Chapter 4 - The Lie Sebastian Inherited
Sebastian replayed the final second five times.
Each time Evelyn whispered Adrian’s name.
Each time the screen went black.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Sebastian put the tablet down.
“She’s alive.”
Mateo nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“And Adrian?”
“Unknown.”
I watched Sebastian.
His entire history had shifted in less than an hour.
The friend he believed had betrayed him.
The sister he believed had died.
The father he had trusted.
All of it now looked different.
I touched his arm.
He looked at me.
“What happened after Evelyn entered the room?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You were beside me.”
“I was asleep.”
“That’s not normal for you.”
Sebastian understood instantly.
Mateo did too.
“Coffee cups from last night,” Mateo said.
Sebastian turned.
“What about them?”
“If someone entered earlier…”
“Drugged.”
The word sat heavily.
I remembered champagne.
Sebastian had poured it himself.
But before that—
“The bartender.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“What?”
“At the restaurant. Before we came here.”
“We had drinks.”
“I barely touched mine.”
“You finished the second one.”
“No.”
“I saw you.”
My stomach tightened.
“I remember holding the glass.”
“What don’t you remember?”
“Finishing it.”
Mateo was already calling someone.
Sebastian paced.
“Get bloodwork.”
“For both of us,” I said.
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
Two hours later, a private physician confirmed what we suspected.
A fast-acting sedative had been present in both our systems.
Low dose.
Enough to impair memory.
Enough to keep Sebastian asleep.
Enough to make me confused and compliant if someone woke me.
The blood stain on the sheet?
Mine.
A small cut on my heel.
Probably from walking barefoot through the stairwell.
The larger smear downstairs?
Adrian’s.
Or at least matched the sample in the government database under Adrian Vale’s name.
That left one horrifying possibility.
Adrian had been inside Crown Meridian.
And injured.
Sebastian stood in the library studying old files.
“Why bring you downstairs?” I asked.
“I’ve been asking myself that.”
“What is on thirty-eight?”
“Storage.”
“Anything from C-17?”
He looked up.
“Yes.”
We went down with Mateo and two security guards.
The thirty-eighth floor had once been executive offices.
Now it was mostly unused.
The service stairwell led into a storage corridor.
My missing shoe had been found beside Door 3817.
The number made me stop.
“Seventeen.”
Sebastian nodded.
He entered a code.
The door unlocked.
Inside were filing cabinets.
Old computers.
Boxes.
Dust.
Nothing had been touched in years.
Except one cabinet.
Its lock was broken.
Sebastian pulled it open.
Empty.
Mateo checked another.
Also empty.
“What was stored here?” I asked.
“C-17 records.”
“Financial?”
“Operations.”
“Names?”
“Yes.”
“Safe houses?”
“Yes.”
“People you protected?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Someone took them.”
Sebastian looked at the broken lock.
“Recently.”
A red spot marked the cabinet handle.
Blood.
Adrian’s.
Mateo crouched.
“Looks like someone was hurt opening this.”
“Or fighting over it,” I said.
Sebastian opened the final drawer.
One folder remained.
EVELYN WARD.
He lifted it.
Inside was a photograph of Evelyn.
A passport copy.
Financial statements.
And a handwritten letter.
Sebastian recognized the handwriting.
“My father.”
He read silently.
His face changed.
“Read it,” I said.
He hesitated.
Then did.
“Evelyn has threatened to expose the transfer system. Adrian supports her. If either of them reaches Sebastian before completion, everything collapses.”
He stopped.
My heart pounded.
“Completion of what?”
The next page answered.
PROJECT MERIDIAN.
I stared.
“Crown Meridian?”
Sebastian flipped through documents.
The tower itself had been financed through dozens of companies.
C17 Holdings among them.
But the payments didn’t end with construction.
They continued.
Millions annually.
For years.
“Your father built a hidden financial network into this building,” I said.
Sebastian nodded slowly.
“And someone is still using it.”
I looked at him.
“The eighty-seven million.”
“Yes.”
Mateo opened another page.
“There’s a beneficiary.”
Sebastian read the name.
His face darkened.
“Victor Hale.”
I had heard that name too.
Victor Hale was one of the city’s most powerful developers.
Publicly respectable.
Privately rumored to have been Conrad Ward’s closest business partner.
Sebastian looked at Mateo.
“Where is Hale?”
“Midtown office.”
“Bring him.”
Mateo hesitated.
“He won’t come willingly.”
Sebastian’s smile was cold.
“He will.”
I grabbed Sebastian’s arm.
“No.”
His eyes met mine.
“You cannot solve this by dragging people into rooms.”
“That method has advantages.”
“And consequences.”
His expression softened slightly.
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We follow the money.”
That was my world.
Numbers did not fear Sebastian Ward.
Numbers did not lie because someone threatened them.
Numbers only lied when people arranged them carefully enough.
I opened my laptop.
For three hours, Mateo and Sebastian brought me everything they could access legally or otherwise.
Property records.
Wire transfers.
Trust registrations.
Corporate ownership.
I traced the payments backward.
C17 Holdings moved money through seven shell companies.
Each one eventually connected to a charitable foundation.
The Hale Foundation for Urban Renewal.
Victor Hale.
But the foundation wasn’t keeping the money.
It passed through.
To another trust.
Black Meridian Trust.
Registered in the Cayman Islands.
Beneficiary encrypted.
I kept digging.
Eventually, I found a recurring payment to a private medical facility in Switzerland.
Small compared to the others.
Twenty-five thousand dollars every month.
For twelve years.
Recipient reference:
E.W.
I stared.
“Sebastian.”
He came over.
I showed him.
“Someone paid medical expenses for Evelyn.”
“For twelve years.”
“Starting three days after she disappeared.”
His face hardened.
“Where?”
“Geneva.”
Mateo checked.
The facility had closed four years earlier.
But its records might still exist.
Sebastian made one phone call.
Twenty minutes later, we had a former administrator on video.
He remembered Evelyn.
Not her name.
Her condition.
“She arrived injured,” he said. “Head trauma. Broken ribs. She had no identification.”
“Who brought her?” Sebastian asked.
The administrator hesitated.
“A man.”
“Describe him.”
“Dark hair. Around thirty then.”
Sebastian leaned closer.
“Name?”
“He called himself Adrian.”
Nobody breathed.
“Adrian Vale?” Sebastian asked.
The administrator looked at an old photograph.
“Yes.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
Adrian had not betrayed Evelyn.
He had saved her.
“What happened?”
“She remained almost two years.”
“And then?”
“She left.”
“With Adrian?”
“No. Another man collected her.”
“Who?”
The administrator’s face tightened.
“Mr. Hale.”
Victor Hale.
Sebastian ended the call.
His expression had become lethal.
“Hale had her.”
Mateo nodded.
“For years.”
“Why?”
I answered.
“Because she knew what Project Meridian was.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“And now she wants me to know.”
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Then a man’s voice came through.
“You finally started asking the right questions.”
Sebastian stood.
“Adrian.”
My pulse stopped.
The voice continued.
“Do not trust Evelyn.”
Sebastian’s face changed.
“Where are you?”
“Not safe.”
“Where is my sister?”
A pause.
“Closer than you think.”
“What happened in my bedroom?”
Another pause.
“I was trying to get Lena out.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn brought the wrong person with her.”
The line crackled.
Sebastian’s voice sharpened.
“Who?”
Adrian whispered:
“Your father.”
Sebastian’s face emptied.
“My father is dead.”
“No,” Adrian said.
May you like
“He isn’t.”
Then the call ended.
