Chapter 4 - Blood Before Loyalty
Adrian left the safe house through the underground garage thirty minutes later.
Daniel drove.
Grace remained behind with Lily and Emma under armed protection.
Adrian hated leaving Lily so soon after finding her.
But if Thomas was telling the truth, staying beside his daughter would only bring danger closer.
Thomas sent coordinates to an abandoned church near the Calumet River.
No cameras.
No police.
No Vale personnel.
Adrian entered alone.
The church smelled of dust and wet stone.
Rows of wooden pews disappeared into darkness.
A single candle burned near the altar.
Then Thomas Kane stepped from behind a pillar.
Grace had been right.
He was alive.
But only barely recognizable.
A scar ran from beneath his ear to his collar.
He walked with a limp.
His left hand remained partially closed.
Adrian stared at him.
Thomas lowered his head.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian crossed the room.
Then punched him.
Thomas fell against a pew.
Adrian grabbed his coat.
“You let me bury my daughter.”
Thomas did not fight back.
“I kept her alive.”
“You let me stand over an empty coffin.”
“I was trying to discover who wanted her dead.”
“You had eight months.”
“And if I had called you eight months ago, Lily would have died eight months ago.”
Adrian released him.
Thomas coughed.
“Marcus controlled your phones.”
“Your drivers.”
“Your security schedules.”
“Half your investigators reported directly to him.”
“I needed him to believe Lily was gone.”
Adrian’s jaw hardened.
“You said there was someone else.”
Thomas looked toward the altar.
“Your uncle.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Victor?”
Victor Vale was his father’s younger brother.
He had retired from the family business years earlier.
He lived quietly in Lake Forest.
He attended charity dinners.
Collected antique cars.
Complained about his knees.
And had stood beside Adrian at Evelyn’s burial.
Thomas reached inside his coat.
He removed a flash drive.
“Evelyn found this.”
Adrian stared.
“What is it?”
“Payments.”
“Shell companies.”
“Private accounts.”
“Transfers from Vale construction projects into offshore holdings.”
“Marcus was stealing from you?”
Thomas shook his head.
“Marcus was stealing for Victor.”
Adrian said nothing.
Thomas continued.
“Your father’s will created a succession clause.”
“If you died without an heir, Victor would inherit controlling authority over the Vale family trust.”
“But Lily changed that.”
Adrian remembered the lawyers congratulating him after Lily’s birth.
At the time, he had barely listened.
Nothing mattered beyond Evelyn and their newborn child.
Thomas looked directly at him.
“Lily’s birth permanently removed Victor from succession.”
“And Evelyn discovered Victor had already taken hundreds of millions from accounts he believed he would someday control.”
“So he needed Lily gone.”
“And Evelyn?”
Thomas looked away.
“She confronted Marcus.”
Adrian’s voice became almost inaudible.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Two days before the ambush.”
Adrian stepped back.
His mind returned to Evelyn’s final morning.
Her strange silence.
The way she held Lily longer than usual.
The way she whispered, “Come home to me.”
She had known danger was close.
And she had not told him.
Thomas pulled out a second object.
A damaged black phone.
“Her phone was thrown from the SUV before the explosion.”
“I found it later.”
Adrian stared.
“Can it be recovered?”
“I already recovered part of it.”
Thomas pressed play.
Static filled the church.
Then Evelyn’s voice emerged.
Calm.
Terrified.
And unmistakable.
“If anything happens to me, Adrian needs to know it came from inside the family.”
A second voice entered the recording.
Marcus Reed.
“You should have kept quiet, Evelyn.”
Adrian’s entire face changed.
Then another man spoke.
Older.
Colder.
A voice Adrian had heard at Christmas dinners since childhood.
Victor Vale.
“Take care of the mother.”
May you like
“And make certain the child disappears.”
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