Chapter 8 - The Man I TrustedWe traced Adrian's signal within seconds.
He had already disappeared.
His apartment was empty.
His office was empty.
His vehicle was abandoned near the airport.
But Helena found one thing.
A flight reservation.
Not to another country.
To a private airfield two hours away.
I stared at the screen.
“He's not running.”
“No,” Helena said.
“He's meeting someone.”
We drove there.
My wedding dress was still on.
I didn't care.
People stared as I entered the private terminal in a gown and heels with three investigators behind me.
The receptionist nearly fainted.
“Mr. Cole's plane has already arrived.”
“Where is he?”
She pointed toward the hangar.
We ran.
The hangar doors were open.
A jet sat on the runway.
Adrian stood beside it.
He looked at me.
Then he smiled.
“You finally figured it out.”
I stopped several meters away.
“Who are you?”
“I told you who I was.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You told me what you wanted me to believe.”
He looked almost sad.
“That was necessary.”
“For what?”
He glanced at the investigators.
“You don't understand what your grandfather built.”
“My grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“What does he have to do with you?”
Adrian smiled.
“Everything.”
Then the investigator behind me shouted,
“Hands where we can see them!”
Adrian raised his hands.
But he didn't look afraid.
He looked relieved.
That terrified me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Giving you a chance to see the truth.”
He pointed toward the jet.
“There is something inside.”
An investigator boarded.
Seconds later, he returned carrying a sealed case.
My name was written on it.
I stared.
“What is that?”
Adrian said,
“Your inheritance.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My grandfather has been dead for decades.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“No.”
The word echoed through the hangar.
“He hasn't.”
My heart stopped.
“He's alive?”
Adrian nodded.
“Very much alive.”
I looked at Helena.
She was already pale.
Adrian continued.
“Your grandfather created Black Ledger Holdings.”
“Why?”
“To protect a technology he believed governments would weaponize.”
“And that technology?”
“The Sentinel Protocol was derived from it.”
I stepped closer.
“So Meridian Shield was never accidental.”
“No.”
“You knew who I was before you joined.”
“Yes.”
“You manipulated my company.”
“Yes.”
“You helped my family.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked at me.
“To force you into the open.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Your grandfather has been trying to contact you for years.”
“My grandfather supposedly died.”
“Your mother needed you to believe that.”
The words landed like stones.
“My mother?”
“She knows he is alive.”
I suddenly remembered Sydney's fear.
My mother's obsession with keeping secrets.
My father's panic.
The endless lies.
None of it had been random.
Adrian looked toward the jet.
“She was supposed to deliver you to Black Ledger.”
My voice shook.
“And the wedding?”
“A distraction.”
“The loan?”
“A pressure point.”
“Jason?”
“A disposable tool.”
My heart broke.
Not because I loved Jason anymore.
Because I realized how many people had been playing roles around me.
“How do I find my grandfather?”
Adrian looked at the case.
“Open it.”
An investigator broke the seal.
Inside was a photograph.
A key.
And a handwritten letter.
The photograph showed a man in his seventies standing on a balcony overlooking the ocean.
Alive.
Healthy.
Watching the camera.
Me.
The letter contained only one sentence.
Meline, they told you I was dead because they were afraid you would find me.
My hands trembled.
Then the second line appeared.
Come alone if you want the truth.
I looked at Adrian.
“Where?”
He gave me an address.
I recognized it instantly.
It was the house I had lived in as a child.
The house my mother sold twenty years ago.
The house with the basement window circled in the photograph.
Then Adrian whispered,
“That isn't where your grandfather is.”
“Then why send me there?”
May you like
He smiled.
“Because someone has been waiting for you beneath it.”
