Chapter 7 - The Man Caleb Trusted Most
The door opened.
Jonah stood there.
Martha stepped backward.
Caleb stared at her.
"You think Jonah—"
"No."
Martha pointed behind him.
Another man entered.
Arthur Price.
Jonah's father.
Former security chief of Rowan House.
Retired six years earlier.
Jonah looked stunned.
"Dad?"
Arthur's expression was exhausted.
He carried an old ledger.
Not a weapon.
"I should have told you years ago."
Caleb's voice became ice.
"Told me what?"
Arthur placed the ledger on the table.
"Voss paid me."
Jonah looked physically sick.
Arthur had accepted money to alter access records eight years earlier.
He claimed he hadn't known Voss planned anything beyond financial theft.
After the fire, he understood.
But by then Voss had evidence of his involvement.
Arthur stayed silent.
Caleb looked at Jonah.
"Did you know?"
"No."
Arthur confirmed it.
"My son had nothing to do with it."
The confession explained almost everything.
Almost.
"Where's Adrian?" Caleb asked.
Arthur looked toward the greenhouse entrance.
"He came to me this morning."
Caleb froze.
"Alive?"
"Very."
"Where?"
"He wanted me to confess."
"And?"
"I refused."
Arthur lowered his eyes.
"Then he said Elise would force all of us to stop hiding."
Elise frowned.
"I don't even know you."
"He knows that."
Arthur looked at her.
"That's why he chose you."
Adrian had realized everyone inside Caleb's world carried loyalties, fears or debts.
Elise didn't.
She was an outsider.
Someone with everything to lose but no stake in the Rowan family's secrets.
Caleb looked furious.
"That doesn't give him the right to use her."
"No," Arthur said. "It doesn't."
For the first time, Elise saw Caleb's anger directed not at a threat to himself but at what had been done to her.
It affected her more than she wanted.
Police located Voss before dawn.
He had attempted to leave the county using false identification.
The recovered drive, Arthur's ledger, access records and Grant's testimony formed a chain of evidence.
The mystery seemed finished.
Except Adrian was still missing.
At six in the morning, Elise stood alone in the kitchen.
Caleb entered in his inspected chair.
"You should sleep."
"So should you."
"I own the kitchen."
"Congratulations."
He stopped beside the counter.
"I owe you an apology."
"For?"
"Assuming money explained you."
She looked at him.
"It explains some things."
"Not the important ones."
Caleb placed an envelope on the counter.
She stared at it.
"If that's money—"
"It is."
"I haven't finished the week."
"You saved my life."
"Maybe."
"Twice."
"Still maybe."
"Elise."
She opened the envelope.
Not four thousand.
A check for fifty thousand.
She immediately put it back.
"No."
His eyebrows rose.
"You need money."
"I need money that belongs to me."
"It does."
"No. That's gratitude mixed with guilt."
Caleb stared at her.
Most people probably didn't return his checks.
"Then what do you want?"
"The four thousand you promised."
"That's absurd."
"It's mine when I finish the week."
"And after that?"
She hesitated.
"A job."
Caleb seemed surprised.
"You want to stay?"
"I didn't say here."
He smiled slightly.
She continued.
"I want a position where noticing things is actually the job."
Caleb considered it.
"Facilities risk inspection."
"Is that real?"
"It will be."
"Don't invent a fake executive title because you feel guilty."
"I don't."
"Benefits?"
"Yes."
"Normal hours?"
"Negotiable."
"Good salary?"
"Very."
"Do I have to make sandwiches?"
"Absolutely not."
"Then maybe."
Their eyes met.
Something quiet passed between them.
Trust wasn't there yet.
But possibility was.
Then the kitchen door opened.
A man stood on the other side.
Older than Caleb.
Scar along his temple.
Dark hair threaded with gray.
Caleb stopped breathing.
Elise recognized him immediately.
Adrian Rowan.
He looked at his brother.
"Hello, Caleb."
Caleb didn't move.
Eight years stood between them.
Then Adrian looked at Elise.
"I'm sorry."
She stared at him.
"For which part?"
His expression changed.
"All of it."
Caleb's voice trembled.
"Why didn't you come home?"
Adrian looked at him.
"Because home was where the danger started."
He stepped inside.
Then placed a sealed envelope on the table.
"There's one last thing you need to know."
Caleb reached for it.
Adrian stopped his hand.
"Not you."
May you like
He looked at Elise.
"This belongs to her."
