Chapter 7 - THE LIE THAT BROKE THEM APART
Lena stared at the note.
Adrian stood ten feet away.
He had seen it.
Nobody moved.
Gabriel began shaking.
Lena immediately focused on him.
“Get a doctor!”
Adrian's medical team rushed forward.
They wheeled Gabriel inside.
Lena followed.
Adrian didn't.
For the first time since they had met, he let her walk away from him.
Two hours later, Gabriel was stabilized.
Blood tests showed sedatives in his system.
No immediately fatal toxins.
Lena sat beside his bed.
His eyes opened.
“Dad.”
Gabriel looked at her.
Tears filled his eyes.
She held the note.
“Did you write this?”
His eyes moved toward it.
Fear.
“Dad, did Adrian kill Isabella?”
Gabriel struggled.
“N-no.”
Lena exhaled.
“Then who wrote it?”
His hand shook.
He pointed toward the door.
Adrian stood outside.
Gabriel's heart monitor accelerated.
Lena immediately stood.
“Adrian, leave.”
He did.
No argument.
Gabriel calmed.
Lena leaned closer.
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“Ad…rian…”
“Yes.”
“Boy.”
“A boy?”
Gabriel nodded.
“Not… killer.”
Lena frowned.
Adrian had been twenty-four when Isabella died.
Not exactly a boy.
Gabriel struggled again.
“Blamed.”
“Adrian was blamed?”
“Yes.”
“For your stroke?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Mother.”
Lena's heart stopped.
“Someone blamed Adrian for Isabella's death?”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Exhausted.
She didn't push further.
Outside, Adrian waited alone.
Lena approached.
“He says you didn't kill her.”
Adrian gave a humorless smile.
“I knew that.”
“But someone wanted me to believe you did.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To separate us.”
The word us hung between them.
Lena looked away.
Adrian continued.
“Victor understands leverage. Your father is leverage against you. Luca is leverage against me.”
“And I'm leverage against you?”
Adrian didn't answer.
Lena looked at him.
“Am I?”
His silence answered.
Something warm and frightening moved through her chest.
“That's dangerous.”
“For you.”
“For both of us.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“I've spent my life making sure nobody could be used against me.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“It was efficient.”
“Until now.”
“Yes.”
Their eyes met.
For one second, the chaos disappeared.
Then Gabriel's monitor alarm sounded.
They rushed inside.
Gabriel was awake, pointing desperately toward his jacket.
Lena searched the pockets.
Empty.
Then she felt something sewn into the lining.
She tore the fabric.
A tiny key fell out.
Adrian picked it up.
Stamped on it was a number.
Gabriel whispered.
“Union.”
Adrian understood.
“Union Station.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Locker.”
They left immediately.
Locker 814 was in an old luggage-storage section beneath Chicago Union Station.
Adrian's men secured the corridor.
Lena inserted the key.
Inside was a cardboard archive box.
She opened it.
Patient records.
Original consent forms.
Translation logs.
Dozens of them.
Evidence.
Enough to destroy HaleBridge.
Maybe enough to send Victor to prison.
Then Adrian found another envelope.
His name was written across it.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Adrian at twenty-four.
Standing outside St. Catherine's Hospital on the night his mother died.
Beside him was Victor.
Lena looked at Adrian.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you weren't.”
“I said my mother died after the meeting. I never said where I was.”
“Why hide it?”
Adrian stared at the photograph.
“Because I was supposed to stop her.”
Lena's stomach tightened.
“What?”
“My father told me she was unstable from medication. He said she was making accusations that could destroy the family.”
“So you went to the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I argued with her.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
“She begged me to listen.”
His voice dropped.
“I didn't.”
Lena saw pain in his face.
“I told her Dad would never hurt Luca.”
“What did she say?”
“She said I would understand someday.”
Adrian swallowed.
“I walked out.”
“And three hours later she died.”
“Yes.”
Lena understood the guilt.
“You didn't kill her.”
“I left her with the people who did.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
“It feels the same.”
Lena touched his hand.
Adrian looked down.
Then at her.
He moved closer.
Slowly.
Giving her time to step away.
She didn't.
Their foreheads almost touched.
Then a gunshot exploded through the corridor.
Adrian threw Lena to the ground.
Another shot shattered the locker door.
His men returned fire.
“Stay down!”
Adrian covered her with his body.
Footsteps thundered through the station.
A masked shooter appeared at the far end.
Adrian fired.
The man disappeared.
Then Lena saw smoke.
“Fire!”
Someone had ignited the archive box.
She lunged.
Adrian grabbed her.
“The records!”
“Forget them.”
“We need them!”
Flames climbed through the papers.
Lena reached inside and pulled out whatever she could.
Her sleeve caught fire.
Adrian smothered it with his hands.
They escaped with only a handful of documents.
The rest burned.
Outside, police sirens approached.
Adrian looked through the surviving papers.
“Damn it.”
“What?”
“Nothing connects Salvatore directly.”
Lena looked at the final page in her hand.
Then stopped.
“What about this?”
It was a transfer authorization.
Seven years old.
Payment from a Moretti-controlled shell company to HaleBridge.
Authorized by:
A. MORETTI.
Lena looked at Adrian.
His initials.
His signature.
Adrian stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
But beneath the signature was a biometric authorization code.
One only Adrian could have generated.
His phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
ONE MORE SECRET, ADRIAN.
A video loaded.
It showed Adrian entering HaleBridge headquarters seven years earlier.
At 1:12 a.m.
The night before Isabella died.
Lena stared at him.
Adrian looked genuinely stunned.
“I don't remember this.”
May you like
Then another message arrived.
YOU WILL.
