Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO REFUSED TO DIEAdrian moved in front of Claire.
“Put the gun down.”
Victor Vale’s hand did not shake.
Age had changed him.
His once-black hair was silver.
A scar cut from his right temple toward his jaw.
His left leg dragged slightly when he shifted his weight.
But his eyes were the same eyes Adrian remembered from childhood.
Dark.
Assessing.
Merciless when necessary.
“I said you shouldn’t have brought her.”
Adrian’s voice became cold.
“If you want to shoot Claire, you shoot through me.”
Victor studied him.
Then lowered the gun.
“Still dramatic.”
Marcus almost laughed from pure disbelief.
Adrian didn’t.
“You’re alive.”
Victor looked at him.
“Apparently.”
“You let me bury you.”
“Yes.”
Claire saw Adrian flinch.
The answer had been too simple.
Too calm.
Seventeen years of grief reduced to one word.
Adrian walked toward his father.
Victor did not retreat.
The punch landed hard enough to knock the old man sideways.
Marcus gasped.
Victor steadied himself with the cane.
Blood appeared on his lower lip.
Then he smiled.
“Your mother hit harder.”
Adrian struck him again.
This time Claire caught Adrian’s arm before the third blow.
“Enough.”
He turned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My father has been dead for seventeen years.”
“And beating him unconscious will answer nothing.”
Victor wiped his mouth.
“She always was practical.”
Claire looked at him.
“You knew me.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“I knew of you.”
“You burned my apartment.”
“No.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To stop the men who burned it.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Victor looked toward the trees.
“We should go inside.”
“No,” Adrian said.
Victor sighed.
“There are people looking for all of us.”
“There have always been people looking for us.”
“These people know you’re here.”
Victor headed toward the cabin.
Adrian did not follow.
His father stopped.
“If you want to hate me, do it where the windows are reinforced.”
That was so painfully like something the old Victor Vale would say that Adrian’s face twisted.
Then he followed.
The cabin interior was nothing like Adrian remembered.
The hunting trophies were gone.
The expensive furniture had been replaced by military-style storage cases, maps, radios, weapons, and stacks of documents.
Photographs covered one wall.
Judges.
Executives.
Police officials.
Doctors.
Some were crossed out.
Some circled.
Some dead.
Claire recognized Warren Black and Philip Carrow.
Victor pointed toward the wall.
“The Circle.”
Adrian stared.
“You disappeared for seventeen years to investigate them?”
“I disappeared because they tried to kill me.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were twenty-five.”
“I was twenty-five, not five.”
“You were angry. Proud. Impulsive.”
Marcus coughed.
Victor glanced at him.
“Some things never change.”
Adrian stepped toward his father.
Claire touched his sleeve.
He stopped.
Victor sat down.
“When I was shot, I learned something in the hospital.”
“What?”
“One of my own men arranged it.”
“Who?”
“Carrow helped me survive long enough to tell Evelyn.”
Claire frowned.
“But Carrow later poisoned her.”
Victor nodded.
“He switched sides.”
Adrian stared.
“To whom?”
Victor looked at Marcus.
Marcus whispered, “No.”
Victor’s eyes remained on him.
“Your father.”
Silence.
Marcus’s father had been Daniel Vale.
Adrian’s uncle.
A quiet man who handled accounting for the organization.
He had died eleven years earlier after a stroke.
Marcus shook his head.
“My father hated violence.”
Victor laughed.
“Your father hated getting his hands dirty.”
Marcus’s face collapsed.
“He created the modern Circle. He believed Adrian’s branch of the family was too unstable.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“So Daniel ordered your shooting.”
“Yes.”
“And after you survived?”
“I pretended the attempt succeeded.”
“Why?”
“To find out who followed him.”
“And Mom?”
“Helped.”
Adrian turned away.
Another lie.
Another secret shared by everyone except him.
Victor’s voice softened.
“She wanted to tell you.”
“Apparently everyone says that.”
“She was afraid you would come after me.”
“I would have.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And they would have followed you straight to me.”
Adrian stared at the frozen lake.
“Did she know where you were?”
“Sometimes.”
“How often did you see her?”
Victor hesitated.
Adrian turned.
“How often?”
“Twice a year.”
Adrian’s expression shattered.
Claire looked down.
Victor continued.
“Sometimes more.”
“You saw my mother.”
“Yes.”
“For seventeen years.”
“Yes.”
“And neither of you told me.”
“Adrian—”
“Do not say my name like you still have the right.”
Victor stopped.
That hurt him.
Good, Adrian thought.
He wanted it to.
Claire looked toward the wall of photographs.
“What changed recently?”
Victor focused on her.
“Evelyn discovered Daniel had created a succession plan before he died.”
“Marcus.”
“Yes.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I knew nothing.”
“I believe you.”
Marcus looked surprised.
Victor continued.
“The Circle needed Adrian removed without starting a war.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“How?”
“A natural death.”
Adrian smiled darkly.
“Runs in the family.”
Victor ignored it.
“They planned to destabilize Evelyn first. Make her appear confused. When she tried to warn Adrian, no one would believe her.”
Claire understood.
“The medication.”
“Yes.”
“Then kill her.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“That was never part of the original plan.”
“But they did.”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at him.
“And you did nothing.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“I killed three people trying to reach Chicago.”
“Not enough.”
“No.”
For the first time, father and son agreed.
Victor stood.
“The Circle intends to move against you tomorrow.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What happens tomorrow?”
“Emergency board meeting at Vale Holdings.”
Marcus frowned.
“There’s no meeting.”
“There will be.”
Victor pulled a document from a folder.
Adrian read it.
A petition declaring him mentally unfit to serve as executive chairman.
Claims of violent instability.
Financial irregularities.
Evidence of misconduct.
Statements from physicians.
One signature stood out.
Dr. Philip Carrow.
Claire whispered, “They’re going to use the funeral incident.”
Victor nodded.
“Three hundred witnesses saw Claire slap him.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
She winced.
“Sorry.”
“They will claim Adrian became paranoid after grief, abducted Marcus, assaulted employees, threatened public officials.”
Marcus stared at the petition.
“And install me.”
“Yes.”
“I won’t do it.”
Victor’s expression was almost sympathetic.
“They don’t need your permission.”
Adrian placed the document down.
“Then we stop the meeting.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that only delays them.”
“What do you suggest?”
Victor looked at the wall.
“We let them win.”
Adrian stared.
Victor continued.
“Tomorrow, you walk into Vale Tower and lose everything.”
Marcus whispered, “That’s suicidal.”
“No.”
Victor looked at Claire.
“It’s the only way to make every member of the Circle show himself.”
Claire understood.
“A trap.”
Victor nodded.
Adrian laughed.
“You want me to surrender my company, my organization, and my reputation.”
“For forty-eight hours.”
“And trust you.”
Victor’s face became still.
“Yes.”
Adrian walked toward him.
“Absolutely not.”
Claire spoke.
“Evelyn trusted him.”
Adrian turned.
“Evelyn also lied to me for seventeen years.”
“She lied because she was fighting these people.”
“And look where that got her.”
Claire went silent.
Adrian regretted the words instantly.
He looked toward the fireplace.
Victor said quietly, “Your mother died because she came back for you.”
Adrian turned slowly.
“What?”
“She had a way out.”
Victor’s eyes filled for the first time.
“I begged her to disappear with me.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
“She refused.”
“Why?”
Victor looked at his son.
“Because she said she would not spend the rest of her life hiding while her boy lived inside a house full of enemies.”
Adrian’s face broke.
Victor continued.
“She knew the medication was killing her. She kept taking enough of it to make them believe she was still controlled.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“She sacrificed herself?”
“No.”
Victor’s voice cracked.
“She ran out of time.”
Adrian stared at the floor.
Then his phone vibrated.
A secure alert.
Victor Shaw looked at his device.
His face changed.
“What?”
“Vale Tower.”
Adrian took the phone.
Security footage showed black SUVs entering the underground garage.
Men with badges.
Federal agents.
Police.
Accountants.
Lawyers.
Then one familiar face stepped from the lead car.
Marcus stared at the screen.
“My mother.”
Helena Vale.
Marcus’s widowed mother.
Victor Vale’s sister-in-law.
A woman who had spent the funeral seated in the front pew, weeping into a silk handkerchief.
Victor’s face went cold.
Adrian understood.
“Daniel wasn’t the head of the Circle.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Marcus whispered, “Mom?”
May you like
Victor looked at him.
“Your mother has been running it for eleven years.”
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