Chapter 3 - THE NIGHT SHE NEVER TOLD HIM ABOUT
Adrian locked the bedroom door.
Then he pulled the dresser in front of it.
“Stay here.”
Claire grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
“You're staying upstairs.”
“No, Adrian.”
Her voice was firmer now.
“I am done hiding behind you.”
He looked at her.
For the first time that night, he saw something beneath her fear.
Anger.
Not at him.
At herself.
“I should have told you about the hospital,” she said.
“You will.”
“Not because someone is forcing me.”
“Then tell me now.”
Another crash came from downstairs.
Adrian reached for the handgun he kept in a biometric safe.
It was still there.
He checked the chamber.
Then he looked at Claire.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved into the hallway.
The house was strangely quiet.
No footsteps.
No shouting.
Just the distant hum of the security system.
Adrian reached the staircase.
Below them, a window had been shattered.
But there was no one inside.
Security personnel rushed through the front entrance seconds later.
Marcus Bell appeared behind them.
“Mr. Cole!”
Adrian turned.
“Lock down the property.”
Marcus nodded.
“Already done.”
“Find whoever entered.”
Marcus hesitated.
“We're checking the cameras.”
Adrian noticed something.
Marcus wasn't looking at him.
He was looking at Claire.
That lasted less than a second.
But Adrian saw it.
“Marcus.”
“Yes?”
“Where were you tonight?”
“At the office.”
“Until?”
“Ten-thirty.”
Adrian checked his watch.
“It's eleven-forty.”
“I came directly here.”
“Why?”
Marcus looked confused.
“You called me.”
“I didn't.”
Marcus pulled out his phone.
There was a message from Adrian's number.
Come to the house immediately. Claire is in danger.
Adrian stared at it.
He had not sent it.
Someone had cloned his number.
But that wasn't the most disturbing part.
The message had been sent at 10:52.
From inside the house.
Marcus looked toward Claire.
“I thought you sent it.”
Adrian said nothing.
Then Claire spoke.
“The hospital.”
Everyone became silent.
Adrian turned toward her.
“Tell me.”
Claire slowly sat on the staircase.
“Four months ago, I received a letter.”
“What kind?”
“Handwritten.”
She looked at Marcus.
“Someone told me they knew what happened to your father.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“My father died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“What did the letter say?”
“That his death wasn't the accident everyone believed it was.”
Adrian's father had died in a car crash outside Boston.
The investigation had concluded that his vehicle had lost control on wet pavement.
There had been no evidence of sabotage.
No criminal case.
Adrian had accepted it.
At least publicly.
Claire continued.
“The letter said your father had been investigating financial transfers inside Cole Meridian.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the second letter said you would be next if I did.”
“And you believed them?”
“I didn't know what to believe.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out an old hospital visitor badge.
The date was printed clearly.
Six years earlier.
Three days before Adrian's father's death.
Adrian took it.
“What were you doing there?”
“Your father asked me to meet him.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
“You knew my father before he died?”
Claire nodded.
“He called me because he knew you wouldn't listen.”
“That makes no sense.”
“He was worried about you.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Why?”
Claire's eyes filled.
“Because he believed someone inside your company was stealing from you.”
Marcus stepped backward.
Adrian noticed.
“Marcus?”
“I don't know anything about that.”
“I didn't ask you.”
Marcus swallowed.
Claire continued.
“Your father gave me something.”
“What?”
“A notebook.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't have it.”
“Claire.”
“He told me to give it to you if anything happened to him.”
“And you didn't?”
She shook her head.
“I was terrified.”
“Where is it?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
She looked toward the hallway.
“In the nursery.”
Adrian froze.
They had been preparing the nursery for weeks.
He had personally chosen the crib.
Claire had chosen the wallpaper.
Their unborn son would sleep there.
Adrian walked upstairs.
Claire followed.
The nursery door opened.
Everything appeared normal.
Then Claire pointed toward the rocking chair.
“Under there.”
Adrian moved it.
Nothing.
Claire frowned.
“It was there.”
Marcus entered behind them.
“Maybe someone found it.”
Adrian turned.
“Everyone out.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Sir—”
“Out.”
Marcus left.
Adrian searched the room.
Then he saw something beneath the crib.
A child's drawing.
Claire's niece had made it during Thanksgiving.
Three figures held hands beneath a yellow sun.
But someone had drawn a fourth figure in black.
A tall man standing behind them.
Adrian picked it up.
On the back, in handwriting he recognized as his father's, were four words.
Trust the wrong person.
Claire whispered, “What does that mean?”
Adrian stared at the drawing.
Then he remembered something.
His father had always worn the same silver watch.
After his death, the watch had disappeared.
Adrian had assumed it was buried with him.
But the photograph on the wall showed otherwise.
His father had been wearing it three days before his death.
Claire suddenly looked at the watch on Adrian's wrist.
“That's not your father's.”
“No.”
“Where is his?”
Adrian's phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
His father's missing watch sat on a wooden table.
Beside it was the hospital visitor badge.
And underneath both objects was a handwritten note.
Ask Marcus who bought the house.
May you like
Adrian slowly turned toward the hallway.
Marcus was gone.
