Chapter 10 - The Real Enemy Inside the Room
The screen stayed frozen.
Adrian Vale.
Standing beside him.
Victor Hale.
For several seconds, nobody reacted.
Because sometimes the truth was so impossible that the mind rejected it before accepting it.
Victor.
The man who had spent years protecting Gabriel.
The man who had trained the security team.
The man who had stood between Gabriel and danger countless times.
Standing beside the person who had tried to destroy him.
I looked at Victor.
He did not move.
But his face told the story before he said a word.
Shock.
Not because he had been exposed.
Because he had just realized someone had exposed him.
“Victor.”
Gabriel’s voice was almost a whisper.
But there was something underneath.
Disappointment.
Not anger.
That was worse.
Victor looked at the screen.
Then at Gabriel.
“I can explain.”
Those four words changed everything.
Because innocent people usually asked questions first.
They said things like:
What is this?
Why am I there?
Someone is framing me.
Victor did none of that.
He went straight to explaining.
Gabriel noticed.
So did I.
“You knew,” Gabriel said.
Victor looked away.
“I knew Adrian was alive.”
Silence.
The room felt smaller.
The walls felt closer.
“You knew?”
Gabriel repeated the words.
Victor took a breath.
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Gabriel laughed quietly.
A sound with no humor.
“Protect me?”
Victor stepped forward.
“Yes.”
“By hiding the man who killed my mother?”
Victor froze.
The words landed.
Hard.
Because there was no way to soften them anymore.
The truth had finally arrived.
Victor looked older suddenly.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Like he had been carrying something heavy for years and finally had no strength left to hold it.
“I was there that night.”
My heart tightened.
Gabriel stared.
“What?”
Victor swallowed.
“The night your mother died.”
Nobody spoke.
The storm outside continued.
Almost like the world did not understand that everything inside the penthouse had changed.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You told me you were at university.”
“I was.”
“Then why were you there?”
Victor looked down.
“Because my father worked for yours.”
A pause.
“And he sent me.”
Gabriel’s eyes became colder.
“My father sent you?”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“Adrian did.”
The room went silent.
Everything returned to Adrian.
Always Adrian.
Victor continued.
“I was young. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“I thought I was helping your family.”
“And?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I watched Adrian destroy it.”
The words were barely audible.
Gabriel stood completely still.
“What happened?”
Victor looked at the floor.
“Your mother discovered the accounts.”
“The stolen money.”
“The hidden companies.”
“The people Adrian controlled.”
He took a breath.
“She planned to tell your father.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“And Adrian stopped her.”
Victor nodded.
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
Because every secret was leading to the same moment.
The same betrayal.
The same person.
But there was something I still didn’t understand.
“Then why protect Adrian?”
Everyone looked at me.
Victor did too.
And for the first time, I saw regret in his eyes.
“Because he had something I couldn’t lose.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Victor looked at Gabriel.
“Your father.”
That answer made no sense.
Gabriel looked confused.
“My father was dead.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice was quiet.
“Not when Adrian started threatening people.”
A pause.
“Your father was alive.”
The room went silent.
My breath stopped.
Gabriel stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
Victor looked toward the screen.
At Adrian.
“He wasn’t killed in the accident everyone believed.”
The world seemed to stop.
Gabriel’s father.
The man everyone thought was gone.
The man whose death shaped everything.
Alive?
No.
Impossible.
Victor continued.
“Your father discovered Adrian’s entire operation.”
“He tried to expose him.”
“But Adrian had already prepared.”
Gabriel’s voice was low.
“Where is he?”
Victor didn’t answer.
That silence was enough.
Gabriel’s face changed.
Not anger.
Pain.
The kind that came from realizing you had spent years grieving something that was never what you thought.
Adrian’s voice suddenly came through the speakers.
“You always were too emotional, Gabriel.”
Everyone turned.
The video resumed.
Adrian looked directly into the camera.
“You wanted answers.”
A small smile.
“Now you have them.”
Gabriel walked toward the screen.
“Where is my father?”
Adrian smiled.
“Still asking the wrong question.”
“Where is he?”
“The question should be…”
Adrian leaned closer.
“Why did he disappear?”
The screen changed.
A photograph appeared.
Gabriel’s father.
Thomas Bennett.
And another person.
My father.
Standing together.
Alive.
Working together.
Planning something.
My hands became cold.
Adrian continued.
“Your fathers were not enemies.”
A pause.
“They were partners.”
Gabriel stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Adrian smiled.
“Thomas Bennett and Richard Corso discovered the same thing.”
The image changed.
Documents.
Files.
Records.
Evidence.
“They discovered that the entire empire had been built on stolen foundations.”
Gabriel looked at the screen.
“My father knew?”
“He knew everything.”
“And Clara’s father?”
“He helped him fix it.”
My chest tightened.
My father.
Not a villain.
Not a secret criminal.
A man trying to repair something broken.
Adrian’s voice became colder.
“But they made one mistake.”
Gabriel stared.
“What?”
“They trusted the wrong person.”
The screen turned.
A new image appeared.
A younger Victor.
Standing beside Adrian.
My stomach dropped.
Victor closed his eyes.
Gabriel looked at him.
“Why?”
Victor didn’t answer.
“Why were you with him?”
Victor finally spoke.
“Because Adrian had my brother.”
The answer surprised everyone.
“What?”
Victor looked at Gabriel.
“My younger brother was taken after he discovered the truth.”
A pause.
“Adrian forced me to work for him.”
Gabriel stared.
“You could have told me.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian had a backup plan.”
Victor looked at me.
“And it involved Clara.”
My blood ran cold.
“What do you mean?”
Victor answered quietly.
“Adrian knew Thomas would hide the final evidence.”
“And he knew Thomas would hide you.”
A pause.
“He knew one day you would find Gabriel.”
I looked at Gabriel.
Everything.
The job.
The connection.
The timing.
It was never random.
But it also was not a trap.
My father had not sent me into danger.
He had sent me toward the one person who could help finish what they started.
Gabriel looked at Victor.
“Where is Adrian?”
Victor looked at the screen.
“He wants us to go to the old tower.”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“He wants us to think that.”
I understood.
The same thing I had learned earlier.
The obvious path was always the dangerous one.
Then my phone vibrated.
Everyone looked at it.
A message.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
A single sentence.
CLARA, YOUR FATHER LEFT YOU ONE LAST THING.
Below it was an address.
My old childhood home.
I looked at Gabriel.
“He knows.”
Gabriel nodded.
“He wants us there.”
Victor looked at the message.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Victor’s expression was serious.
“That’s not a trap.”
“How do you know?” Gabriel asked.
Victor looked at me.
“Because Adrian never cared about the house.”
A pause.
“He cared about what was hidden beneath it.”
My heart stopped.
“What was hidden beneath my home?”
Victor answered:
“The proof.”
The final evidence.
The thing everyone had been searching for.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Then we go.”
I nodded.
Not because I wasn’t afraid.
Because I finally understood something.
For years, I thought my father’s secrets were the thing keeping me away from the truth.
They weren’t.
They were the path leading me toward it.
Gabriel picked up his coat.
Victor moved toward the elevator.
Paulie followed silently.
Before leaving, Gabriel stopped beside me.
“Clara.”
I looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For the fact that your entire life changed because of mine.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He looked surprised.
I continued.
“My life changed because someone tried to bury the truth.”
A pause.
“And tonight, we finally started digging.”
For the first time since this began, Gabriel smiled.
Not the powerful man’s smile.
Not the controlled expression everyone feared.
A real one.
Then the elevator doors opened.
And as we stepped inside, every screen in the penthouse turned on one final time.
Adrian’s face appeared.
But this time, he wasn’t smiling.
He looked worried.
That was the first time I saw fear in him.
The message appeared.
YOU FOUND THE TRUTH.
A pause.
Then another line.
NOW FIND OUT WHO CREATED IT.
The screen went dark.
May you like
And for the first time that night...
Adrian Vale was the one running out of time.
