Chapter 11 - We drove through the city without headlights.Dominic sat in the front.
Mason beside him.
I was in the back, clutching the photograph of my mother.
The train station was abandoned.
Broken windows.
Rusting tracks.
Fog drifting across the platform.
Exactly the kind of place where people disappeared.
Dominic stopped the car.
“You stay here.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Claire.”
“My entire life, everyone has decided what I should know.”
I opened the door.
“I've had enough.”
Mason followed.
The station was silent.
Too silent.
We reached the platform.
A clock hung above us.
2:14.
The same time my father died.
I looked at it.
“That's not a coincidence.”
Dominic nodded.
“No.”
A train entered the station.
No lights.
No passengers.
It stopped directly in front of us.
The doors opened.
A woman stepped out.
Ana.
My mother.
She looked at me.
“Claire.”
I ran toward her.
She caught me.
For the first time in my life, I knew what her arms felt like.
Warm.
Shaking.
Real.
I started crying.
“You're alive.”
“I tried to find you.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because every person who came near you disappeared.”
I pulled away.
“Who was my brother?”
She looked at Dominic.
“Tell her.”
Dominic nodded.
“You have a brother named Adrian.”
“Where is he?”
Ana hesitated.
“Dead.”
My heart fell.
Elias's voice suddenly echoed across the platform.
“Not quite.”
A spotlight came on.
A man appeared on the opposite platform.
Young.
Dark hair.
Same eyes as mine.
He looked exactly like my father.
I stared.
“Adrian?”
He smiled.
“Hello, sister.”
Mason moved closer to me.
Dominic raised his gun.
Adrian lifted his hand.
“Relax.”
“Don't come closer,” Dominic said.
Adrian laughed.
“Still protecting her?”
Then he looked at me.
“Did he tell you everything?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
Adrian walked down the steps.
“Our father trusted Dominic.”
He looked at Mason.
“And Elias trusted Mason.”
Then he looked back at me.
“No one trusted me.”
I couldn't understand.
“Why?”
“Because I was the one who took the ledger.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“What?”
Adrian smiled.
“I found it first.”
“You were a child.”
“I was fourteen.”
“You weren't involved.”
“My father taught me everything.”
He looked at Ana.
“She taught me survival.”
Then at me.
“And you?”
“I wasn't told anything.”
“Because you were the clean one.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You were raised outside the organization.”
“You had a normal life.”
“No enemies.”
“No blood on your hands.”
He smiled.
“That's why you were the perfect owner of the money.”
I looked at my mother.
“Where is the ledger?”
Adrian's expression became serious.
“Inside the casino.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Impossible.”
“It has been there for twenty years.”
“Where?”
Adrian pointed toward the ground.
“Under the roulette table.”
I remembered.
The place where I had met Dominic.
The exact table where Mason had first seen me with him.
The place where everything had started.
Adrian smiled.
“That's not all.”
“What?”
“Your father didn't create the ledger.”
He paused.
“Elias did.”
The station went silent.
“What?”
“Your father stole it from him.”
“And Dominic?”
“Was ordered to kill your father.”
I looked at Dominic.
His face was devastated.
“But he didn't.”
Adrian nodded.
“He saved him.”
“Then why did my father die?”
Adrian looked away.
“I killed him.”
My entire body froze.
“What?”
“I was trying to protect the ledger.”
Ana covered her mouth.
“I didn't know,” she whispered.
Adrian looked at me.
“I thought I was saving everyone.”
“You killed our father?”
“Yes.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“You're a monster.”
Adrian nodded.
“Probably.”
Then he reached inside his jacket.
He pulled out a gun.
But he didn't aim it at me.
He aimed it at Dominic.
“He lied about one thing.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
“He didn't save your father.”
May you like
Dominic took a step back.
Adrian pulled the trigger.
