Chapter 4 - THE SISTER WHO NEVER ARRIVED
Olivia Cross had never reached the ballroom.
That fact became clear when Marcus reviewed the gate logs on an isolated security terminal.
Her car entered the estate at four sixteen that afternoon.
The vehicle never left.
The driver was found unconscious inside a supply closet.
He remembered Olivia entering the west elevator with Vanessa.
He remembered Julian stepping in before the doors closed.
Then someone struck him from behind.
Adrian stood beside the terminal.
His hands were clenched.
“I spent the last two hours believing she was upstairs resting.”
Emma looked toward him.
“Vanessa told the staff Olivia did not want to be disturbed.”
“I accepted it.”
“You were preparing to marry her.”
“That is not an excuse.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at Emma.
She had not softened the truth for him.
Everyone around Adrian softened things.
Employees called mistakes misunderstandings.
Lawyers called scandals exposure.
Friends called greed ambition.
Emma called silence what it was.
A choice.
Marcus checked the penthouse camera.
The feed showed an empty elevator lobby.
The time stamp was frozen at seven thirty-two.
“It is a loop,” Emma said.
“How can you tell?” Adrian asked.
“The flowers near the vent do not move.”
Marcus enlarged the image.
She was right.
The feed repeated every eleven seconds.
Adrian looked at the flash drive still in Emma’s hand.
“We need to know what is on that.”
“We need a computer that Julian cannot control,” she said.
“The wedding photographer has an isolated editing laptop.”
“Where?”
“Second-floor media room.”
Marcus led them through the back stairs.
Dr. Grant remained with Celeste.
Two loyal guards began evacuating guests through a loading entrance.
The bride’s parents demanded to leave first.
Marcus refused.
The media room had been ransacked.
Memory cards covered the floor.
Camera lenses had been smashed.
The photographer sat tied behind a table.
Emma cut him loose.
“Did they take the computer?”
He nodded.
“The best man.”
“He kept asking about the livestream backup.”
“Was the ceremony livestreamed?”
“Yes.”
“To a private family server.”
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“Where is that server?”
“Cross Meridian headquarters.”
Emma studied the photographer’s damaged equipment.
One laptop remained beneath a collapsed backdrop.
Its screen was cracked, but it turned on.
She inserted the encrypted flash drive.
A password box appeared.
A small Cross family crest was engraved on the metal casing.
Beneath it were four words.
THE FIRST SON REMEMBERS.
Adrian tried his father’s birthday.
Incorrect.
He tried his own.
Incorrect.
Emma looked at the phrase.
“Were you the first son?”
“No.”
“My older brother died when he was six.”
“What was his name?”
“Gabriel.”
“What did he remember?”
Adrian stared at the screen.
“My mother used to say Gabriel remembered the song my father sang during storms.”
“What song?”
Adrian entered the title.
The drive opened.
Folders appeared.
Some were dated before Adrian’s birth.
The first contained corporate documents.
The second contained medical records.
The third contained photographs of Theodore Cross with a woman Adrian did not recognize.
The final folder was labeled SUCCESSION.
Emma opened it.
A video began.
Theodore Cross appeared on-screen.
He looked exhausted.
A bruise darkened his jaw.
“If you are watching this, Adrian, then Julian Mercer has already moved against you.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
May you like
The video had been recorded twelve years earlier.
One year before Theodore’s plane exploded.
