Chapter 5 - Someone Had Been Using Her Name
Bruno stared at his own reflection in the photograph.
“I was there.”
Elias raised his weapon.
Adeline stepped backward.
Bruno did not reach for his gun.
“I was there after the device was planted.”
“You never told me.”
“I was ordered not to.”
“By Rourke?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Bruno looked at Elias.
“Your mother.”
Elias almost laughed.
“My mother died fourteen years ago.”
“No.”
The room went silent.
Bruno explained.
Isabella Baron had disappeared after Sebastian’s death.
Elias had been told she died overseas.
Bruno claimed she entered protective hiding instead.
“Why?”
“Because Sebastian wasn’t killed by a heart attack.”
Elias’s voice became dangerous.
“You knew this?”
“I knew pieces.”
“Everyone seems to know pieces of my life except me.”
Adeline understood that feeling too well.
Bruno continued.
“Sebastian discovered someone was laundering money through Baron warehouses and manufacturing conflicts with rival families. Your mother believed the same person killed him.”
“Rourke.”
“I never had proof.”
“And the crash?”
“I arrived after Daniel pulled you out. Your mother had warned me someone would try to kill you eventually.”
Elias stared at him.
“You let me blame Haverin.”
“I was trying to keep the traitor from realizing we knew.”
“For three years?”
Bruno lowered his eyes.
“That was my mistake.”
Elias punched him.
Bruno hit the wall.
He did not fight back.
Adeline stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Elias looked at her.
“You’re protecting him?”
“I’m protecting you from doing something before we know everything.”
It worked.
Barely.
Later, Evan discovered the metadata attached to the forged photographs of Adeline.
They had been created before she started working at Baron House.
That meant someone knew she would apply.
Adeline remembered something.
“I didn’t choose Baron House.”
Elias turned.
“What?”
“The employment agency called me. They said you needed overnight staff.”
“Which agency?”
“Fairmont Domestic.”
Bruno checked.
The company existed on paper.
Its registered owner had died six years earlier.
Someone had deliberately placed Adeline inside Elias’s home.
Not as a spy.
As bait.
They searched her original employment documents.
Inside the digital application was a hidden identifier.
DH-317.
Daniel Hayes.
Locker 317.
Evan whispered, “Dad arranged it.”
Adeline shook her head.
“He was dead.”
“Then someone continued his plan.”
A new email appeared on Evan’s laptop.
No sender.
One sentence.
ASK ADELINE WHY DANIEL CALLED HER FROM THE HOSPITAL TWICE.
Elias looked at her.
“Twice?”
Adeline went white.
“I only answered once.”
Evan opened archived phone records.
There had indeed been two calls.
The second lasted forty-three seconds.
At 3:17 a.m.
Adeline had no memory of it.
Then Evan found an audio backup automatically saved by Daniel’s phone.
He pressed play.
Daniel’s weak voice filled the room.
“Addie, listen carefully. If anything happens to me, find Isabella Baron. She knows why Elias was chosen.”
A woman spoke in the background.
Daniel whispered her name.
“Isabella.”
Elias stood so quickly his chair fell.
His mother had been in Daniel’s hospital room.
Then came another voice.
A man.
“Daniel, give me the phone.”
Rourke.
The recording ended with Adeline’s father screaming.
Elias grabbed his coat.
Adeline caught his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To Rourke.”
“No.”
“He murdered your father.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I know enough.”
“No, you know exactly enough to get angry.”
Elias stared at her.
She did not release him.
“That is what whoever sent us this wants.”
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Elias’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman said, “You always did inherit your father’s temper.”
Elias stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
“Mother?”
The woman whispered an address.
Then added, “Come alone.”
The line disconnected.
Elias looked at Adeline.
Behind them, Evan’s laptop suddenly displayed a live security feed.
The camera showed the front gate of Baron House.
A woman stood outside.
May you like
She looked directly into the camera.
And she was wearing Isabella Baron’s necklace.
