Chapter 5 - Vanessa's Choice
Vanessa's hand was shaking.
That was the first thing Adrian noticed.
The second was that she wasn't pointing the gun at him.
She was pointing it toward the corridor behind him.
“Close the door,” she whispered.
Ben did not move.
Vanessa hissed, “Close it. Now.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Put the gun down.”
“My father is coming.”
Richard.
Ben closed the metal door.
Vanessa immediately lowered the weapon.
Adrian stared at her.
“Explain.”
“I don't have time.”
“You have exactly as much time as I decide.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You still think you're running this house.”
“Technically, I am.”
“You don't understand.”
Ben took the ledger.
Vanessa saw it.
“That's not the real one.”
Silence.
“What?”
“My father moved it.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian looked toward the door.
“Then why bring us here?”
“I didn't.”
“You disabled my study camera.”
“Yes.”
“You stole the foundation file.”
“Yes.”
“You locked me inside.”
“No.”
Adrian studied her.
“I took the file because Father told me to destroy it. I disabled the camera because I didn't want him knowing I kept it.”
“Where is it?”
“Safe.”
“And the signal jammer?”
“Not mine.”
Ben opened the ledger on the desk.
Pages contained years of transactions.
“She's right.”
Adrian looked.
The entries stopped eighteen months earlier.
A decoy.
Vanessa leaned against the wall.
“I've been trying to get away from him for two years.”
“You laughed at Evelyn.”
Vanessa flinched.
“Yes.”
“You humiliated her.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because Father was watching.”
“That doesn't excuse it.”
“No.”
Vanessa's voice broke slightly.
“It doesn't.”
Adrian had expected excuses.
He didn't get one.
“He told me Evelyn was dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“He said Thomas Marlow had tried to blackmail our family and Evelyn might do the same.”
“Did you believe him?”
“For a long time.”
“And now?”
“Now I know Thomas was trying to expose him.”
Ben stepped closer.
“How?”
Vanessa removed an envelope from her purse.
Inside was a photograph.
Richard Wexler stood beside Thomas Marlow in a warehouse parking lot.
The date printed at the bottom was the night Thomas died.
Evelyn's father had supposedly been alone when he fell.
Adrian stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother.”
Adrian's aunt had died six years earlier.
“She knew?”
“She suspected.”
“Why didn't she say anything?”
“Because she was terrified.”
A faint sound came from the corridor.
Footsteps.
Vanessa went pale.
“Turn off the light.”
Ben did.
Darkness swallowed the room.
The footsteps stopped outside.
Someone tried the keypad.
One wrong beep.
Then another.
Vanessa whispered, “There's another exit.”
“Where?”
“Behind the shelves.”
The keypad beeped again.
Correct.
The metal door started opening.
Ben shoved a shelving unit aside.
A narrow stone passage appeared.
“Go.”
They moved.
Vanessa entered last and pulled the shelving back.
Behind them, the metal door opened.
A man's voice filled the cellar.
“Vanessa?”
She stopped breathing.
Richard.
Adrian touched her shoulder.
Keep moving.
They crawled through the passage until it opened behind the greenhouse.
Marcus was waiting.
Adrian ordered him to take Vanessa somewhere secure.
“No estate property.”
Marcus nodded.
Vanessa grabbed Adrian's arm.
“Evelyn isn't safe.”
“She's with security.”
“No. You don't understand.”
“What?”
“My father didn't learn who she was yesterday.”
“When?”
Vanessa looked terrified.
“Years ago.”
Adrian felt cold.
“He has been watching her.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks Thomas gave her something before he died.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian immediately called Evelyn.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Marcus checked her security detail.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“They've lost contact with the car.”
Adrian's face changed.
“Location?”
“Last ping was twelve minutes ago.”
Evelyn had been taken.
Or worse.
Adrian called again.
This time someone answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
“Evelyn?”
Silence.
Then a man's voice said:
“Bring me Arthur's flash drive.”
Adrian recognized Richard immediately.
“Where is she?”
“Alive.”
“If you touch her—”
“You'll do what? Call police?”
Richard laughed softly.
“Ask Benjamin how well that worked.”
Adrian looked at Ben.
Richard continued.
“Midnight. Old Marlow warehouse. Come alone.”
The call ended.
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Ben shook his head.
“You can't go alone.”
“I won't.”
“You heard him.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Adrian checked his watch.
“We have three hours.”
“For what?”
“To make Richard believe he's finally won.”
Across town, Evelyn woke with her wrists tied to a chair.
The warehouse around her smelled familiar.
Oil.
Dust.
Old wood.
She had been there once before.
Nine years ago.
The night her father died.
A light clicked on.
Richard Wexler walked toward her.
He placed a small metal box on the table.
Evelyn stared at it.
She recognized the scratches on the lid.
Her father had kept it beneath his bed.
Richard smiled.
“You've had the key this entire time.”
Evelyn's confusion was genuine.
“What key?”
May you like
Richard leaned closer.
“The one Thomas hid inside your mother's wedding ring.”
