Bound To The Broken Alpha (Amy and Daniel) novel Chapter 180

Chapter 180 We Need Privacy

DANIEL

Finished

I received the second file early in the morning. It showed up in a secured inbox that only a handful of people knew existed. The alert on my phone dragged me straight out of the half–sleep I had been drifting in. Amy was still asleep, and I didn’t want to wake her until I knew what I was dealing with. The last thing she needed was another piece of information that hit her without warning.

I downloaded the file and locked myself in the study. My pulse stayed steady, but my mind kept running through every possible scenario. The first file had already thrown Amy into a chaotic mental space. If this second one pushed her any further, I wanted to be ready to manage it.

When I opened the file, the first image hit instantly. Clara was sitting across from Selene in what looked like a private lounge somewhere in the South. The date stamp was three months ago. Nothing about it surprised me, but irritation tightened through my chest. Clara had already caused enough damage. Seeing her plotting again made me want to end this whole mess myself.

I scrolled through and I saw more photos, more meetings, different locations. Some indoors, some outside. Always the same two people. Always the same tension in their posture. It wasn’t casual. Then the audio files loaded.

I listened with my jaw locked. Their voices were clear. They were talking about Carter Holdings. They were talking about Amy. They were talking about weaknesses, about timing, about who could be influenced inside the board. They had a plan, and they weren’t guessing. Someone had been feeding them information for months, maybe longer.

I saved the recordings, backed everything up, and went to the last page in the file. It held a family registry form. At first glance, it looked like a normal genealogy report. Then I saw the names.

Selene’s mother. Clara’s mother. The listed guardian for Clara and Am early years was Mrs. Smith.

The biological mother of Clara and Amy was documented as Marielle.

Amy’s mother.

My breath stopped for a second, not because I believed it instantly, but because the possibility was now on the table. If it was true, it meant Clara and Amy shared a bloodline none of us knew about. It meant Marielle wasn’t just missing, she was tied into all of this in ways we had never imagined.

I sat back and tried to make sense of it. There was no immediate logic to it. No timeline that neatly explained how these pieces fit. And that was exactly why I needed to bring it to Amy without filtering anything. She deserved the whole truth, even if it made everything messier.

I closed the file, locked the study, and went to find her.

She was in the kitchen, talking to Brian about something work related. She looked tired but stable. I told Brian to give us space, and he left without question. Amy looked at me, reading my expression before I said

a word.

“You got it,” she said.

I nodded. “We need privacy.”

173

08:49 Mon, Jan 12

Chapter 180 We Need Privacy

Finished

We went upstairs. She sat on the couch while I remained standing, unsure how to ease into it. There was no good way to soften something like this. I handed her the tablet with the file open to the first page.

She went through the photos slowly. Her face didn’t twitch, didn’t give away anything. She had been ambushed enough times to learn how to keep herself steady. When she reached the audio files, she listened with calmness, even though I knew the content was hitting her hard.

When she finally spoke, her voice was flat. “Clara hasn’t stopped. She never planned to.”

“She didn’t,” I said. “And Selene has been involved longer than she let on.”

Amy set the tablet down and leaned back. For a moment, she seemed like she was somewhere else, sorting through her own memories, looking for cracks that matched the new information. I sat next to her, close enough so she felt my presence, but I did not touch her until she reached for me first.

Then she got to the last page, she froze. She just went still, like she was holding her breath while trying to understand what she was seeing.

“That’s my mother’s name,” she said quietly.

“Yes.”

“And Clara’s mother.”

“Yes.”

“That makes no sense. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“It shouldn’t,” I agreed. “But the investigator doesn’t include information he isn’t sure about. He marked the source as confirmed.”

She looked at the screen for a long time. She didn’t cry. She didn’t break. She didn’t even look shocked. She looked confused, maybe even frustrated. Confusion had become a familiar state for both of us, but this hit in a personal way I couldn’t fully gauge.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why would Marielle be tied to Clara? Why would she hide that? None of this fits.”

There was nothing useful I could say except the truth. “We don’t have enough information yet.”

She pressed her hand to her forehead. I pulled her in gently, giving her space to lean or not. She leaned. Her shoulders eased just enough for me to know she needed the contact, not words.

After a while she spoke again. “We need to confirm everything. Not just the file. Not just the DNA connections. All of it. And we need to confirm whether Marielle is alive.”

“I already planned on that,” I told her. “One PI isn’t enough anymore. I’ll activate another one today, someone who specializes on people off the grid. No pack ties. No trails.”

Amy nodded. “Good. This isn’t about how I feel. I

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