Chapter 6 - Twenty Years of Loyalty
Dominic Marlowe.
Adrian's uncle.
His father's younger brother.
Officially killed in a boating explosion twenty years earlier.
Yet the photograph had been taken three years after his supposed death.
Luca stared at it.
“I know him.”
Adrian turned.
“From where?”
“Halcyon.”
The room became silent.
“Dominic founded it,” Luca said.
The pieces finally began aligning.
Richard had discovered his brother survived.
Victor had known.
Michael Bennett had known.
Thomas Hale had known.
And one by one, the people surrounding that secret had died.
Except Victor.
“Victor wasn't protecting himself,” Sophia whispered.
Adrian looked at his mother's words again.
He's protecting the traitor.
“Dominic,” Adrian said.
Luca nodded.
“Victor spent twenty years keeping Dominic away from you.”
“Then why lie?”
“Because Dominic had leverage.”
“What leverage?”
Nobody knew.
Adrian did.
Or thought he might.
He returned to his father's recording.
This time Daniel recovered corrupted audio from the final thirty seconds.
Richard's voice emerged through static.
“Victor made the bargain because I asked him to.”
Adrian's blood chilled.
“If Dominic believes Victor serves him, Adrian lives.”
Static.
“Someday my son will hate Victor for the lies.”
A pause.
“Let him.”
Adrian sat motionless.
Victor had spent twenty years pretending to betray the Marlowes in order to keep Dominic convinced that Adrian was under control.
But that did not explain everything.
Victor had threatened Luca.
He had lied about following him.
He had searched for Emma's drawings.
“Maybe he changed,” Sophia said.
Adrian looked at her.
“Twenty years inside a lie can change anyone.”
They found Victor before sunrise.
He was sitting beside Richard Marlowe's grave.
Adrian approached alone.
Victor did not turn.
“You heard the recording.”
“Yes.”
“Then Richard finally got his way.”
“Tell me everything.”
Victor stared at the grave.
“Dominic wanted the organization. Your father refused. Dominic created Halcyon to destroy him from within.”
“And you?”
“Your father asked me to join Dominic.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Victor looked at Adrian.
“You were sixteen.”
Adrian remembered.
Victor had suddenly become colder that year.
More secretive.
He had thought it was because his father was preparing Victor to become his successor's adviser.
Instead, Victor had been becoming a double agent.
“Why did Dominic spare me?”
“Because I convinced him you could be controlled.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“And Emma?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I needed her drawings before Dominic learned what she had seen.”
“You terrified her.”
“I know.”
“That doesn't disappear because you had a reason.”
“No.”
Victor accepted that without defense.
“Did you kill Samuel?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Dominic.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Twenty years and you don't know?”
“He never stays anywhere long.”
“Then how does he contact you?”
Victor looked at him.
“He doesn't.”
A phone rang.
Not Adrian's.
Victor's.
Victor removed it slowly.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A voice Adrian had not heard since childhood said:
“Hello, nephew.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Dominic.
“You've grown impatient.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Adrian scanned the cemetery.
Dominic laughed.
“Still looking outward. Richard had the same weakness.”
“What do you want?”
“What was always mine.”
“The organization?”
“No.”
A pause.
“The Marlowe name.”
The call ended.
Victor stood.
“He knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That I've chosen you.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Did you?”
Victor's eyes were tired.
“I chose you twenty years ago.”
A shot cracked through the cemetery.
Victor jerked.
Blood spread across his coat.
Adrian caught him.
Daniel's men rushed from cover.
Another shot struck a gravestone.
“Sniper!”
Adrian dragged Victor behind the stone wall.
Victor struggled to breathe.
“Listen.”
“Save your strength.”
“Dominic doesn't want money.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Victor gripped Adrian's jacket.
“He wants Emma.”
Adrian froze.
“Why?”
Victor's eyes began closing.
“Because Thomas Hale didn't just keep Richard's accounts.”
“What did he keep?”
Victor whispered two words.
“The archive.”
Then his hand went limp.
At that exact moment, Adrian's phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Emma was sleeping in her bed.
Taken minutes ago.
Inside Adrian's own house.
May you like
Beneath it was one sentence.
THANK YOU FOR LEADING ME HOME.
