Chapter 10 - The Name Nobody Expected
Daniel looked nothing like the wounded manager Lana had watched die.
No blood.
No weakness.
No fear.
Victor raised his weapon.
Daniel dropped his.
“I’m not your enemy.”
Lana stared.
“I watched you die.”
“You watched a medic declare me dead after Victor’s people left.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus needed to believe I was gone.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“You work for whom?”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
“Her.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Victor turned toward his mother.
“Of course.”
She sighed.
“Daniel has protected Lana for twelve years.”
Sarah’s warning suddenly made sense.
Someone inside Victor’s world had been protecting Lana.
Not betraying her.
Daniel had arranged her employment at Hawthorne because the restaurant sat above the original archive chamber.
He had changed her shift because he discovered Marcus’s dinner plan.
“You deliberately put me in that room?”
“I put the only German-speaking person Marcus didn't know spoke German in that room.”
“You gambled with my life.”
“Yes.”
Lana slapped him.
Daniel accepted it.
“Fair.”
Victor almost looked amused.
Almost.
Daniel had one final piece of evidence.
Marcus had returned to the beginning.
The old Marlow estate.
Victor had not entered it since his father died.
They arrived before dawn.
The house was empty.
In Anthony Marlow’s study, they found a recorder.
Victor pressed play.
His father’s voice filled the room.
“If my son ever hears this, then I failed to keep him away from all of it.”
Victor sat down.
Anthony confessed everything.
His crimes.
His attempts to undo them.
His partnership with Ingrid.
His love for Evelyn.
And his greatest mistake.
He had once trusted Edward Vale.
Then came the revelation.
“Edward had two sons.”
Victor frowned.
Marcus had never mentioned a brother.
“The older boy was Marcus.”
A pause.
“The younger was hidden after Edward’s death.”
Victor looked at Leo.
“Who?”
Anthony continued.
“I protected the boy because children should not inherit their fathers’ wars.”
Lana’s skin prickled.
“He grew up under another name.”
The recording crackled.
“His name is—”
The power died.
Victor swore.
A gunshot came from upstairs.
They ran.
A shadow disappeared down the corridor.
The recorder was gone.
But Lana found something on the floor.
A wallet.
Inside was a driver’s license.
GAVIN HALE.
Lana stared toward the dark staircase.
Gavin had not come with them.
Victor’s phone rang.
Sarah.
She was screaming.
“Gavin is gone.”
Victor gripped the phone.
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
Then another voice came through Sarah’s line.
Gavin.
Calm.
Completely unlike the frightened translator from dinner.
“Victor.”
Victor's face hardened.
Gavin continued.
“You've spent two days searching for Edward Vale’s surviving son.”
May you like
A pause.
“You've been sitting across from him the entire time.”
