But at that moment, Orion remained surprisingly composed.

He asked, “Mom, how did you track this back to me? Who gave you the tip-off?"

Orion believed he'd been very careful there was no reason they should have discovered him so quickly.

Could it have been the Sinclair family?

"You still haven't answered my question," his mother pressed. "Who put you up to this?"

Orion met her gaze. "I did it to uncover the truth behind that car accident all those years ago."

Mrs. Amanda was taken aback. "Wasn't the truth already clear? It was just an accident-the Sinclair family's driver ran a red light and caused the crash."

Could there really be more to it?

Orion's tone turned colder. "That's what I thought too, until I found out the Sinclair family orchestrated the accident on purpose."

"That's impossible. Amelia and I are close-she's practically your godmother. Why would she ever want to hurt you? And even if she did, what would she get out of it? That accident wasn't even serious. You weren't hurt at all."

"That's true—I wasn't. But Lemira's parents died."

"You're saying that wasn't an accident?"

Orion looked at her, his expression grave. "If it were a simple accident, would I be doing all this?"

Mrs. Amanda's heart sank at her son's words.

After a long silence, she finally sat down on the sofa and asked, "So—what have you found?"

"The Sinclair family orchestrated the crash in order to take out Lemira's parents was all about getting. control of the new energy project. back then," Orion explained,

recounting the entire chain of events as he had learned them.

When he finished, silence settled over the room.

It took Mrs. Amanda a while to find her voice. "I don't believe it. Amelia would never do such a thing."

"But the Sinclair family was on the verge of bankruptcy back then. To save them-to get the new energy project-there's little she wouldn't do."

Mrs. Amanda went quiet; she remembered that crisis well. But never had she imagined the Sinclair family would go to such lengths to win the project.

"I know Amelia can be impulsive, but at worst she might try to hurt Lemira's parents

so they couldn't bid for the project—not actually try to kill them. She wouldn't go that far, would she?"

Mrs. Amanda felt she understood her close friend—Amelia would never contemplate murder. That would be far too risky.

“But in the end, both Lemira's parents died," Orion pointed out.

Mrs. Amanda let out a bitter, conflicted laugh. That was the truth-Lemira had lost both her parents.

Orion continued, "And she dragged the Everhart family into it as well."

"That's not possible," Mrs. Amanda denied immediately.

"Oh, it's possible. Amelia figured that if the truth ever came out, I'd be implicated just from being in that car. The Everhart family would do whatever it took to protect me, and in the process, both our families would be kept safe

"But I still don't believe Amelia would do such a thing. The only reason you were in that car was because I was

SO

anxious for you to come triome t

asked their driver to pick you up if not for me, you wouldn't even have been in that car. She wouldn't purposely try to harm you."

Orion being in that car had everything to do with her, and nothing to do with her friend.

A trace of irony flickered in Orion's eyes. "Who ever said I didn't have proof?"