Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH HER FATHER LEFT BEHIND
"That's impossible."
Adrien stared at the photograph on Marcus's tablet.
"That picture was never supposed to exist."
Marcus slowly lowered the screen.
"Then you recognize it."
Adrien didn't answer.
He remembered the night at Pier Fourteen.
The smoke.
The shouting.
The terrible sound of metal doors being forced open while people screamed from inside a warehouse.
He had spent nine years trying to forget what happened there.
Now a photograph had brought everything back.
"Who else has seen this?" he asked.
"Victor. Possibly Sienna."
"And Evelyn?"
Marcus looked toward the intensive care unit.
"I don't know."
Adrien stood.
"Find out whether Victor took anything else. And nobody from his security team comes near this hospital."
Marcus nodded.
"Already arranged."
Then he added, "Someone wearing a Cross security badge tried to collect Mrs. Cross's personal belongings twenty minutes ago."
Adrien went still.
"What?"
"The nurses refused. The woman claimed there were instructions to transfer everything to a private facility."
"Where is she?"
"Hospital security stopped her. Her badge was counterfeit. She left before they could identify her."
Adrien looked toward the corridor leading to the neonatal unit.
His newborn children were less than three hours old.
Someone was already using his name to gain access to their mother's possessions.
For the first time, he understood that Victor's betrayal might extend far beyond the townhouse.
Evelyn woke shortly after one in the morning.
The first thing she noticed was the pain.
The second was the empty space beside her bed.
She heard machines humming softly.
Her throat felt dry.
She tried to move and immediately regretted it.
A nurse came closer.
"Mrs. Cross? You're in intensive care. Your surgery is finished."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"My babies?"
"Both are alive. Your daughter is doing well, and your son is receiving some breathing support. The neonatal team is watching him closely."
Tears slipped down Evelyn's cheeks.
"Can I see them?"
"As soon as you're stable enough."
Evelyn nodded.
Then she noticed the man standing near the window.
Adrien.
He looked nothing like the powerful husband who had walked away from her in the ballroom.
His tie was missing.
His shirt was wrinkled.
And his face carried an exhaustion she had never seen before.
"Evelyn."
He approached carefully.
She watched him without speaking.
"I'm here," he whispered.
Something changed in her expression.
Not relief.
Not gratitude.
Pain.
"You weren't."
Adrien stopped.
"I know."
"I called you."
His eyes reddened.
"I heard you."
"I thought I was dying."
He opened his mouth, but no explanation came.
Evelyn looked toward the ceiling.
"Do you know what I kept thinking when they wheeled me into surgery?"
Adrien shook his head.
"That if I didn't wake up, our children would grow up hearing everyone explain why their father had something more important to do."
"Evelyn, please."
She turned toward him.
"Don't ask me to make this easier for you."
He stepped back.
She had never spoken to him with such distance.
Not even during their worst arguments.
"Can I hold your hand?" he asked.
"No."
He lowered his hand.
"All right."
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Evelyn asked, "Did Marcus find my silver bag?"
Adrien's stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"Because someone followed me to the gallery yesterday."
He moved closer.
"Who?"
"Victor."
Adrien felt the room narrow around him.
Evelyn explained slowly, stopping whenever the pain became too much.
Victor had arrived at Bell House Gallery the previous afternoon.
He claimed he wanted to purchase several photographs from an exhibition she was preparing about New York's waterfront history.
The exhibition included work taken by her father, Gabriel Bell, before his death.
Victor had offered her three million dollars for the entire collection.
"I told him it wasn't for sale," Evelyn said.
"What did he do?"
"He showed me a photograph."
Adrien looked down.
"Of Pier Fourteen?"
She nodded.
"You were standing beside a man my father once described as dangerous."
"Leon Varga," Adrien said.
Evelyn's eyes widened.
"So you know him."
"I knew him."
"Victor said the photograph proved you were involved in what happened to my father."
Adrien shook his head.
"That isn't what happened."
"Then why didn't you ever tell me you were there?"
He had no answer that could undo nine years of silence.
Evelyn swallowed painfully.
"My father died trying to photograph the men responsible for that fire. You knew how much finding the truth meant to me."
"I was trying to protect you."
She gave a tired, bitter laugh.
"That's what you always say."
Before he could respond, Dr. Lawson entered to check Evelyn's condition.
Adrien moved aside.
But Evelyn wasn't finished.
"There's something Victor didn't know," she said.
Adrien looked at her.
"The photograph he showed me was cropped."
"How do you know?"
"Because my father's original collection contains the complete image."
Her fingers tightened around the hospital blanket.
"And there was a third man standing beside you."
Adrien's face drained of color.
Evelyn watched him carefully.
"The third man was wearing your father's gold signet ring."
May you like
She paused.
"Adrien, was your father involved in the fire that killed mine?"
