Chapter 2 - The Dead Man's Phone
Vivien stared at the ringing envelope until the sound stopped.
Then it started again.
DAD.
Adrian didn't touch it.
Neither did she.
Caleb remained near the doorway, broad-shouldered and silent, his hand close to the inside of his jacket.
Vivien finally whispered, "Give it to me."
Adrian shook his head.
"It's addressed to me."
"Which is exactly why I'm not handing it over until we know what's inside."
"It's ringing."
"I noticed."
Vivien looked him directly in the eye.
"My father has been dead since I was eleven. If someone wants me to believe he isn't, I want to hear what they have to say."
Adrian considered her.
Then he opened the envelope.
A cheap black phone slid into his palm.
No explosive.
No visible wiring.
Just an old-fashioned prepaid phone.
It rang again.
DAD.
Adrian pressed speaker and set it on the marble console.
Vivien answered.
"Hello?"
Static.
Then a recording played.
A man's voice.
Older.
Calm.
"If you're hearing this, Vivien, then I failed to keep you out of it."
Her knees nearly gave out.
She knew that voice.
Memories rushed at her with brutal clarity.
Bedtime stories.
A laugh in the garage.
A hand lifting her onto a bicycle.
A whisper the night before he disappeared.
Be brave for your mother.
Vivien gripped the edge of the console.
The recording continued.
"Do not trust Marcus Harrow."
She shut her eyes.
"Do not trust anyone who tells you my death was an accident."
Adrian moved closer.
Vivien could feel him beside her without looking.
"And if Adrian Vale is standing near you when this message plays..."
Adrian's expression changed.
"...ask him what his father did on March seventeenth."
The recording ended.
Silence.
Vivien slowly turned toward Adrian.
"What did your father do?"
"I don't know."
"March seventeenth."
"I heard it."
"What happened?"
Adrian looked at Caleb.
"Get me everything on my father's movements on March seventeenth, twenty-one years ago."
Caleb hesitated.
"We don't have records that old in the main system."
"Then wake up whoever does."
Caleb left immediately.
Vivien stared at Adrian.
"You really don't know?"
"No."
"Your family has a vault number my dead father somehow knew. Marcus is photographed with someone you recognize. And now my father's voice tells me to ask you about your father."
Adrian remained still.
"You think I'm lying."
"I think I've spent enough of my life believing men who told me not to ask questions."
That landed.
Adrian looked away first.
"You shouldn't trust me yet."
Vivien blinked.
She hadn't expected that.
"That's a strange thing for a man like you to say."
"What kind of man am I?"
She almost laughed.
"You have armed security."
"So do federal judges."
"You lock down skyscrapers."
"Federal judges usually can't."
"You know people who can trace anonymous calls in minutes."
"Useful people."
"And everyone who looks at you acts like they're trying to remember whether their will is updated."
His mouth twitched.
Vivien noticed.
"You think that's funny?"
"A little."
She hated that she found his almost-smile attractive.
She turned away.
Adrian picked up the phone.
"There may be more stored on this."
"Can you recover it?"
"Yes."
"How long?"
"Depends how careful we need to be."
"I don't want anyone deleting anything."
"Neither do I."
They spent the next hour in Adrian's private office.
Vivien sat on a leather chair while a young technology specialist named Owen connected the prepaid phone to an isolated computer.
Adrian stood behind him.
Vivien watched Adrian instead of the screen.
He was different when he thought no one was studying him.
Quieter.
More tired.
His dominance didn't disappear.
But neither did something almost lonely.
Owen suddenly spoke.
"There's one hidden file."
Adrian looked up.
"Play it."
A video opened.
Black screen.
Then her father's face appeared.
Younger than Vivien remembered him at the end.
He sat inside what looked like an industrial office.
"Vivien," he said.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
"I hope you never see this."
His eyes shifted off camera.
"If you do, someone broke the agreement."
Adrian leaned forward.
"What agreement?" Vivien whispered.
Daniel Ash continued.
"I built something for Dominic Vale."
Adrian went completely still.
His father's name.
"It wasn't a weapon. It wasn't money. It was a record."
Daniel swallowed.
"A record of every payment, every politician, every police captain, every company used to wash blood clean."
Vivien looked at Adrian.
He didn't react.
But she saw his hand tighten against the desk.
"Dominic wanted insurance," Daniel said. "Then he realized insurance becomes a weapon when the wrong person knows it exists."
A noise sounded in the recording.
Daniel looked toward a door.
"I moved the complete archive."
The image flickered.
"Vault 317."
Adrian muttered a curse.
Vivien's pulse accelerated.
"The access system requires two things. Vale blood..."
Daniel paused.
"...and Ash blood."
Vivien stopped breathing.
Adrian turned toward her.
"No," she whispered.
Daniel continued.
"Dominic and I created it that way because neither family could open it alone."
Vivien felt sick.
Her father had not been a landscaper who died in a highway accident.
Not entirely.
He had been connected to Adrian's father.
Connected to whatever empire Adrian had inherited.
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
"If Marcus Harrow finds you, it means he already knows who you are."
Vivien whispered, "Why Marcus?"
Daniel answered as if he could hear her.
"Because Marcus's father was the third man who helped build the system."
Adrian's expression sharpened.
"The third man?"
"The difference," Daniel continued, "is that we trusted him."
The video distorted again.
Then Daniel said the sentence that made Vivien's blood run cold.
"We shouldn't have."
The screen went black.
Owen tried restarting the file.
Nothing.
Vivien stood.
"Marcus's father."
Adrian moved to the computer.
"Who was he?"
"Marcus always said his father died before college."
"Name?"
"Elliot Harrow."
Adrian looked at Owen.
"Search."
Keyboard clicks filled the office.
Seconds later, Owen stopped.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"No Elliot Harrow associated with Marcus."
Vivien frowned.
"That's impossible."
Owen searched again.
"I've got an Elliot Harrow born in 1967. Died in 2005."
"That's him."
Owen looked confused.
"He had no children."
Vivien laughed once.
A nervous sound.
"Marcus used to visit his father's grave every Christmas."
"Where?"
"Memorial Oaks."
Adrian was already walking.
"Caleb."
Vivien followed.
"Where are you going?"
"To the cemetery."
"Now?"
"Now."
Twenty-five minutes later, two black SUVs entered Memorial Oaks under a moonless Texas sky.
Vivien rode beside Adrian.
She had considered staying behind.
For about five seconds.
Then she realized she had spent eighteen months building a life based on believing she knew which parts of her past were dead.
She no longer believed any of them were.
They found Elliot Harrow's grave near an oak tree.
Marcus had brought Vivien there twice.
She remembered him standing beside the stone.
Quiet.
Almost human.
She remembered feeling sorry for him.
Adrian shined a flashlight across the inscription.
ELLIOT JAMES HARROW.
BELOVED SON.
No "father."
No "husband."
Vivien stepped closer.
"There used to be more."
Adrian looked at her.
"What?"
She touched the stone.
"An inscription."
"What did it say?"
She closed her eyes.
"Everything I built, I built for my son."
Adrian illuminated the lower section.
Smooth granite.
Recently polished.
Someone had removed it.
Caleb crouched near the base.
"Sir."
He brushed dirt aside.
Fresh scratches.
A narrow metal plate was embedded beneath the stone.
Adrian knelt.
The same silver number.
Vivien's breath caught.
Then headlights appeared behind them.
A car entered the cemetery.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
Adrian stood and pushed Vivien behind him.
Caleb's hand disappeared beneath his jacket.
The vehicle stopped fifty feet away.
Driver's door opened.
A man stepped out.
Vivien knew the walk before she saw his face.
Marcus.
He looked almost exactly as she remembered.
Perfect coat.
Perfect posture.
Perfect smile.
"Vivien," he called.
Her stomach turned.
Adrian's body became completely still.
Marcus looked at him.
"So that's Adrian Vale."
Adrian spoke quietly.
"You have ten seconds to explain why you're here."
Marcus smiled.
"I didn't come for you."
His eyes returned to Vivien.
"I came to correct a mistake."
Vivien stepped around Adrian.
"You called me."
Marcus shrugged.
"I warned you."
"You put the envelope in my shop?"
"No."
That answer surprised everyone.
Marcus looked toward the grave.
"My father did."
Vivien frowned.
"Your father is dead."
Marcus smiled again.
Then someone opened the passenger-side door.
An older man stepped out.
Gray at the temples.
Expensive suit.
The man from the photograph.
Adrian whispered the name.
"Victor Kane."
Vivien looked at him.
"Who is he?"
Adrian never took his eyes off the older man.
"My father's accountant."
Victor smiled.
"Former accountant."
Marcus stood beside him.
Vivien felt the pieces shifting again.
"Is he your father?"
Marcus laughed.
"No."
Victor's smile disappeared.
Then he looked directly at Vivien.
"Your father lied to you."
Vivien stepped forward.
"About what?"
Victor reached into his coat.
Adrian moved instantly.
"Don't."
Victor slowly removed a folded photograph.
He held it up.
Vivien saw three men.
Dominic Vale.
Daniel Ash.
Victor Kane.
But behind them stood a fourth person.
A woman.
Vivien's mother.
Victor looked at her.
"Daniel wasn't the Ash who created Vault 317."
Vivien couldn't breathe.
May you like
Victor lowered the photograph.
"Your mother was."
