Chapter 3 - The Man Who Never Stopped Looking
Adrian did not ask Serena to trust him.
That was the first reason she began to.
They drove to St. Agnes Hospital in separate cars.
Serena insisted.
Adrian accepted.
His men followed at a distance.
Victor tried to stop her.
Evelyn begged.
Nolan demanded to come.
Camille offered.
Serena refused all three.
She needed space between herself and the people who had spent years deciding what she deserved to know.
Adrian was different only because he had not yet asked for anything.
At 10:06 p.m., Serena stepped into St. Agnes.
Adrian was waiting near the elevators.
“You came,” he said.
“You knew I would.”
“I hoped.”
It was a small distinction.
She noticed those with him.
“Before we go upstairs,” Serena said, “answer one question.”
“Anything.”
“Why were you really searching for me?”
He did not hesitate.
“Because I owed you my life.”
“That isn't enough for nine years.”
“No.”
“Then what else?”
He looked at her.
“Because you were the first person who ever looked at me without seeing my last name.”
Serena swallowed.
“That sounds romantic.”
“It isn't meant to.”
“What is it meant to be?”
“True.”
The elevator arrived.
Neither moved.
Adrian continued.
“I was twenty-nine. Stupid in ways I mistook for courage. My family's enemies chased me into an abandoned warehouse after a meeting went bad.”
“I remember smoke.”
“There was a fire.”
“I found you.”
“You dragged me away from a collapsed stairwell.”
“You were bleeding.”
“You tore your shirt to stop it.”
A faint memory returned.
Her laughing nervously because she had destroyed her favorite blouse.
Adrian had promised to buy her ten.
She had told him she hated rich men who solved everything with money.
A smile almost touched Serena's mouth.
“You offered to buy me a shirt.”
“Ten.”
“You remember.”
“Everything.”
They entered the elevator.
The doors closed.
Serena looked at his reflection.
“If you remembered everything, why couldn't you find me?”
“Your father moved your family within forty-eight hours.”
“He said it was for a business opportunity.”
“It wasn't.”
“Then?”
“They moved you through three addresses in six months. Your phone number changed. Your college records were transferred. Your social media accounts disappeared.”
Serena frowned.
“My father said my accounts were hacked.”
“They were deleted.”
“By him?”
“I believe so.”
The elevator climbed.
“Why?”
Adrian's gaze stayed forward.
“Because I wasn't the only person searching.”
Serena felt cold.
“Who else?”
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
Uncle Henry's room was empty.
The bed remained warm.
A nurse hurried toward them.
“Are you family?”
Serena nodded.
“Henry Vale. Where is he?”
“He left.”
“When?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“With whom?”
The nurse checked her tablet.
“His daughter.”
Serena frowned.
“Henry doesn't have a daughter.”
The nurse looked up.
“He said she was.”
Adrian's posture changed.
“Description?”
“Mid-thirties. Blonde. Tall. Gray coat.”
Serena and Adrian looked at each other.
Camille had dark hair.
No one in the Vale family matched.
“Did she sign anything?” Adrian asked.
The nurse nodded.
“She signed him out against medical advice.”
“Name?”
The nurse checked.
“Rachel Stone.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“You know her?”
“Yes.”
Serena waited.
“Who?”
“Someone who should be dead.”
They found the hospital security office.
Adrian asked for footage.
The security supervisor resisted until Serena showed identification proving she was Henry's niece and possible emergency contact.
The video showed Henry leaving in a wheelchair.
Behind him walked a blonde woman in a gray coat.
Her face was partly hidden.
Serena stared.
“Pause.”
The image froze.
Around the woman's neck was a silver chain.
A familiar pendant rested against her coat.
Serena's locket.
“No,” Serena whispered.
Adrian leaned closer.
“The one I have is yours.”
“Then why does she have another?”
He stared.
“It isn't another.”
“What?”
“Yours came as a pair.”
Serena looked at him.
Adrian reached into his shirt and pulled out a second chain.
A matching half-circle pendant rested against his chest.
Serena had never seen it.
He removed it.
“When you gave me yours, I told you my mother used to say matching things should never be separated.”
Serena remembered.
He had found a cheap tourist locket at a gas station the next morning.
He bought two.
One said S.
One said A.
“You kept it.”
“Yes.”
“For nine years?”
“Yes.”
She did not know what to do with that answer.
Marco entered.
“We found the discharge paperwork.”
He handed Serena a copy.
Rachel Stone had signed.
But underneath the signature was a phone number.
Adrian recognized it.
“That's impossible.”
“What?”
“It belonged to my sister.”
Serena frowned.
“You have a sister?”
“Had.”
“What happened?”
“She died nine years ago.”
The same year.
Of course.
Serena's chest tightened.
“How?”
“Car explosion.”
“When?”
“Six days after the warehouse fire.”
Serena stared at the number.
“Who would still have her phone?”
“Nobody.”
Marco's expression said otherwise.
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
“We checked archived carrier data last year.”
Serena watched Adrian's face.
“You investigated the number before.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because someone used it three years after her death.”
Serena remembered the forged letter.
“The same time you discovered my handwriting didn't match.”
Adrian nodded.
“The message sent from my sister's number said, ‘Ren never wrote the letter.’”
Serena felt the room tighten around her.
“Who sent it?”
“I don't know.”
“That message is why you started searching again.”
“I never stopped.”
“But it changed the search.”
“Yes.”
Serena crossed her arms.
“Tell me everything now.”
Adrian studied her.
Then nodded.
“My sister's name was Lucia.”
Serena knew the name.
A memory surfaced.
A woman laughing.
Red lipstick.
A leather jacket.
She had been inside the warehouse.
“Oh my God.”
Adrian saw recognition.
“You remember her.”
“She gave me water.”
“Yes.”
“She was there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian exhaled.
“We were trying to retrieve documents stolen from our family's legitimate companies.”
“Legitimate?”
His mouth twitched.
“You don't have to pretend you don't know the rumors.”
“I know rumors.”
“Some are true.”
Serena appreciated the answer more than denial.
“What were the documents?”
“Financial records linking a private investment group to stolen pension money, illegal property seizures, bribery.”
“Who ran the group?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Your grandfather had suspected Victor.”
Serena flinched.
“My father?”
“Not alone.”
“Who else?”
“Nolan's father.”
Charles Pierce.
Serena remembered him sitting silently during the engagement disaster.
“Why would Lucia have evidence?”
“She was an accountant.”
“For the Moretti businesses?”
“Yes.”
“And she discovered it?”
“She traced money moving through shell companies.”
Serena's mind raced.
“Did my father know?”
“We believed so.”
“Did he kill your sister?”
“I don't know.”
The answer surprised her.
“You've had nine years.”
“I don't accuse people without proof.”
Again.
Restraint.
Unexpected.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Adrian looked troubled.
“You saw something in the warehouse.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
“I don't remember.”
“Someone believed you did.”
Serena thought about her parents moving her.
Deleting her accounts.
Changing her number.
Maybe they had not only been hiding her from Adrian.
Maybe they had been hiding her from whoever killed Lucia.
Marco approached.
“We have a vehicle.”
The hospital camera caught Rachel Stone driving a black SUV.
A plate was visible.
“It belongs to Vale Consolidated,” Marco said.
Serena stared.
“Of course it does.”
Adrian's phone rang.
Unknown caller.
He answered.
No greeting.
A woman's voice spoke.
Serena could hear only fragments.
Then Adrian's face changed.
“Where?”
The call ended.
“What happened?” Serena asked.
“Henry wants to meet.”
“You spoke to him?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Rachel.”
“Where?”
“An old Vale warehouse.”
Serena's skin prickled.
“The warehouse?”
Adrian nodded.
The same building where they met.
It had supposedly burned beyond repair.
“I thought it was demolished.”
“So did I.”
Thirty minutes later, their convoy stopped outside the industrial district.
The warehouse still stood.
Half abandoned.
Half renovated.
Serena stared through the windshield.
“I've dreamed about this building.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What happens in the dream?”
“I hear someone screaming.”
“Who?”
“I never see.”
They entered.
No guards stopped them.
No ambush came.
A single light glowed at the far end.
Henry sat in a wheelchair beneath it.
Alive.
Alone.
Serena ran toward him.
“Uncle Henry.”
His eyes filled.
“You look like your grandmother.”
She knelt.
“Who brought you here?”
“She had to leave.”
“Rachel?”
Henry smiled weakly.
“That isn't her name.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Who is she?”
Henry looked up.
“Lucia.”
Everything stopped.
Adrian's face became blank.
Serena stared at Henry.
“No.”
Adrian's voice was almost inaudible.
“My sister is dead.”
Henry shook his head.
“She was supposed to be.”
A movement came from the darkness.
A blonde woman stepped into the light.
She removed her wig.
Dark hair fell around her shoulders.
Adrian stopped breathing.
The woman looked at him.
Nine years of grief shattered across his face.
“Lucia?”
Tears ran down the woman's cheeks.
“Hello, little brother.”
Adrian took one step.
Then stopped.
Because a red laser dot appeared on Lucia's chest.
Serena saw it first.
May you like
“DOWN!”
The warehouse window shattered.
