Chapter 10 - GRANDMOTHER'S SECRETAdrian reached Ethan's room in nine seconds.
He had taken a bullet for him in Boston.
Dragged him from a burning vehicle in Newark.
Held Ethan minutes after his birth.
Stood beside Adrian at Elena's funeral.
Now Adrian aimed a gun at his chest.
“Tell me he's lying.”
Mason didn't move.
“Adrian.”
“Tell me.”
Mason's eyes shifted toward Ethan.
“Not here.”
Adrian's voice broke with rage.
“You do not get to make requests.”
Sarah held Ethan behind her.
Julian watched with grim satisfaction.
Mason slowly lowered his weapon.
“I didn't plant the bomb.”
Adrian stared.
“But you knew.”
“Yes.”
That one word destroyed eighteen years.
Adrian looked physically struck.
Mason continued.
“Elena discovered your father was planning to eliminate Julian.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian knew too much.”
Adrian's eyes moved toward his brother.
Mason continued.
“She contacted Julian to warn him. Your father intercepted the communication.”
“And the bomb?”
“Your father ordered it.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Sarah understood.
Adrian had spent fourteen years believing a rival killed his wife trying to murder him.
The truth was worse.
His father killed her while trying to murder his own son.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father threatened Ethan.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“Ethan was three.”
“Yes.”
“He threatened his grandson?”
“He said if you learned the truth and moved against him, the boy would be next.”
Adrian looked sick.
“So you protected him.”
“I protected Ethan.”
“By letting me mourn a lie?”
“Yes.”
Adrian raised the gun.
Sarah stepped forward.
“Adrian.”
“Stay out of this.”
“No.”
Mason didn't resist.
“If you want to kill me, do it.”
“Don't encourage him,” Sarah snapped.
Mason almost smiled.
Adrian's hand shook.
Then Ethan slipped from Sarah's grasp.
“Daddy?”
Everything stopped.
The child stared at the gun.
“Are you going to shoot Uncle Mason?”
Adrian looked at his son.
Slowly, his weapon lowered.
“No.”
Ethan began crying.
Adrian dropped the gun entirely.
He crossed the room and knelt.
“Come here.”
Ethan ran into him.
Adrian held him with both arms.
Tight.
Alive.
Present.
Sarah felt tears burn her eyes.
Julian looked away.
For the first time, she saw something like regret.
Police sirens approached.
Real police this time.
Julian noticed too.
“You should go.”
Adrian looked up.
“You aren't leaving.”
“Then what? Prison?”
“Probably.”
Julian laughed.
“You really have become legitimate.”
“Not remotely.”
Despite everything, the brothers almost smiled.
Then a gunshot erupted from somewhere above.
Julian jerked.
Blood appeared on his shoulder.
“SNIPER!”
Mason tackled Adrian and Ethan behind cover.
Sarah dropped.
Another shot shattered concrete.
Vale security returned fire.
“North catwalk!”
A figure ran overhead.
Sarah glimpsed him.
Not Bell.
Not anyone she recognized.
Julian pressed his hand against his bleeding shoulder.
“They're cleaning house.”
“Who?” Adrian demanded.
Julian laughed painfully.
“You think I was the only one who wanted the ledger?”
Another shot.
“Move!”
They evacuated through the loading dock.
By evening, Ethan was safe inside another Vale property.
Julian was under armed medical supervision.
Mason had voluntarily surrendered his weapons.
And Adrian hadn't spoken more than ten words.
Sarah found him in a library.
Elena's letter lay on the table.
“You should sleep.”
“No.”
“Eat?”
“No.”
“Punch something?”
“Already did.”
She noticed blood on his knuckles.
“Of course.”
Sarah sat across from him.
“You want to hate Mason.”
“I do hate Mason.”
“No. You want to.”
He looked up.
“He lied to me for fourteen years.”
“Yes.”
“He let me believe—”
“I know.”
“You don't.”
His voice sharpened.
Sarah stayed calm.
“No. I don't know what it feels like to discover your father caused your wife's death.”
Adrian looked away.
“But I know what it's like to be angry because grief is easier when somebody is guilty.”
His eyes returned.
Sarah swallowed.
“My father died when I was nineteen.”
Adrian had never heard this.
“He was a truck driver. Fell asleep at the wheel.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I blamed the company. They gave him too many routes. I blamed my mother because she'd asked him to pick up groceries. I blamed myself because I'd called him that night.”
She looked down.
“I spent years distributing blame because accepting that one exhausted man made one terrible mistake was unbearable.”
Adrian was silent.
“Maybe Mason deserves your anger.”
“He does.”
“Yes.”
“But don't decide what he deserves while you're bleeding emotionally.”
Adrian leaned back.
“You say things no one else would dare say to me.”
“That's because your payroll system encourages cowardice.”
A tired laugh escaped him.
Sarah smiled faintly.
“There.”
“What?”
“You're still human.”
He studied her.
“You should leave.”
The words hurt more than she expected.
“What?”
“Take the money.”
“No.”
“Sarah.”
“No.”
“Take it and go somewhere Julian can't find you.”
“He's in your basement.”
“Julian isn't the only threat.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
He pushed Elena's letter toward her.
Sarah read the final paragraph.
If anything happens to me, look at the foundation accounts. The money isn't disappearing. Someone is building something.
Sarah frowned.
“What foundation?”
“The Vale Children's Foundation.”
Sarah looked at him.
“The charity Julian said your father was using.”
“Yes.”
Adrian opened a laptop.
Millions of dollars had moved through offshore accounts.
Not years ago.
Recently.
“The transfers continued after your father died.”
“Yes.”
“So somebody else took over.”
“Yes.”
“Who has access?”
Adrian's face tightened.
“Board members. Senior executives.”
“And?”
“Mason.”
Sarah looked toward the door.
“You think he's still lying.”
“I don't know.”
A message appeared on Adrian's phone.
Unknown number.
One photograph.
Sarah's apartment.
Taken from across the street.
Text beneath it:
SEND SARAH MILLER HOME.
WE'D LIKE TO FINISH WHAT WE STARTED.
Adrian's face went white with fury.
Sarah read it twice.
Then noticed something in the photograph.
“Zoom in.”
“What?”
“The window.”
He enlarged it.
Reflected in the glass across from Sarah's building was a vehicle.
A black sedan.
License plate partly visible.
Mason entered.
Adrian immediately turned the screen.
“Trace this.”
Mason looked at the plate.
His face changed.
“What?”
Adrian demanded.
Mason whispered, “I know that car.”
“Whose?”
Mason looked at Adrian.
“Your mother's.”
Silence filled the room.
May you like
Upstairs, Vivienne Vale was sitting beside Ethan's bed.
Alone.
