Page 76 of Secret Heir For The Billionaire Twin

Chairs scrape against the floor as the room begins to clear. I gather my notebook quickly.

“Sophie.”

I turn. Adrian is standing a few feet away.

“You surviving us?” he asks.

“So far.”

“That sounded reluctant.”

“I’m preserving my editorial independence.”

Adrian grins. “Good answer.”

Julian remains near the far end of the room speaking with Vivian. I feel his presence without looking directly at him.

“I’ll see you later,” Adrian says.

“You will.”

I leave before I can give myself a reason to stay. Back in the visitor office, another calendar notification waits on my screen.

1:00 P.M. — JULIAN BLACKWELL — FOLLOW-UP / ARCHIVES

My stomach tightens. I spend the next hour pretending the meeting is no different from any other interview. At 12:58, I am standing outside Julian’s office as Daniel looks up from his desk.

“He’s expecting you,” he says.

“Thank you.”

I knock once before entering. Julian is standing near the windows with a folder in one hand. He turns when I walk in, and whatever distance he carried into the conference room follows him here.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hi.”

His voice is even. I take the chair across from his desk and set my notebook in my lap. The room smells faintly of coffee, paper, and the clean trace of his aftershave. My body recognizes the scent immediately and a shiver runs across my skin before I can suppress it.

Julian sits across from me.

“How has the archive preparation been going?” he asks.

“Good. I have a few gaps I want to fill around the early expansion years and some of the internal decisions that never made it into the public filings.”

“What kind of decisions?”

“Mostly the ones around infrastructure ownership,” I say.

“The public version makes it look almost inevitable, which usually means it wasn’t.”

A faint shift touches his mouth.

“You’re right.”

“I assumed I was.”

“You usually do.”