Chapter 9 - Emma Disappears
Adrian raised his hands.
Marcus's voice came from behind him.
“I'm sorry.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Lorenzo laughed.
“Even your best friend understood eventually.”
Adrian turned slowly.
Marcus held the gun.
His face revealed nothing.
“You betrayed me?”
Marcus stepped closer.
“For my father.”
Adrian stared.
Then Marcus fired.
Not at Adrian.
At the light.
Darkness swallowed the warehouse.
Adrian dropped.
Marcus tackled the guard behind him.
Screams.
Gunfire.
Adrian reached Emma.
Charles dragged her chair backward.
Adrian struck him.
Emma fell sideways.
Marcus covered them.
Lorenzo escaped.
Charles followed.
Adrian untied Emma.
She threw herself into his arms.
“I knew you'd come.”
He held her.
For one terrible moment, he could not speak.
Then he whispered, “Always.”
Police surrounded the warehouse.
Emma was returned to Sofia.
Sofia ran across the parking lot barefoot.
She dropped to her knees.
Mother and daughter collided.
Adrian stopped several feet away.
He did not belong inside that embrace.
Then Emma reached one hand toward him.
“Come.”
Adrian hesitated.
Sofia looked up.
She extended her hand too.
Adrian joined them.
For the first time since Elena and Claire died, he allowed himself to hold people he loved without immediately imagining losing them.
But Charles and Lorenzo were still free.
The next clue came from Emma.
“Mr. Bennett talked about church.”
Adrian stiffened.
“What church?”
“The one Claire went to.”
The church where Elena and Claire had been headed when they died.
Adrian raced there.
Inside the basement, Marcus discovered a hidden office.
Files covered the walls.
Lorenzo had been running operations from church-owned property for years.
Then Adrian found a ledger.
At the bottom was a future date.
Tomorrow.
Beside it:
MORETTI ESTATE — FINAL CLEANUP.
They were planning to destroy the house.
Adrian called Sofia.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Security answered.
“Boss?”
“Where's Sofia?”
“She went upstairs.”
“Emma?”
“With her.”
Adrian's blood froze.
“Get them out.”
A pause.
“Boss…”
“What?”
“We've lost power.”
Adrian ran.
By the time he reached the estate, smoke was rising from the east wing.
He entered despite firefighters shouting.
“Sofia!”
No answer.
“Emma!”
Then he heard coughing.
He followed it.
Claire's room.
Sofia was trapped beneath a fallen beam.
Emma was trying to lift it.
“Mommy!”
Adrian pulled the beam away.
He carried Sofia.
Emma followed.
Then the ceiling collapsed behind them.
Outside, Sofia gasped for air.
Emma cried against Adrian.
Fire consumed the upper floor.
Claire's room disappeared behind flames.
Adrian watched it burn.
Strangely, he did not feel Claire disappearing.
She had never lived in that room.
She lived in him.
Sofia squeezed his hand.
“You saved us.”
“No.”
He looked at Emma.
“She saved you first.”
Hours later, firefighters found evidence the blaze had been deliberately set.
Marcus approached.
“They caught Charles.”
Adrian turned.
“Where?”
“Not Charles Bennett.”
Marcus's face was grim.
“Charles Caldwell.”
Sofia overheard.
“My landlord?”
Marcus nodded.
“He isn't Caldwell.”
The man Sofia had believed was her landlord was Charles Bennett's brother.
And according to the documents found in the church basement, the real Charles Bennett had been using another identity for years.
Adrian stared.
“What identity?”
Marcus handed him the photograph.
Adrian looked at it.
May you like
Then his blood went cold.
Because the face staring back at him belonged to a man standing twenty feet away.
