Chapter 5 - THE FIRE AT MORRISON DYNAMICS
The fire began inside the server cooling system.
Automatic suppression failed.
Sprinklers remained inactive for nine minutes.
By the time firefighters entered, the executive data center had been destroyed.
Nolan Price was missing.
His car remained in the garage.
His phone was found beside the emergency stairs.
Kevin wanted to drive back to headquarters.
Annie stopped him near the front door.
“Your sons need to see you stay.”
“They are sleeping.”
“They will wake.”
“I have people searching for Nolan.”
“You also have people who have lied to you for years.”
Kevin looked at her.
She did not lower her eyes.
Everyone else in the mansion did.
“Are you telling me not to protect my company?”
“I’m telling you that every time this family becomes dangerous, you run toward work.”
The words struck harder than accusation.
Lauren had once said something similar.
Not angrily.
Sadly.
Kevin always believed solving the company crisis protected the family.
He had not understood that his absence became another crisis.
He removed his coat.
“Where are the boys?”
“In the bedroom.”
Jordan and Justin woke twenty minutes later.
Kevin sat on the carpet near the bed.
Neither child moved toward him.
Annie remained in the doorway.
Kevin did not ask her to leave.
“Jordan,” he said.
“Miss Claire was not really Miss Claire.”
The boy frowned.
“The lady who stayed here used someone else’s name.”
“Why?”
“She wanted you to believe things that were not true.”
Justin’s fingers closed around his blanket.
“Mommy died because of us.”
“No.”
Kevin’s voice broke.
“No.”
He moved closer but stopped before touching them.
“Your mother did not die because you fought.”
“You did not make her drive.”
“You did not cause the truck to hit you.”
Jordan watched his face.
“Do you know?”
“Yes.”
“Were we bad?”
“No.”
“Did Mommy know?”
“Yes.”
Kevin swallowed.
“She loved you every second.”
Justin began crying.
Kevin opened his arms.
For a moment, neither child moved.
Then Jordan crawled forward.
Justin followed.
They pressed against Kevin’s chest.
He held them and felt fourteen months of distance collapse into one painful truth.
His sons had not rejected him.
They had believed he hated them.
Annie quietly closed the bedroom door.
Kevin remained with the boys until they slept again.
When he entered the hallway, Annie stood near the window.
“Thank you,” he said.
“They needed you to say it.”
“I should have said it months ago.”
“You did not know what they believed.”
“I did not ask.”
Annie looked at him carefully.
“Grief makes questions feel dangerous.”
“Answers can be worse.”
“My wife knew something about my company.”
“She died trying to expose it.”
“Then ask what she wanted you to do after you learned.”
His phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from Nolan.
One line.
THE FIRE WAS EXPECTED.
I TOOK THE ORIGINAL SERVER.
TRUST NO ONE ON THE BOARD.
Beneath the message was a location.
Lauren’s abandoned art studio in Brooklyn.
Kevin stared at the screen.
May you like
Nolan was alive.
And he had moved the evidence before the building burned.
