The black sedan idling in front of me unlocked with a sharp chirp, the heavy door swinging open.
Adrian Blackwood stepped out onto the gravel.
My father’s former business partner removed his tailored charcoal jacket and draped it over my shivering shoulders. The heavy wool carried the faint scent of cedar and expensive coffee, a stark contrast to the sterile bleach of the penitentiary.
"Adrian," I rasped, pulling the lapels tightly across my chest. "You're here."
"Get inside, Evelyn," he instructed, his tone brisk but not unkind. "You're freezing."
I slid into the leather passenger seat. Adrian shut the door, walked around the hood, and climbed behind the wheel. He threw the car into drive, peeling away from the towering chain-link fences.
"Why didn't you come?" I asked, staring at his profile. "Three years, Adrian. I wrote to you. I begged for help."
"I tried," Adrian replied, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "I submitted a dozen visitation requests. Every single one was denied."
"Denied? By who?"
"By your husband." Adrian's jaw tightened. "Ryan used the power of attorney you gave him. He blocked all outside contact. He intercepted your mail. I never received a single letter."
I leaned back against the headrest, a bitter laugh escaping my throat. "He planned everything. He locked me in a box and threw away the key."
"He threatened me, too," Adrian added, his grip on the steering wheel turning his knuckles white. "Ryan told the board you suffered a mental breakdown. He used your felony conviction to freeze my voting rights when I demanded an independent audit of the company."
"And the board just believed him?"
"He had the paperwork. He had the judge's ruling." Adrian shot me a quick glance. "You were a criminal on paper, Evelyn. He made sure of it."
We drove in silence for nearly an hour, leaving the barren prison landscape behind for the dense, towering skyline of the city. Adrian bypassed the downtown corporate district entirely, pulling into the underground garage of a secluded townhouse.
"Where are we?" I asked, stepping out onto the polished concrete floor.
"A secure property," he answered, leading me toward a private elevator. "Registered under a shell company. Ryan doesn't know it exists."
Inside the living room, Adrian didn't offer me a drink or pointless small talk. He walked straight to the glass coffee table and dropped a thick manila folder onto the surface.
"Open it," he commanded.
I stepped forward and flipped the cover back. Pages of financial records, bank statements, and legal contracts stared back at me.
"What am I looking at?" I pointed to a highlighted column of numbers on the top page.
"The tax fraud that put you away," Adrian explained, tapping the paper. "Ryan didn't stumble into a corporate loophole. He engineered it. He funneled company funds through offshore accounts, stamped your name on the authorizations, and tipped off the IRS himself."
My stomach churned. "He framed me."
"Perfectly," Adrian agreed. "He needed you out of the way. Look at the next page."
I turned the sheet. A copy of the share transfer agreement lay beneath it. My signature sat at the bottom, signing away my sixty percent stake in Carter Media to Ryan.
"I signed this," I whispered, tracing the blue ink. "He visited me right before the sentencing. He told me it was temporary. A move to protect the assets from federal seizure."
"Look at the dates on pages four and five," Adrian instructed, leaning against the edge of the table.
I scanned the tiny print at the top corner of the document. "October twelfth."
"You were incarcerated on October third," Adrian pointed out. "You couldn't possibly have signed those specific pages. He swapped the middle sections of the contract after you went inside. He altered the terms to make the transfer permanent."
I slammed the folder shut. The sharp smack echoed through the quiet room.
"He stole my father's company," I growled, my nails digging into my palms until the skin stung. "He paraded around outside the prison today with some woman named Vanessa and a boy named Noah. He told me he left my son to die on the streets!"
Adrian's expression darkened. "I know about Vanessa. They've been living in your estate. But I didn't know about Lucas. Ryan told the board he sent the boy to a private boarding school in Europe."
"He lied!" I shoved away from the table, pacing the length of the rug. "Lucas ran away. A seven-year-old boy, out there alone. I have to find him. I have to call the police, hire private investigators—"
"With what money, Evelyn?" Adrian interrupted.
I stopped pacing. "I... I don't know. I have nothing. My bank accounts are gone. My shares are gone. I'm a convicted felon."
"You aren't broke," Adrian corrected, crossing his arms over his chest. "Your father was a paranoid man, Evelyn. He never fully trusted Ryan."
I whipped my head toward him. "What do you mean?"
"Before he died, your father established a blind family trust," Adrian revealed. "It contains a massive reserve of liquid assets and a fail-safe clause. If anyone acquires the primary Carter Media shares through fraud, coercion, or illegal manipulation, those shares are immediately voided."
My heart slammed against my ribs. "The trust reclaims the company?"
"Exactly," Adrian said. "But we have to prove the fraud. We need the original documents Ryan manipulated. If we expose him, you take back everything."
"Why didn't my father tell me about this trust?" I asked, my voice rising. "If he knew Ryan was dangerous, why did he let me marry him?"
"Your father loved you," Adrian said quietly. "He knew you were blinded by Ryan's charm. He couldn't stop the wedding without losing you. So he built a safety net instead."
I looked down at my bruised hands, the scrape from the prison gravel still bleeding sluggishly. Ryan had played me for a fool. He sold me out to secure his empire, replaced me with Vanessa, and discarded my child like trash.
"I don't care about the money right now," I stated, my voice turning to steel. "I want my son."
"We will find Lucas," Adrian promised. "I already have people looking into the local shelters and runaway databases."
"Good." I met his gaze, holding it firmly. "Once my boy is safe, I am going to rip Ryan's life apart. I want him to lose the house. I want him to lose the company. I want him in a cell."
Adrian offered a grim, approving nod. "Where do we start?"
Before I could answer, Adrian's phone buzzed violently on the glass table.
He picked it up, swiping the screen. His eyes narrowed as he read the incoming message.
"What is it?" I demanded.
Adrian looked up, his expression unreadable. "My contact at the precinct just flagged a police report from two years ago. A boy matching Lucas's description was found wandering near the shipping docks."
I stepped forward, my pulse skyrocketing. "Where is he?"
"He isn't at the station," Adrian said, his voice dropping low. "The report says he was picked up an hour later by someone claiming to be his mother."
A freezing shock washed over me. "A woman claiming to be his mother? I was in a federal cell." I grabbed Adrian's sleeve. "Who took my son?"
