Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT VALE HOUSE FELLThe first explosion destroyed the west gate.
“Cover your mouth.”
Emily pulled her coat over her face.
The gas thickened.
Adrian smashed the vault’s emergency alarm.
Nothing.
Samuel had disabled it.
Emily’s vision blurred.
“We’re going to die in a bank vault?”
“No.”
“You sound very confident.”
“I’m lying.”
“Great.”
Adrian struck the ventilation grille repeatedly.
Metal bent.
Emily helped despite her injuries.
Together they pulled it loose.
Behind it was a maintenance shaft barely wide enough for one person.
Adrian looked at Emily.
“You first.”
“I can’t fit.”
“You can.”
“My ribs—”
“You can.”
Emily crawled.
Every movement felt like knives.
Behind her, Adrian followed.
Samuel’s voice continued through distant speakers.
“You know what I admire about you, Adrian? You always believed power meant protecting people.”
Adrian ignored him.
Samuel laughed.
“Your father believed power meant making people afraid.”
Emily crawled faster.
“And Helena believed power meant running.”
Adrian stopped.
Emily looked back.
“Keep moving.”
They reached a maintenance hatch.
Locked.
Adrian kicked it.
Nothing.
Again.
Metal buckled.
A third kick broke it open.
They fell into a service corridor.
Emily gasped for air.
Adrian grabbed a fire alarm.
This one worked.
Sirens erupted throughout the bank.
Samuel was gone before police arrived.
But surveillance caught something useful.
A black sedan.
A driver.
And a passenger Emily recognized.
Benjamin Holt.
The accountant supposedly in Vale custody.
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“How did he escape?”
Gabriel checked security logs.
“He didn’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
Gabriel swallowed.
“He was released.”
“By whom?”
“Your signature.”
Adrian stared.
“I signed nothing.”
A forged authorization.
Someone inside Vale House had freed him.
The traitor was closer than anyone thought.
Helena explained Samuel’s obsession with Emily’s blood.
Decades earlier, Mateo’s grandfather created a biometric succession trust.
Ridiculously complex.
Designed because he trusted no one.
To access the central accounts, the heir needed genetic verification through an independent laboratory named in the trust.
Emily’s blood could unlock assets worth billions.
Samuel wanted her alive long enough to verify identity.
Then dead.
“Why shoot me at the gala?” Emily asked.
Helena frowned.
“They weren’t supposed to.”
Raphael nodded.
“Louis Ferra was probably hired to create chaos, not kill her.”
Adrian understood.
“Emily saved me and got caught in crossfire.”
“Exactly.”
Emily stared.
“So seven bullets were an accident?”
Adrian looked at her.
“The worst accident of my life.”
Their eyes held.
Something passed between them.
Neither named it.
That night, Emily could not sleep.
She found Adrian on the terrace overlooking the Hudson.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” he said.
“So are you.”
“I don’t rest.”
“That explains your personality.”
She joined him.
For several minutes, they stood silently.
Then Emily asked, “Why didn’t you remove the ring?”
Adrian looked at her hand.
“You haven’t either.”
“I asked first.”
He looked back at the river.
“Because everyone watching still believes you’re protected by my name.”
“And after this?”
“We annul it.”
Emily expected relief.
Instead, something uncomfortable moved in her chest.
She blamed the wounds.
“Right.”
Adrian glanced at her.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I sound tired.”
“Of course.”
“Don’t look smug.”
“I’m not.”
“You absolutely are.”
For the first time, she saw him laugh.
A real laugh.
It transformed him.
Emily stared.
“That’s disturbing.”
“What?”
“You look human.”
He smiled again.
Then his phone rang.
The moment ended.
Gabriel.
“We found the traitor.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
Gabriel’s answer made him go completely still.
“Your mother.”
Isabella Vale was seventy-four years old.
Elegant.
Soft-spoken.
And supposedly unaware of Adrian’s criminal world.
She lived in the east wing of Vale House.
She had signed Benjamin Holt’s release papers.
Adrian confronted her inside the library.
Emily stayed nearby.
Isabella did not deny it.
“Samuel called me.”
Adrian stared.
“You knew he was alive?”
“For fifteen years.”
Helena stepped into the room.
Their mother saw her.
The color disappeared from her face.
“Helena.”
Helena’s expression was colder than Emily had ever seen.
“You knew?”
Isabella began crying.
“Samuel threatened Adrian.”
“You let me stay hidden for twenty-seven years.”
“I thought you were safer.”
“You buried Anna Shaw.”
Silence.
Emily froze.
Isabella’s face collapsed.
Adrian whispered, “Mother?”
Isabella sat down.
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Then who did?”
“Vincent.”
Helena closed her eyes.
Isabella continued.
“Anna came to warn Rose. Vincent followed her.”
Emily felt sick.
“My childhood home…”
“Rose helped hide the body because Vincent threatened Emily.”
Helena covered her face.
Adrian looked at his mother.
“And Samuel?”
“I helped him because he promised this would finally end.”
“End what?”
“The war.”
Adrian’s voice became bitter.
“You gave him access to Emily.”
“I didn’t know he would hurt her.”
“You released his operative.”
“He said Benjamin would lead him to evidence.”
Emily stepped forward.
“Where is Samuel now?”
Isabella looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Emily studied her.
“You’re lying.”
Isabella began trembling.
Emily understood.
“He’s coming here.”
No one moved.
Then the estate alarms began sounding.
Gabriel’s voice exploded through the intercom.
“PERIMETER BREACH!”
May you like
Isabella whispered, “I’m sorry.”
The windows shattered.
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