Elena woke to three missed calls and a text: *Coffee this afternoon? I owe you a proper date after last night's chaos.*
She twisted her mother's ring, remembering Richard's calculating stare. By now, he was probably investigating Elena Martinez. Her fake identity wouldn't hold up long.
But she needed more information about Adrian's adoption. About Marcus's plans. And Adrian was her best source.
*Meet at that place near campus at 3?*
*Perfect. The café on Broadway. See you there.*
Elena spent the morning researching corporate succession laws and adoption records. If Marcus was threatening Adrian's inheritance, there had to be a specific legal loophole he was targeting.
What bothered Elena was how much she cared about Adrian's situation, separate from her revenge. Last night, watching him navigate his father's suspicion and uncle's hostility, she'd seen his isolation. How hard he was trying to prove himself worthy of a name that wasn't his by birth.
Elena arrived early and chose a corner table with a clear view. Small café, Columbia students with laptops and oversized coffees. Nothing like last night's opulent world.
Adrian walked in looking different—jeans, gray sweater, younger. Less like a billionaire's heir, more like the law student who cared about housing rights.
"Sorry I'm late," he said, sliding across from her. "Legal department called about some contract thing."
"No problem. I was people-watching." Elena gestured at students hurrying past. "Nice to be back in the real world after last night."
Adrian's smile was wry. "Yeah, corporate events aren't my scene."
"What is?"
"This." Adrian looked around with obvious affection. "Coffee shops, libraries. Places where you can actually talk without worrying who's listening or what they'll use against you."
Elena filed that away. "Sounds like you don't trust many people in your father's world."
"Can you blame me?" He ordered coffee for both without asking—large, oat milk, no sugar. He'd remembered. "When you grow up in that environment, everyone wants something. Business connections, social status, access to power. After a while, you wonder if anyone actually likes you for who you are."
Elena twisted her ring. "That sounds lonely."
"It is." His honesty caught her off guard. "That's why last night was refreshing. You were there for me, not because of my name or connections. You came to see me."
Guilt twisted in Elena's stomach.
"Well," she said carefully, "I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to rescue me from your father's interrogation. He's very... intense."
Adrian's expression darkened. "Richard doesn't know how to turn off the CEO mode. Everyone's a potential asset or liability to him. Sometimes I think he analyzes our family relationships the same way he analyzes quarterly reports."
"That must be hard, growing up with that pressure."
"Do you know what it's like to spend your whole life proving you deserve something given to you as charity?" Adrian stared into his coffee. "The board sees me as Richard's pet project. The orphan he took in to look philanthropic. They're waiting for me to screw up so they can point to my bloodline as evidence I never belonged."
The raw pain in his voice made Elena lean forward. "Screw them. Blood doesn't determine worth. You think genetics makes you less qualified?"
Adrian looked up, surprised. "You really believe that?"
"Absolutely. The worst leaders inherited their power. The best earned it through merit." Elena was getting carried away, but couldn't stop. "Richard chose you as heir for a reason. He could've had biological children, remarried. Instead, he invested twenty-one years in you. That's not charity—that's strategy."
Adrian smiled. "When you put it like that..."
"It is logical. Your father's not sentimental about business. If he's grooming you to inherit, it's because he believes you're the best person for the job."
"You're the first person who's ever said that. Everyone else just tells me how lucky I am, how grateful I should be."
Elena's heart twisted. "You shouldn't have to be grateful for being treated like family."
Adrian reached across the table, covering her hand with his. "Thank you. For seeing me as more than just the adopted kid playing dress-up."
The warmth of his skin sent an unexpected jolt through Elena. For a moment, she forgot her mission entirely. Just Adrian looking at her with such genuine gratitude.
She took a sip of coffee and changed tactics.
"Can I ask something random?"
"Sure."
"What do you think about inheritance laws? Legally speaking."
Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Random indeed. Why?"
"Paper for class. I keep finding cases where legitimate children inherit everything while adopted kids or those born outside marriage get nothing, even with the same parents."
"It's archaic." Adrian didn't hesitate. "The whole 'legitimate' versus 'illegitimate' concept is holdover from when women were property. All children should have equal inheritance rights regardless of birth circumstances."
Elena's pulse quickened. "Even if it complicates things for established families? What if a CEO dies and it turns out he had unknown children from previous relationships? Should they claim inheritance?"
"Absolutely." His conviction surprised her. "If someone fathers children and abandons them, those kids shouldn't be punished. They didn't choose to be born any more than legitimate heirs did."
Elena's heart hammered. "Really? Even if it meant sharing your own inheritance with strangers?"
"Elena, I'm adopted. My inheritance is already being shared with a stranger—me." Adrian's smile was bitter. "Besides, if I found out I had siblings somewhere, I'd want to meet them. I'd want them part of the family."
Elena's coffee cup slipped in her hands. Adrian reached out to steady it, his fingers brushing hers.
"You okay? You look pale."
Elena forced a smile. "Just thinking about how complicated family law can get."
But her mind was reeling. Adrian had just told her that if he discovered Richard had abandoned children, he'd want to welcome them into the family. He'd want to share his inheritance with them.
He'd want to share his inheritance with her.
Elena had expected Adrian to be threatened by the idea of illegitimate heirs. She'd planned to use his insecurity about his own adoption against him, to make him paranoid about other potential claimants to the Blackwood fortune. Instead, he'd reacted with empathy and genuine desire for connection.
"Actually," Adrian continued, "sometimes I fantasize about having siblings. Growing up as an only child in that house was... isolating. Richard was always working, Victoria was sick a lot before she died, and the extended family treated me like an outsider. I used to imagine what it would be like to have a brother or sister who understood what it was like to navigate that world."
Elena's throat constricted. "What if you found out you did have siblings? Hypothetically."
"I'd be thrilled," Adrian said immediately. "I'd want to know everything about them. Where they grew up, what they were like, whether they remembered our biological parents. I'd want to bring them home, introduce them to Richard, make them part of the family legacy."
Elena bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. This wasn't how this conversation was supposed to go. Adrian wasn't supposed to be kind and welcoming and genuinely excited about the possibility of found family. He was supposed to be suspicious and territorial and threatened by potential competitors for his inheritance.
"Even if they resented you for having the privileged life they never got?" Elena asked quietly.
"Especially then." Adrian's green eyes were earnest. "I'd want to make it up to them somehow. I'd want them to know that just because I got lucky doesn't mean I don't understand how unfair it all is."
Elena looked away, ostensibly watching the students at other tables, but really trying to compose herself. Adrian's kindness was like acid on her carefully maintained anger. It was hard to hate the Blackwood family when its heir was sitting across from her talking about wanting to share his fortune with abandoned siblings.
But Richard had still destroyed her mother's life. He'd still paid Rosa to disappear and signed legal documents ensuring Elena would never be acknowledged as his child. The fact that Adrian might welcome her into the family didn't erase twenty-three years of rejection and abandonment.
"You're very idealistic," Elena said, turning back to face him.
"Richard says the same thing. Usually not as a compliment."
"What do you mean?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "He thinks I'm too soft for the business world. Too concerned with fairness and ethics. He's always telling me that successful leaders have to make hard choices, that sometimes you have to sacrifice individuals for the greater good."
Elena's pulse quickened. "What kind of hard choices?"
"Cutting jobs to improve profit margins. Evicting tenants from buildings we want to develop. Settling lawsuits quietly instead of admitting wrongdoing." Adrian's voice was heavy with disgust. "He calls it pragmatism. I call it selling your soul."
"But you're still planning to take over the company?"
"I don't know." Adrian ran his hands through his hair. "Some days I think about walking away entirely. Finding my own path, building something that actually helps people instead of just enriching shareholders."
"What stops you?"
"Guilt, mostly. Richard has invested so much in preparing me for this role. And if I leave, the company will probably go to Marcus, and he's even worse than Richard when it comes to putting profit over people."
Elena remembered Marcus's threats from the night before. "You don't like your uncle?"
"Marcus is... complicated. He's always resented Richard for inheriting control of the company instead of him. He thinks he deserves to be running things because he's the older brother."
"Does he have a point?"
Adrian was quiet for a long moment, clearly wrestling with family loyalty and honesty.
"Maybe," he admitted finally. "Marcus is brilliant when it comes to business strategy. He's ruthless in ways that Richard isn't. But that's exactly what scares me about him. If Marcus ever gets control of Blackwood Industries, he'll turn it into something even more predatory than it already is."
Elena filed that information away. "So you're staying to prevent him from taking over?"
"Partly. And partly because..." Adrian hesitated. "This is going to sound stupid."
"Try me."
"I keep thinking about all the people the company employs. All the families who depend on Blackwood Industries for their livelihoods. If I can find a way to reform things from the inside, to make the company more ethical while keeping it profitable, maybe I can actually make a difference."
Elena stared at him, her heart doing complicated things in her chest. "That doesn't sound stupid at all."
"Really? Because Richard thinks I'm naive for believing that capitalism can be reformed instead of just replaced."
"Richard sounds like he's forgotten that businesses exist to serve communities, not the other way around."
Adrian's face lit up. "Exactly! That's exactly what I try to tell him, but he just says I don't understand how competitive the market is."
Elena found herself genuinely engaged in the conversation, forgetting for moments at a time that she was supposed to be manipulating Adrian for information. His passion for social justice was infectious, and his frustration with his family's business practices felt authentic.
"Can I ask you something else?" Elena said. "Still related to my paper."
"Shoot."
"What would you do if you found out your father had done something really terrible to someone? Something that couldn't be undone, but could maybe be... addressed?"
Adrian's expression grew serious. "What kind of terrible?"
Elena chose her words carefully. "Say he'd hurt someone financially. Ruined their life to protect his own interests. And that person had children who were still suffering because of his actions."
"I'd want to make it right," Adrian said without hesitation. "I'd want to find those children and do whatever I could to help them. Money, connections, opportunities—whatever they needed."
Elena's chest felt tight. "Even if it meant going against your father's wishes?"
"Especially if it meant going against his wishes. Elena, just because Richard raised me doesn't mean I have to perpetuate every wrong he's ever committed."
There was steel in Adrian's voice, a moral certainty that made Elena both admire and fear him. He really would try to help her if he knew the truth. He really would want to make amends for Richard's treatment of Rosa.
But he'd also be devastated when he learned that the woman he was falling for had been deceiving him from the very beginning.
"You're a good person," Elena said quietly.
"I try to be. Though sometimes I wonder if trying is enough, you know? When you have access to power and privilege, is it enough to just be personally ethical, or do you have an obligation to actively fight injustice?"
Elena thought about her own situation—her access to Adrian, her proximity to the Blackwood family secrets, her ability to cause damage from the inside.
"I think," she said slowly, "that sometimes fighting injustice requires making difficult choices. Choices that good people might not understand or approve of."
"What do you mean?"
Elena met his eyes. "I mean sometimes the only way to stop bad people from hurting others is to hurt them first. Even if it means compromising your own principles."
Adrian was quiet for a moment, studying her face. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."
Elena twisted her ring. "Maybe I am."
"Want to talk about it?"
For a wild moment, Elena almost said yes. Almost told Adrian everything—about Rosa, about the unpaid medical bills, about twenty-three years of watching her mother work multiple jobs while Richard Blackwood built his empire on other people's suffering.
Instead, she shook her head. "Some stories aren't mine to tell."
Adrian nodded, accepting her boundary without pushing. It was another small kindness that made Elena's chest ache.
They talked for another hour about safer topics—classes, books, Adrian's pro bono legal work. Elena found herself laughing at his stories about difficult clients and sharing more about her own background than she'd planned. Not the truth, but real details about growing up in Queens, about her mother's work ethic, about the financial struggles that had shaped her worldview.
When Adrian walked her back to campus, he was quiet for several blocks.
"Can I ask you something?" he said finally.
"Sure."
"Last night, when you said you came to the gala to see my world... what did you think of it? Really."
Elena considered lying, giving him some diplomatic answer about being impressed by the wealth and glamour. But something in his expression made her tell the truth instead.
"I thought it was beautiful and terrifying," she said. "All that power concentrated in one room, all those people who could change lives with a phone call or destroy them just as easily. It made me think about how different the world looks depending on where you're standing."
Adrian nodded. "That's exactly how I feel about it. Like I'm living in this bubble where everything is possible and nothing has real consequences."
They stopped in front of the library where they'd first met. Elena could see the third-floor windows where Adrian spent his Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, where she'd watched him for months before working up the courage to make contact.
"Elena," Adrian said, "I know we haven't known each other long, but I feel like I can talk to you in a way I can't with most people. You don't just tell me what you think I want to hear."
Elena's stomach twisted with guilt. If only he knew how much she was hiding from him.
"I feel the same way," she said, and it wasn't entirely a lie. Despite her ulterior motives, she did feel a connection to Adrian that had nothing to do with her revenge plot.
"Good." Adrian smiled and leaned down to kiss her cheek, his lips lingering longer than they had the night before. "I'll call you tomorrow?"
"I'd like that."
Elena watched him walk away, then sat on the library steps despite the February cold. Her mind was spinning with everything Adrian had told her.
He wanted to reform his father's company from the inside. He would welcome illegitimate siblings into the family. He was genuinely committed to social justice and making amends for past wrongs. And he was starting to care about her in a way that had nothing to do with her fake identity or carefully crafted lies.
Elena pulled out her phone and stared at Richard's contact information, which she'd found through public business directories. She could call him right now, tell him exactly who she was and what she wanted. Demand recognition, financial support, a place in the family legacy. Based on what Adrian had said, he might even support her claim.
But Richard wouldn't just roll over and accept her demands. He'd investigate her background, discover her deception, learn that she'd been manipulating Adrian from the beginning. And even if Adrian forgave her for the lies, he'd never trust her again. She'd lose any chance of having him as an ally in her fight against their father.
More importantly, she'd lose Adrian himself. And despite everything she'd told herself about using him for revenge, Elena was starting to realize that losing Adrian would hurt in ways that had nothing to do with her mission.
Elena's phone buzzed with a text: *Thanks for the coffee and the conversation. You made me remember why I want to fight for the good guys. - Adrian*
Elena stared at the message, her thumb hovering over the keyboard. She could end this now. Tell Adrian she wasn't ready for a relationship, pull back before either of them got hurt worse than they already would be.
Instead, she typed: *Thanks for reminding me that some people are worth fighting for.*
It was more honest than anything she'd said to him yet.
As Elena walked back to her apartment, she tried to convince herself that her growing feelings for Adrian were just a side effect of spending so much time in character. She was method acting, getting too deep into her role as the smitten law student.
But she knew it was more than that. Adrian Blackwood was everything she hadn't expected—kind, idealistic, genuinely committed to justice. He was the kind of person her mother would have liked, the kind of man Rosa had probably hoped Elena would find someday.
The irony was brutal. Elena had spent months planning to destroy the Blackwood family, and she'd ended up falling for the one member who might actually deserve her loyalty instead of her revenge.
But Richard still needed to pay for what he'd done to Rosa. And Elena was the only one who could make that happen.
She just had to figure out how to destroy her father without losing the brother she was beginning to love.
End of Chapter 4