Chapter 9 - The Little Girl Who Heard Everything
Luca reached the apartment first.
Security caught the intruder near the service elevator.
He carried no weapon.
Only photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Blaire.
Fiona.
David.
Eleanor.
Luca.
The surveillance stretched back years.
The man worked for Graham.
But Graham was already in federal custody.
Someone else had activated him.
Eleanor sat with Blaire until dawn.
Finally, Blaire asked.
“Was Sebastian my father?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
Blaire exhaled.
“Then why were you pregnant in the photograph?”
“With you.”
“Why was I with Sebastian?”
“He was protecting us.”
“From whom?”
“Your father.”
Blaire stared.
Eleanor told her the truth.
Blaire’s biological father was Thomas Vale.
Graham’s younger brother.
Thomas discovered Graham’s fraud.
He planned to testify.
Then he died in what police called a boating accident.
Eleanor was pregnant.
Sebastian hid her.
“So I’m related to Graham.”
“Yes.”
“And Fiona’s trust?”
“Sebastian created it because your father died trying to stop Graham.”
Blaire closed her eyes.
Every secret had another secret beneath it.
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because Graham found me.”
“And David?”
“I watched him.”
“You knew he was sent to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
“I was going to.”
Eleanor smiled faintly.
“Then he spilled your coffee.”
Blaire remembered.
“He saved me.”
“That day.”
“Did you trust him?”
“No.”
“Do you now?”
Eleanor’s silence answered.
Across the apartment, Fiona had been coloring.
Or so they thought.
She looked up.
“Daddy saved Mommy?”
Blaire froze.
Fiona had heard everything.
She climbed into Blaire’s lap.
“Is Daddy bad?”
The question hurt more than any revelation.
Blaire held her.
“Daddy did bad things.”
“Does he love me?”
“Yes.”
That answer, at least, she knew.
Fiona nodded.
Then whispered, “Mr. Luca loves you.”
Blaire nearly choked.
Eleanor hid a smile.
“Why do you think that?”
“He looks at you when you’re not looking.”
Children noticed everything adults worked hardest to hide.
That afternoon, Blaire visited David.
He looked worse.
She told him she knew about Thomas Vale.
David went pale.
“They told you?”
“Yes.”
“Then Graham isn’t the end.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Thomas didn’t die because he discovered the fraud.”
“Then why?”
“He discovered who actually owned Sterling Global.”
Blaire stared.
“Luca owns it.”
“Now.”
“What does that mean?”
David leaned toward the glass.
“Sebastian left a sealed codicil.”
“To his will?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“That’s what everyone has been searching for.”
“The rabbit?”
“No.”
David looked frightened.
“The rabbit opens the evidence. The evidence tells you where the will is.”
“And what does it say?”
“I never found out.”
His eyes shifted toward the guard.
“But Graham did.”
“What did he learn?”
David whispered.
“Sterling Global was never supposed to belong entirely to Luca.”
Blaire stood.
“Who else?”
David looked directly at her.
“You.”
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every light in the detention wing went dark.
A guard shouted.
Metal doors slammed.
Blaire heard footsteps.
May you like
Then David screamed her name.
A gunshot exploded from the other side of the glass.
