Chapter 4 - LOCKER 317
Adrian took the photograph from Emma so quickly that Sophia feared he might tear it.
He carried it beneath the bedside lamp.
Gabriel stepped beside him.
The reflection was faint, distorted by sunlight and glass, but unmistakably human.
A tall man.
Dark clothes.
Silver at his wrist.
“When was this taken?” Adrian asked.
Isabella shrugged.
“Summer.”
Sophia looked closer.
“Could it be either of you?”
Gabriel gave a humorless laugh.
“In that reflection? It could be half the men Adrian employs.”
Adrian glanced at him.
Gabriel was right.
The watch had seemed like proof.
Now it looked almost deliberately visible.
A clue that pointed everywhere.
Adrian ordered Victor to prepare the car.
Sophia saw Gabriel's expression change at the security chief's name.
“You're taking him?”
“He runs my security.”
“That doesn't make him trustworthy.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Something you'd like to tell me?”
Gabriel looked toward Isabella.
“Not here.”
That answer only made things worse.
Adrian decided Gabriel would accompany them.
Then Isabella appeared at the staircase wearing her coat.
“I'm coming.”
“No,” Adrian said.
“It's Mommy's key.”
“Bella—”
“She gave it to me.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Sophia expected another battle.
Instead Emma announced, “I go too.”
“No,” Sophia and Adrian said simultaneously.
Emma blinked.
Gabriel almost smiled.
Ultimately the children stayed with Margaret while Sophia remained because Isabella refused to let Emma leave the mansion.
Adrian, Gabriel and Victor went to Grand Central.
They returned two hours later carrying a small brown envelope.
Nothing else.
Sophia was in the kitchen when Adrian entered.
His expression told her immediately something had gone wrong.
“Was it empty?”
“No.”
He placed the envelope on the table.
Inside was a train ticket.
New York to Albany.
Purchased for Elena.
Departure time: 9:10 p.m.
The night she died.
Sophia frowned.
“The accident happened before that, didn't it?”
“Eight forty-three.”
“So she planned to leave.”
Gabriel leaned against the counter.
“Or meet someone.”
Adrian pulled another object from the envelope.
A child's drawing.
Isabella's.
Three figures stood beneath a yellow sun.
Mommy.
Daddy.
Bella.
But someone had added a fourth figure in black ink afterward.
A tall man without a face.
Across his chest Elena had written:
HE KNOWS ABOUT ISABELLA.
Sophia felt cold.
“Knows what?”
Nobody answered.
Adrian looked at Gabriel.
“You said you didn't know what she put inside.”
“I didn't.”
“Why would Elena be afraid for Isabella?”
“I don't know.”
Victor had remained silent near the door.
Sophia noticed his eyes fixed on the drawing.
“Mr. Hale?”
His gaze moved to her.
“You've seen this?”
“No.”
“You looked like you had.”
Adrian turned toward him.
Victor remained composed.
“Elena had concerns during the final weeks of her life.”
Adrian's voice sharpened.
“You told me she was emotionally overwhelmed.”
“She was.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Victor hesitated.
“She believed someone had been following Isabella.”
Sophia stared.
“And you didn't tell him?”
“I investigated. I found no evidence.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You found no evidence, so you decided I didn't need to know someone was following my seven-year-old daughter?”
Victor's expression finally cracked.
“Elena specifically asked me not to tell you until I confirmed it.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed you would react exactly like this.”
That landed.
Adrian's anger did not disappear.
But Sophia saw the painful truth beneath Victor's words.
Elena had loved him.
She had also feared what his anger could unleash.
The revelation complicated everything.
That evening Adrian doubled security around Isabella.
It made the child miserable.
Two guards outside her room. Another near the stairs.
She refused dinner.
When Sophia found her, Isabella was curled beside Emma beneath a blanket fort they had constructed between two chairs.
“They're watching me,” Isabella whispered.
“They're protecting you.”
“Same thing.”
Sophia could not argue with that.
Emma crawled out holding the train ticket.
Sophia's heart stopped.
“Where did you get that?”
“Daddy man dropped it.”
Adrian.
Sophia took it carefully.
Then Emma pointed at the back.
“There are numbers.”
Sophia turned it over.
Faint pencil marks ran along one edge.
14-8-3.
She brought it downstairs.
Adrian stared at the numbers.
Gabriel shook his head.
Victor said nothing.
It was Isabella who solved it.
She had followed Sophia downstairs.
“Mommy's book.”
Everyone turned.
“What book?” Adrian asked.
“The bedtime one.”
Isabella ran upstairs and returned carrying a worn copy of The Secret Garden.
“Mommy made numbers when she wanted me to find words.”
Page fourteen.
Line eight.
Third word.
Adrian opened the book.
They counted.
The word was:
Victor.
Nobody breathed.
Victor slowly looked at Elena's train ticket.
Adrian's men immediately moved toward him.
“Don't,” Victor said.
Adrian's face had become terrifyingly calm.
“Give me one reason.”
“Because Elena didn't write that number.”
Isabella spoke behind them.
“Yes, she did.”
Victor looked at her.
“No, sweetheart. Your mother wrote differently.”
“How would you know?” Sophia asked.
Victor reached into his jacket.
Three guards drew weapons.
He stopped.
“Inside pocket. Photograph.”
Adrian removed it himself.
It showed Elena and Victor standing outside a hospital several years earlier.
Elena was visibly pregnant.
Sophia looked at Isabella.
Seven years.
Victor's voice became quieter.
“I knew Elena before Adrian did.”
Adrian looked up slowly.
Gabriel swore.
“What are you saying?”
“Not what you think.”
Victor met Adrian's gaze.
“Elena was my sister's closest friend. I helped her disappear from a man who was hurting her.”
Adrian's expression shifted.
“What man?”
“Her first husband.”
Sophia stared.
Nobody had ever mentioned a first husband.
Victor continued.
“She believed he found her again.”
Adrian looked at the drawing.
The faceless man.
“He knows about Isabella.”
Victor nodded.
“She wasn't planning to leave you.”
He tapped the Albany ticket.
“She was planning to meet someone who could prove her former husband was back.”
Adrian's voice was barely audible.
“His name.”
Victor hesitated.
Then Isabella whispered it first.
“Daniel.”
Every adult turned toward her.
She began crying.
“He came here.”
Adrian crossed the room.
“When?”
“The night Mommy died.”
“Where did you see him?”
Isabella pointed toward the second-floor landing.
“He was talking to Mommy.”
Sophia felt the pieces rearranging.
“Was he wearing the silver watch?”
Isabella shook her head.
“No.”
Adrian went still.
“Then who was?”
Isabella looked terrified.
“The other man.”
Silence.
“There were two men with Mommy that night?” Sophia asked.
Isabella nodded.
May you like
Then she looked directly at her father.
“And one of them called the other one ‘Adrian.’”
