Chapter 5 - The Photograph Behind the Wall
Clara took Emma upstairs.
Adrian watched them leave.
Sophia stood beside him.
“You can't go alone.”
“I won't.”
“The note says—”
“I know what it says.”
Adrian had survived because he understood the difference between obeying an enemy and allowing an enemy to believe he had obeyed.
At 11:50 p.m., he entered the old Marlowe warehouse.
Luca walked beside him.
“You realize this is obviously a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Good. I'd hate to die beside an optimist.”
Adrian glanced at him.
For the first time, Luca smiled.
Inside, a single light burned.
Samuel Cross waited beneath it.
Victor was nowhere visible.
“You disappoint me,” Adrian said.
Samuel adjusted his square glasses.
“You always were too sentimental.”
“Where's Victor?”
Samuel laughed.
“You still think Victor is the center of this?”
Adrian said nothing.
Samuel gestured toward Luca.
“He has something that belongs to us.”
“What?”
Luca answered.
“My father's evidence.”
Samuel's smile disappeared.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
A red laser appeared on Luca's chest.
Adrian did not move.
Sniper.
“Call him off,” Adrian said.
Samuel spread his hands.
“I don't control him.”
That was when the warehouse lights died.
Gunfire erupted.
Adrian pulled Luca behind a steel column.
Daniel's men entered from the rear.
Samuel ran.
Luca pursued him.
Adrian heard tires outside.
Then silence.
When emergency lights came on, Samuel was gone.
But Victor stood at the far end of the warehouse.
Unarmed.
“Adrian.”
Luca raised his gun.
Victor did not flinch.
“Ask him,” Victor said.
“Ask him what?”
“Why his father really died.”
Luca's face changed.
Victor continued.
“Michael Bennett discovered Richard was preparing to dismantle the organization. Michael opposed him.”
“Liar.”
“Your father planned a coup.”
Luca fired.
The bullet struck beside Victor's head.
“Next one doesn't miss.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“You want truth? Stop listening to people who need you to hate me.”
“Then talk.”
“I've spent twenty years protecting you from your father's mistakes.”
“You murdered him.”
Pain crossed Victor's face.
“No.”
“My father said—”
“Your father was dying.”
Adrian stopped.
“What?”
“Cancer.”
Victor stepped closer.
“He had months. He became paranoid. He saw betrayal everywhere.”
“His autopsy—”
“Was sealed because he asked me to seal it.”
“Why?”
“Because enemies attack weakness.”
Adrian wanted to believe him.
That was the most dangerous part.
Twenty years did not disappear because of one recording.
Victor had taught him to drive.
Victor had sat outside the hospital when Adrian's mother died.
Victor had taken a bullet for him at twenty-two.
Memory fought evidence.
Then Victor said something that ended the fight.
“Emma shouldn't have looked under that table.”
Adrian raised his gun.
Victor realized his mistake.
“You threatened a four-year-old child.”
“No.”
“You knew what she saw.”
Victor's calm finally cracked.
“She doesn't understand what she saw.”
“But you do.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Victor backed toward a side door.
“You're making a mistake.”
“Then stay.”
Victor looked at him for a long second.
Then ran.
Luca pursued him.
A vehicle crashed through the loading gate.
Victor escaped.
Adrian returned home near dawn.
Emma was asleep.
Clara sat beside her.
“I need to show you something,” she said.
She led Adrian to the servants' corridor.
Thomas had once repaired the walls there.
Clara removed a wooden panel.
Behind it was a photograph.
Richard Marlowe.
Thomas Hale.
Michael Bennett.
And Victor.
All four stood around a table.
On the table was a black-dot symbol.
But someone else stood behind them.
A woman.
Adrian recognized her instantly.
His mother.
He turned the photograph over.
Her handwriting covered the back.
Victor isn't the traitor.
He's protecting the traitor.
Adrian read it twice.
Then he heard Sophia behind him.
“Adrian.”
He turned.
She held a phone.
Her face was white.
“Samuel Cross was found dead twenty minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“In Victor's house.”
Adrian stared at her.
Sophia swallowed.
“And the police found something else.”
“What?”
“Your father's missing ledger.”
Before Adrian could answer, Clara touched the photograph.
“There’s another layer.”
She peeled the backing away.
A second photograph had been hidden underneath.
Adrian looked at the face in the center.
May you like
And for the first time that night, he truly lost control.
Because the man standing beside his mother was supposed to have been dead for twenty years.
