises, West Office.

He opened the file request log.

The file Ethan had tried to access?

> Roth–Vance Merger: Termination Clause // Private Only // Leo Vance Signature Required

> "He tried to trigger the kill switch," Leo muttered. "On the entire merger."

Amelia stared at the screen.

> "He's not just aligned with Thorne."

> "He's trying to end us."