Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF KEEPING HER SAFE
Celeste found Adrian in his office the next morning.
For the first time in years, she entered without assuming she was welcome.
“I have something,” she said.
Adrian looked up.
“Then leave it on the desk.”
She placed Eleanor's letter beside his computer.
He recognized his mother's handwriting immediately.
His fingers tightened as he read.
When he reached the final paragraph, his expression changed.
He read it again.
Then he looked at Celeste.
“You kept this from me?”
“Yes.”
“For six years?”
She nodded.
“Because I wanted you to choose me.”
Adrian's voice was quiet.
“You knew exactly what my mother wanted Mia to understand.”
Celeste's eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“And you let Mia believe she was only a debt.”
Celeste couldn't answer.
Adrian folded the letter carefully.
“Pack your things from the guesthouse.”
She looked up sharply.
“Adrian—”
“You're not being punished for loving someone who didn't love you back.”
He placed the letter inside his desk.
“You're being held responsible for what you did because of it.”
Celeste wiped her face.
“There's something else.”
She handed him Margaret's warning.
Adrian read it.
Then he reached for the telephone.
“Marcus. I need the original foundation records.”
At Nora's apartment, Mia received confirmation of a prenatal appointment.
The receptionist had found an opening with an obstetrician experienced in caring for patients with spinal cord injuries.
Mia felt relief.
Then fear.
This pregnancy was still so new.
There were so many uncertainties.
She placed one hand over her stomach.
“We're going to do this carefully,” she whispered.
Nora smiled from the kitchen.
“Talking to the baby already?”
“Apparently.”
“What are you telling them?”
“That their mother has absolutely no idea what she's doing.”
Nora laughed.
“Then you'll fit right in with every parent I've ever met.”
Mia smiled for the first time since leaving.
Later, she opened her laptop to review the hospital foundation's archived reports.
She found the year Eleanor's scholarship program had been transferred to a private holding company.
The company name meant nothing to her.
But one of the trustees did.
Raymond Vale.
The transfer had happened three months before Adrian's attack.
Mia clicked through the annual report.
Scholarship funds had been diverted into investments unrelated to the hospital.
Millions of dollars.
Then, shortly before the accident, an internal audit had been scheduled.
Margaret Sloane had signed the audit request.
Mia stared at the screen.
The attack hadn't begun as a romantic betrayal.
It had begun with money.
A great deal of money.
And perhaps someone had used Adrian's dangerous reputation to keep questions from being asked.
Adrian reached the same conclusion several hours later.
Marcus placed a financial summary on his desk.
“Eleanor's foundation held a controlling interest in a waterfront redevelopment company.”
Adrian frowned.
“My mother funded nursing scholarships.”
“She also inherited property from her family.”
“Why would Raymond manage it?”
“Because the foundation board appointed him.”
Adrian reviewed the figures.
Over six years, nearly twenty-eight million dollars had passed through companies Raymond controlled.
Some investments were legitimate.
Others had no supporting documentation.
“Where did the money go?”
Marcus shook his head.
“We're still tracing it.”
Adrian looked at the original audit request.
Margaret Sloane had discovered the irregularities.
Then she had disappeared from the foundation's records.
And on the evening she planned to confront Raymond, Adrian's vehicle had been attacked.
He remembered Raymond's words.
I didn't order those men to hurt you.
Perhaps that was true.
But Raymond had allowed the access.
And afterward, he'd protected the people responsible.
Adrian felt sick.
“Get independent accountants,” he said.
“Sir, exposing this could destroy the family business.”
Adrian looked at Mia's ultrasound.
The photograph had remained on his desk since the night she left.
“Then we build something honest from whatever survives.”
Marcus nodded.
“There is another problem.”
“What?”
“The original foundation archive was transferred to a storage company.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Margaret Sloane.”
“Where is it?”
Marcus slid a storage receipt across the desk.
Adrian read the address.
It was a modest building in a Chicago suburb.
He knew it.
He had been there once.
Six years earlier.
With Mia.
During the first weeks of their courtship.
She had told him she needed to collect a box of her late father's belongings.
He had waited outside.
Now the storage receipt revealed something extraordinary.
The unit had been rented under Mia's maiden name.
Adrian looked up.
“Does Mia know?”
Marcus hesitated.
“I don't believe so.”
Adrian studied the receipt.
Then he noticed the date.
The unit had been renewed automatically every year.
Including this year.
May you like
And the renewal authorization carried a signature.
Mia Harper Vale.
