Chapter 5 - The Secret Adrian’s Father Took to the GraveAdrian replayed the video three times.
Lily noticed first.
She touched his forehead beneath the dim interior light of the SUV and immediately sat upright.
“He’s burning up.”
Adrian woke instantly.
“What?”
“Fever.”
He touched Noah’s cheek.
Too warm.
Marco glanced backward.
“Nearest hospital is twenty minutes.”
“No hospital,” Adrian said.
Lily turned on him.
“My child needs a doctor.”
“And every law-enforcement database is currently searching for me.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Then get out of the car.”
Marco quietly focused on driving.
Adrian stared at her.
Lily stared back.
“My baby comes before your freedom.”
Adrian’s anger disappeared.
“Good.”
She blinked.
“Good?”
“That answer means you’re not stupid.”
He called someone.
“Dr. Patel.”
A sleepy female voice answered.
“Adrian?”
“I need you.”
“You always need me at horrible hours.”
“Baby. Ten months. Fever.”
Silence.
Then professional alertness.
“How high?”
They stopped at an all-night pharmacy and bought a thermometer.
101.7.
Patel asked questions.
No difficulty breathing.
No rash.
Normal wet diapers.
Likely stress, dehydration, perhaps beginning infection.
“Bring him to me if it goes above 103 or if his behavior changes,” she instructed. “For now, fluids and rest.”
Lily relaxed slightly.
Adrian ended the call.
“You have a private doctor.”
“I have several.”
“Of course you do.”
“You disapprove?”
“I’m trying to imagine having a doctor answer at three thirty.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You’ll have one now.”
Lily stiffened.
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t belong to you.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“You keep talking like my life is something you can fix with money.”
Adrian looked away.
“That’s usually the easiest thing to fix with money.”
“My life isn’t easy.”
“I noticed.”
They reached the Vermont cabin before dawn.
It sat beside a frozen lake surrounded by pine trees.
The building was smaller than Adrian expected.
One bedroom.
One bathroom.
A living room with an ancient stone fireplace.
Marco surveyed it.
“This place is a security nightmare.”
“My grandparents lived here for forty years without being murdered,” Lily said.
“They weren’t Adrian.”
“Fair.”
Adrian removed his coat.
Lily saw fresh blood through the bandage.
“You need stitches.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I’m fine.”
“You sound exactly like me at the restaurant.”
Adrian stopped.
She raised an eyebrow.
Marco laughed.
Adrian looked at him.
Marco stopped laughing.
Dr. Patel joined them by secure video and talked Lily through cleaning and closing Adrian’s shoulder wound with the medical supplies Marco had purchased.
Lily sat beside Adrian on the kitchen table.
“You’re going to hate this.”
“I’ve been shot.”
“This might hurt more.”
“That sounds encouraging.”
She pressed antiseptic against the wound.
Adrian didn’t flinch.
Lily watched his face.
“You really don’t feel pain?”
“I feel it.”
“You just pretend not to?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because people notice weakness.”
She threaded the needle.
“That sounds exhausting.”
It was the strangest thing anyone had ever said to him.
Not intimidating.
Not impressive.
Exhausting.
Adrian looked away.
“Do it.”
Lily stitched.
When she finished, Noah had fallen asleep in a laundry basket lined with blankets beside the fireplace.
Adrian stared at him.
Lily noticed.
“You’re good with him.”
“No, I’m not.”
“He likes you.”
“He likes the bottle.”
“He grabbed you before the bottle.”
Adrian poured whiskey.
Lily took it from his hand.
“Medication.”
“I’m not taking medication.”
“You are now.”
He looked amused.
“You’re giving orders in my house?”
“This is my grandmother’s house.”
Adrian slowly smiled.
The expression transformed his face.
Lily forgot what she was going to say.
It was the first genuine smile she had seen from him.
“You should do that more.”
The smile vanished.
“What?”
“That.”
“Nothing happened.”
“You smiled.”
“No.”
“You absolutely did.”
“Sleep, Lily.”
She suddenly became aware of the single bedroom.
“I’ll take the couch.”
“No.”
“I’m not sleeping in a bed with you.”
“I wasn’t suggesting it.”
Heat rose into her cheeks.
Adrian’s eyes flickered with amusement.
“You take the bedroom. Noah stays with you. I’ll sleep here.”
“You were shot.”
“I’ve slept in worse places.”
“Where?”
He met her eyes.
“Places you don’t want to hear about.”
Something in his tone stopped her.
Lily entered the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, she returned.
Adrian was sitting beside the fire.
“You can’t sleep,” he said.
“Neither can you.”
“No.”
She sat opposite.
For several minutes they listened to the fire.
Then Lily asked the question.
“What happened to your sister?”
Adrian’s body became still.
She immediately regretted it.
“I’m sorry.”
“How do you know I had a sister?”
“The bottle.”
He looked at her.
“When you saw it, you looked like someone had punched you.”
Adrian stared at the flames.
“Sofia was fourteen years younger than me.”
Lily waited.
“Our mother died after Sofia was born. I practically raised her.”
“How old were you?”
“Seventeen.”
“You were a kid.”
“I stopped being one.”
“What happened?”
Adrian’s voice flattened.
“My father had enemies. One of them planted a bomb beneath a car.”
Lily knew before he finished.
“Sofia was inside?”
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Ten.”
Her chest tightened.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I was supposed to take her to school.”
“What happened?”
“I had a meeting.”
“Adrian—”
“I sent a driver.”
He stared into the fire.
“The driver died too.”
Lily understood now.
The bottle.
The baby.
Why he had become involved.
“You think it was your fault.”
“It was.”
“No.”
“I made the decision.”
“The people who planted the bomb made the decision.”
“You don’t understand my world.”
“Maybe not.”
She leaned forward.
“But guilt is the same in every world.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What are you guilty about?”
Lily swallowed.
“Ethan called me the night he died.”
Adrian waited.
“He sounded scared. He asked if he could come over.”
“And?”
“I told him no.”
“Why?”
“Noah was sick. I had been awake for two days. Ethan was always getting into complicated situations and I was tired of rescuing him.”
Her voice cracked.
“I said, ‘For once, solve your own problem.’”
Adrian’s expression softened.
“He died two hours later.”
“Lily.”
“If I had said yes—”
“He might have died at your apartment.”
“And maybe I could have helped.”
“Or Noah could have been there when Crane came.”
She closed her eyes.
Adrian moved to the chair beside her.
“You made a normal decision without knowing what would happen next.”
“So did you.”
He stared at her.
She realized what she had done.
Neither spoke.
Noah cried from the bedroom.
Lily hurried inside.
Adrian remained beside the fire.
Her words stayed with him.
So did you.
He had spent twenty-six years believing no one could absolve him because he refused to absolve himself.
Then a starving waitress he had known less than twelve hours had dismantled his punishment in four words.
His phone vibrated.
Marco.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We cracked Ethan’s encrypted folder.”
Adrian stood.
“And?”
“You need to see this.”
He entered the kitchen.
Marco turned the laptop around.
A spreadsheet filled the screen.
Millions of dollars.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Private contractors.
And several Moretti executives.
Daniel’s network was larger than expected.
Then Adrian saw one name that made him stop.
Anthony Moretti.
His father.
Transactions dated seventeen years earlier.
Adrian looked at Marco.
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s more.”
Marco opened a video file.
Ethan appeared on-screen, looking directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, I’m probably dead.”
Lily entered carrying Noah.
She froze at the sound of her brother’s voice.
“Ethan.”
Tears filled her eyes.
The recording continued.
“The Moretti organization didn’t begin this network. Someone inside it has been feeding information to Crane for decades.”
Adrian leaned closer.
Ethan swallowed.
“I believe the person responsible for the car bombing that killed Sofia Moretti is still alive.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
Lily looked at him.
The room seemed to disappear.
May you like
Ethan continued.
“And I believe Adrian Moretti’s father knew who it was.”
Related Stories
