Chapter 12 - Adrian fell.Grace screamed.
Malcolm froze.
For one second, no one moved.
Then Grace dropped beside Adrian.
“Adrian!”
Blood spread across his shirt.
Evelyn stared at him.
Her face changed for the first time.
“Call an ambulance.”
Malcolm turned.
“No.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You shot my son.”
“He'll survive.”
“You don't know that.”
Malcolm pointed his gun at Grace.
“Give me the recorder.”
Grace clutched it.
“No.”
Adrian opened his eyes.
Weakly.
“Run.”
Grace shook her head.
“I'm not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
Malcolm stepped closer.
“Give it to me.”
Grace suddenly threw the recorder over the railing.
Malcolm's eyes followed it.
It disappeared into the darkness.
He cursed.
Grace smiled.
“You don't have it.”
Malcolm raised his gun.
Then police sirens echoed below.
Adrian's security team had found them.
Malcolm turned toward the stairs.
Two officers burst onto the platform.
“Drop the weapon!”
Malcolm hesitated.
Then dropped it.
Evelyn slowly raised her hands.
Adrian was rushed to the hospital.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
He would survive.
But when he woke, Grace was not in the room.
He sat up.
A detective entered.
“Where is Grace?”
The detective looked uncomfortable.
“She left.”
“Why?”
“She received a call.”
“From who?”
“We don't know.”
Adrian stood.
“What about my mother?”
“Arrested.”
“And Malcolm?”
“Also arrested.”
Adrian exhaled.
Then the detective placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a man entering a courthouse.
Adrian didn't recognize him.
“Who is that?”
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
“Why?”
“Because he came to the station asking about Grace.”
Adrian took the photo.
The man looked familiar.
Very familiar.
He had seen him before.
In the hidden files.
Behind Thomas.
Behind Evelyn.
Behind Malcolm.
Always in the background.
Adrian flipped the photo over.
A note was written on it.
HE WAS THE MAN YOUR FATHER FEARED.
Adrian's blood ran cold.
He searched his father's old records.
One name kept appearing.
Daniel Cross.
Thomas's former business partner.
Officially dead for nineteen years.
Adrian stared.
“If he's dead…”
The detective shook his head.
“He isn't.”
“What do you mean?”
The detective leaned closer.
“Daniel Cross owns the shell companies that have been moving your money.”
Adrian's heart sank.
“So Evelyn wasn't the mastermind.”
“No.”
“Then who was?”
The detective slid another photograph across the table.
Daniel Cross.
Alive.
Older.
Standing beside a woman.
Grace.
Adrian stared.
“That's impossible.”
The detective shook his head.
“There's more.”
Adrian looked at the next image.
Grace wasn't being held hostage.
She was meeting Daniel voluntarily.
Adrian's voice dropped.
“Why would she meet him?”
The detective said:
“We don't know.”
Adrian remembered something.
Grace had always known too much.
She had entered the mansion to investigate Thomas's murder.
But perhaps that wasn't the whole truth.
His phone buzzed.
One message.
From Grace.
I'm sorry. I never meant for you to find out this way.
Another message appeared.
Daniel Cross is my real father.
Adrian stared at the screen.
Then came a third.
And he didn't murder your father.
May you like
A fourth.
Your father asked him to.
