Chapter 2 - The Man Outside the Door
Adrian didn't answer.
The voice came again.
“Open the door.”
Elena clutched Lily.
“Who is that?”
Adrian looked through the peephole.
Nobody.
Then he noticed a shadow moving at the end of the hallway.
He opened the door.
“Don't,” Bennett warned.
Too late.
Adrian stepped outside.
The hallway was empty.
The elevator doors were closing.
He ran.
His hand struck the button, but the elevator descended.
“Stairs.”
Adrian took them two at a time.
By the time he reached the lobby, a dark SUV was pulling away.
He caught no plate.
Only the rear window.
Tinted.
Gone.
Adrian returned upstairs.
Elena was rocking Lily.
Bennett stood beside the table.
“You know who that was,” Adrian said.
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“I have suspicions.”
“Then give me a name.”
Bennett glanced at Lily.
Adrian understood.
Not here.
Not with the baby.
He returned to the photograph.
The fourth man was Marcus Vale.
Adrian's uncle.
His father's younger brother.
Chief operating officer of Vale Holdings for seventeen years.
Marcus had been the person who taught Adrian to drive.
The person who stood beside him at his father's funeral.
The person who had called Daniel Mercer a thief.
Adrian remembered now.
Four years earlier.
One dinner.
Marcus had mentioned an employee stealing from the company.
Adrian had asked who.
“Doesn't matter. He's gone.”
Daniel disappeared from company conversations shortly afterward.
Then Daniel died.
Adrian placed the photograph down.
“What were they doing at that warehouse?”
Elena answered.
“Daniel discovered payments.”
“What payments?”
“Millions.”
Bennett finally sat.
He seemed defeated.
“Vale Holdings had been purchasing distressed properties through shell companies. Daniel discovered some sellers were being pressured.”
“By whom?”
“People working under Marcus.”
Adrian felt sick.
“My father knew?”
“Eventually.”
“What did he do?”
“He confronted Marcus.”
“And?”
“Marcus denied everything.”
Elena placed Lily into the crib again.
“Daniel had evidence.”
“The envelope?”
“Part of it.”
Adrian looked at the brass key.
“What does this open?”
Elena shook her head.
“Daniel never told me.”
Bennett knew.
Adrian saw it immediately.
“Thomas.”
The attorney stared at the floor.
“Safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
“First National.”
Adrian grabbed his coat.
Bennett stood.
“You can't go tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone followed you here, they know you have the key.”
Adrian stopped.
Elena looked terrified.
Adrian hated that.
She had spent four years living with this.
Alone.
While he attended charity galas and board meetings and complained about espresso machines.
He looked at her.
“How much did you know when you came to work for me?”
“Almost nothing.”
“Why my house?”
Her answer came quietly.
“Because Daniel's letter told me to find you if your father died without telling you.”
“Why wait eighteen months?”
“I was pregnant when your father died.”
Adrian glanced at Lily.
“I was scared,” Elena continued. “Daniel was gone. Your father was gone. I didn't know who I could trust.”
“Bennett?”
“I contacted him after Lily was born.”
Adrian looked at the attorney.
“And you told her to stay silent.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't know whether Marcus knew she had the envelope.”
Adrian laughed without humor.
“So your solution was letting her clean my house?”
“That wasn't my solution.”
Elena stepped forward.
“It was mine.”
Adrian looked at her.
“I needed work.”
The twenty-eight dollars returned to his mind.
“Where does your salary go?”
Elena stiffened.
“You don't have to answer.”
“Medical bills.”
“For Lily?”
“No.”
“For Daniel.”
Adrian stared.
“He spent six weeks in intensive care before he died.”
Adrian hadn't known.
His family told him Daniel died in the crash.
Immediately.
Another lie.
Elena continued.
“Insurance refused part of the treatment. Then there were legal bills. Funeral costs. Debt.”
“Why didn't the company pay?”
She looked at him.
“Marcus terminated Daniel three days before the crash.”
Adrian felt rage rising.
He forced it down.
“How much debt?”
“Adrian—”
“How much?”
“Forty-seven thousand.”
He closed his eyes.
Twenty-eight dollars.
She needed twenty-eight dollars because his family had left her with forty-seven thousand dollars of debt.
Adrian placed the cash envelope on the table.
Elena looked at it.
“What is that?”
“The reason I followed you.”
She opened it.
Her expression changed.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
“For Lily.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“I don't want charity.”
“It isn't charity.”
“Then what is it?”
Adrian didn't have an answer.
He finally said, “An apology.”
“For what?”
“For taking four years to ask the right questions.”
Elena's expression softened.
But she pushed the envelope back.
“Find out what happened to Daniel.”
Adrian looked at the blue envelope.
“That would help me more.”
The next morning, Adrian arrived at First National Bank before opening.
Bennett came with him.
The brass key opened box 417.
Inside was a flash drive.
A ledger.
And another photograph.
Adrian inserted the drive into an offline laptop in a private conference room.
Folders appeared.
PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS.
PAYMENTS.
M.V.
D.M.
And one folder labeled ADRIAN.
He clicked it.
Password required.
Bennett frowned.
“Daniel encrypted it.”
Adrian tried dates.
Nothing.
Then he remembered the writing on the envelope.
For Adrian. If necessary.
He typed NECESSARY.
Wrong.
He tried Lily.
Wrong.
Daniel.
Wrong.
Then he looked at the ledger.
A number was circled.
Adrian typed TWENTYEIGHT.
The folder opened.
Bennett stared.
Inside was one video.
Daniel appeared on-screen.
Alive.
Bruised.
Terrified.
“If you're watching this, Adrian, your father couldn't stop them.”
Adrian leaned closer.
Daniel continued.
“Your uncle isn't working alone.”
Bennett whispered, “My God.”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“There is someone inside your family who has controlled Marcus from the beginning.”
The video glitched.
Then Daniel said the name.
Adrian's chair scraped backward.
“No.”
At that exact moment, Adrian's phone rang.
The caller was his mother.
He answered.
May you like
She didn't say hello.
“Adrian,” she whispered. “Marcus knows you opened the box.”
