Chapter 8 - FOLLOW THE STARS
I grabbed the book.
“What does she mean?”
Adrian was already examining the hallway.
Then he saw it.
A tiny gold star sticker on the baseboard.
Mia’s Band-Aids.
She had left a trail.
My brave little girl had understood enough to know she shouldn’t be going with Thomas Vale.
“She knew,” I whispered.
Adrian touched the sticker.
“She knew we’d look.”
The stars led down the servants’ staircase.
Through the kitchen.
Into the underground garage.
One was stuck to a concrete pillar beside an empty parking space.
Marcus checked security footage.
Vale had left eighteen minutes earlier.
Mia was in the passenger seat.
Not restrained.
Not crying.
That somehow hurt worse.
“She thinks she has to behave,” I said.
Adrian looked at me.
“We’re bringing her home.”
Not I.
We.
Victor entered the garage behind us.
“I know where Vale is going.”
Adrian turned.
“How?”
“He wants the microfilm.”
“Then why take Mia?”
“Leverage.”
Victor looked sick.
“There’s one place he’ll expect us to make the exchange.”
An old Kane shipping terminal on the Brooklyn waterfront.
Daniel had discovered the financial records there.
Adrian gave orders quickly.
No army.
No dramatic assault.
Police would receive copies of the ledger anonymously, along with evidence linking Vale to financial crimes and Daniel’s murder.
“You’re calling police?” I asked.
Adrian met my eyes.
“I’m done protecting a system that protected the man who killed my brother.”
That was the first moment I saw what Mia had seen before I did.
Not a good man.
A man trying to become one.
We reached the terminal before noon.
Vale stood inside the old loading building.
Mia sat on a wooden crate twenty feet away.
She was holding herself very still.
When she saw me, her face crumpled.
“Mommy.”
Every instinct told me to run.
Adrian caught my hand.
“Wait.”
Vale held no gun on Mia.
His weapon remained lowered at his side.
That mattered.
He wasn’t reckless.
He believed he still had control.
“Rosary,” he said.
Adrian held it up.
“Mia walks to Emma first.”
Vale smiled faintly.
“You always did negotiate emotionally when family was involved.”
“You spent twenty years teaching me not to.”
“And failed.”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice was calm.
“Daniel did.”
Something flickered across Vale’s face.
There it was.
Not hatred.
Resentment.
Daniel had beaten him six years after his death simply by leaving enough truth behind.
Vale looked at me.
“Your husband caused extraordinary damage.”
“He was trying to protect his family.”
“He was going to destroy an organization supporting hundreds of people.”
There was his motive.
Not madness.
Not greed alone.
Vale believed the Kane empire was an institution bigger than the people harmed to preserve it.
“Daniel threatened stability,” he said.
“So you killed him,” I replied.
“I prevented a war.”
“You made a little girl grow up without her father.”
His eyes hardened.
“History is full of children who paid for adult choices.”
Mia spoke.
“That’s mean.”
Vale looked at her.
She hugged herself.
“My daddy didn’t choose you.”
My eyes filled.
Vale seemed almost startled.
Adrian used that second.
“Walk to your mother, Mia.”
Vale raised the weapon.
“Don’t.”
Mia froze.
Adrian placed the rosary on the floor.
“I’m unarmed.”
Vale glanced down.
Marcus moved somewhere behind us.
Vale heard him.
His weapon shifted.
Victor stepped from behind a pillar.
“Thomas.”
Vale stared.
“You.”
“You should have left Daniel alone.”
“You should have followed orders.”
Victor laughed sadly.
“I spent my whole life following the wrong ones.”
Then he walked into the open.
Vale aimed at him.
“Victor,” Adrian warned.
But Victor kept walking.
“You wanted the records because they prove you were stealing from everyone, not just the Kanes.”
Adrian looked sharply at him.
Another secret.
Vale had been siphoning money through Victor’s network for decades.
Daniel hadn’t merely threatened the organization.
He threatened Vale personally.
Vale’s attention moved fully to Victor.
That was enough.
Mia ran.
I caught her so hard we nearly fell.
A shot cracked through the building.
Adrian pulled us behind a concrete barrier.
More movement.
Marcus tackled Vale from the side.
The gun skidded away.
Adrian reached it first.
He pointed it at Vale.
For a terrible second, nobody moved.
Vale looked up.
“You know what happens if you let me live.”
Adrian’s finger rested near the trigger.
“You talk.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Vale’s expression changed.
“You brought police?”
“I brought consequences.”
Adrian lowered the gun.
Mia buried her face against me.
“It’s loud.”
“I know, baby.”
“I want home.”
“We’re going home.”
Police entered minutes later.
Vale was arrested.
Victor surrendered too.
That surprised Adrian.
“You don’t have to.”
Victor looked at him.
“Yes, I do.”
He glanced at me.
“I stole. I lied. And people paid for choices I made.”
For once, nobody argued.
As officers led him away, Victor stopped beside Adrian.
“Daniel was proud of you at the end.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t know that.”
Victor looked toward me.
“Yes, I do.”
He reached into his pocket slowly and handed me a folded piece of paper the police had missed during the confusion.
“I kept one thing from you.”
I opened it.
It was Daniel’s handwriting.
A letter.
Not to Adrian.
Not to me.
Across the top were two words:
For Mia.
May you like
And beneath them:
Give this to my daughter when she finally meets her uncle Adrian.
