Chapter 6 - The Man Behind HaleBridge
Adrian pulled his jacket over Lena's mouth.
“Breathe through this.”
“What about you?”
“I'll manage.”
“No.”
She grabbed part of the fabric and forced it over his face too.
The gas thickened.
Adrian slammed his shoulder against the vault door.
Nothing.
Lena looked around.
“Emergency release.”
“Where?”
“Modern vaults have internal safety systems.”
“This vault is sixty years old.”
“Then pray somebody renovated.”
They searched the walls.
Adrian's movements became slower.
Lena's vision blurred.
Then she saw a small red panel beneath the viewing table.
She ripped it open.
A lever.
She pulled.
Nothing.
“Locked.”
Adrian crouched beside her.
“Move.”
He grabbed the metal mechanism and pulled.
It refused.
Again.
His knuckles split.
Again.
Metal bent.
The ventilation system suddenly stopped.
Lena coughed.
But the door remained locked.
Adrian dropped beside her.
“Stay awake.”
“You first.”
He almost smiled.
Minutes passed.
Then an explosion shook the outer corridor.
Adrian's security team had reached them.
The vault door opened twelve minutes later.
Fresh air rushed inside.
Lena collapsed.
Adrian caught her before she hit the floor.
When she opened her eyes, she was lying on a leather couch in the bank manager's office.
Adrian sat beside her.
His hand was wrapped in gauze.
“You broke the vault?”
“My men broke the lock.”
“You broke your hand.”
“Minor distinction.”
Lena sat up.
“The letter.”
“Safe.”
“The drive?”
Adrian held it up.
“Also safe.”
His security chief entered.
“The bank manager is clean.”
“Cameras?”
“Looped remotely.”
“Victor?”
“Gone.”
Adrian's expression darkened.
“He had help.”
“Definitely.”
Lena looked at the flash drive.
“Then let's find out who.”
They returned to the Moretti estate.
The flash drive contained hundreds of documents.
Clinical reports.
Financial transfers.
Emails.
Patient files.
But one folder was encrypted.
LENA.
She stared at it.
“Why would your mother have a folder with my name?”
Adrian tried the password.
Wrong.
Lena entered her father's birthday.
Wrong.
Then she remembered something Gabriel always said.
Language saves lives.
She typed it.
LANGUAGESAVESLIVES.
The folder opened.
Inside were employment records.
Hers.
Years before she had ever worked at HaleBridge.
“What is this?”
Adrian opened the first document.
A scholarship application.
Lena recognized it immediately.
She had been seventeen.
She had applied for a linguistic studies scholarship anonymously funded through a Chicago foundation.
She had won.
“That scholarship paid for college.”
Adrian looked at the foundation name.
His face changed.
“My mother created this foundation.”
Lena stared at him.
“Your mother paid for my education?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
They opened another file.
A letter from Gabriel to Isabella.
Lena read aloud.
“Thank you for helping my daughter. She doesn't know anything about our work, and I want it to stay that way.”
Her voice broke.
Her father had known Isabella.
Not professionally.
Personally.
Another document revealed that after Isabella discovered the clinical fraud, Gabriel had wanted to testify.
Isabella stopped him.
Not to protect HaleBridge.
To protect Lena.
Victor had already threatened Gabriel's family.
The scholarship had been Isabella's way of making sure Lena could build a life if something happened to him.
Lena covered her mouth.
All these years she had believed she had earned a lucky break from a faceless donor.
Instead, a dead woman had been quietly protecting her.
Adrian stood beside her.
“My mother trusted your father.”
“And he trusted her.”
They looked at each other.
For the first time, the history between their families felt different.
Not enemies.
Allies.
Then Adrian's security chief entered.
“We found Luca.”
Adrian stood.
“Where?”
“Airport surveillance. He landed in Chicago last night.”
“Why didn't he contact me?”
“He wasn't alone.”
A photograph appeared on-screen.
Luca Moretti walking through a private terminal.
Beside him was Dr. Elise Brenner.
Lena stared.
“The doctor from dinner.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Find him.”
His phone rang.
Luca.
Adrian answered.
“Where are you?”
“Adrian, listen to me.”
“Where are you?”
“You opened the box.”
Adrian stopped.
“How do you know?”
“Because Victor called me.”
Lena moved closer.
“Are you with Brenner?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she's been keeping me alive for twenty years.”
Adrian looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“My condition came back.”
Silence.
Luca continued.
“I've known for six months.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because every time this family gets scared, somebody gets buried.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Where's Gabriel Ortiz?”
“I don't know.”
“Victor has him.”
“I know.”
“Then help me find him.”
A pause.
“Adrian, Victor isn't the person you should be afraid of.”
“Who is?”
Luca hesitated.
“Our father.”
The room went silent.
Adrian's father, Salvatore Moretti, had supposedly retired to Sicily three years earlier.
Adrian hadn't spoken to him in eight months.
Luca continued.
“Dad never left Chicago.”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
“That's impossible.”
“No. He wanted you to think he did.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor works for him.”
Lena felt cold.
Everything shifted.
Victor wasn't the architect.
He was an employee.
Luca lowered his voice.
“Dad knows you found Mom's evidence.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Luca.”
“I swear.”
Then another voice came through the phone.
Victor.
“Family reunions are beautiful, aren't they?”
Adrian stood.
“Victor.”
“You've been asking the wrong question all night.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Not where Gabriel is.”
Victor paused.
“Ask why Gabriel's stroke happened the exact week Lena discovered HaleBridge's translation fraud.”
Lena froze.
“What?”
Victor laughed softly.
“Your father didn't have a stroke, Lena.”
Her blood turned cold.
“What did you do to him?”
“Nothing.”
“Victor!”
“He was poisoned.”
The line disconnected.
Lena stared at Adrian.
Then the estate alarm began screaming.
A guard rushed inside.
“Boss, perimeter breach.”
Adrian reached beneath his jacket.
“How many?”
The guard looked shaken.
“It's not an attack.”
“What is it?”
“Someone left a wheelchair at the front gate.”
Lena ran.
“Dad!”
Adrian caught her before she reached the hallway.
“Wait.”
But she fought him.
“My father is out there!”
They reached the security monitors.
A wheelchair sat beneath the gate lights.
A man slumped in it.
Gabriel.
Lena's knees almost gave out.
“Open the gate.”
Adrian's chief hesitated.
“Boss—”
“Open it.”
The gates moved.
Lena ran outside.
“Dad!”
Gabriel lifted his head weakly.
Alive.
Lena dropped beside him.
He tried to speak.
His damaged mouth struggled.
“L-Lena…”
She began crying.
“I'm here.”
His hand moved.
Something was clenched inside his fist.
A folded piece of paper.
Lena opened it.
May you like
Three words were written in black ink.
ADRIAN KILLED ISABELLA.
