Chapter 2 - THE WINDOW THAT SHATTERED
The gunfire came so fast that I didn't understand what was happening.
Adrien grabbed me by the waist and drove me behind the heavy bedframe.
Glass exploded across the carpet.
Someone screamed in the hallway.
Then another shot cracked through the bedroom.
“Stay down.”
Adrien's voice was calm.
That frightened me more than the bullets.
He moved toward the window with impossible speed.
One of his men rushed inside.
“Boss, east roof!”
“Seal the building.”
“Already moving.”
Adrien looked back at me.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don't know.”
He crouched beside me.
His hand stopped inches from my face.
“May I?”
I nodded.
He gently turned my chin.
A tiny piece of glass had cut my cheek.
Nothing serious.
But his expression hardened.
“This wasn't meant to kill you.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“The shooter had a clear angle.”
He pointed toward the shattered window.
“If he wanted you dead, you would be.”
My stomach dropped.
“Then what did he want?”
Adrien looked at the photograph still lying on the floor.
“You.”
A guard entered carrying something.
A brass bullet casing.
He placed it in Adrien's hand.
Adrien examined it.
“Old military round.”
“Can you identify it?” I asked.
“Not yet.”
Then he looked at the photograph.
“Where did this come from?”
“Marcus's apartment.”
“No.”
Adrien shook his head.
“His apartment was searched before you arrived here.”
He turned to his security chief.
“Who found it?”
“Detective Bell.”
Adrien's eyes narrowed.
“Bell isn't here.”
“He sent it through one of our contacts.”
Adrien said nothing.
I felt suddenly cold.
“What aren't you telling me?”
He looked at me.
“Marcus may not have been the person watching you.”
That was the first thing that truly frightened me.
I had spent the last three years believing Marcus was simply an abusive man who became obsessed with controlling me.
Now Adrien was suggesting something much larger.
“Then who?”
“I don't know.”
He picked up the photograph.
“But someone had access to your childhood.”
He turned it over.
The words remained.
Find the girl before Viscari learns she survived.
I swallowed.
“What does 'survived' mean?”
Adrien didn't answer.
His security chief suddenly spoke.
“Boss.”
Adrien turned.
“We found another photograph.”
The man held out a sealed plastic bag.
Inside was a picture of me at seven years old.
I recognized the dress.
The yellow one with white flowers.
I had worn it on the day my mother supposedly died.
My hands began trembling.
“That picture was taken at the hospital.”
Adrien looked at me.
“You remember?”
“My mother had been in an accident.”
“Was she dead?”
I shook my head.
“They told me she died that night.”
Adrien looked at the photograph again.
There was a timestamp in the corner.
11:47 p.m.
But I suddenly remembered something.
A woman had visited me.
A woman wearing a dark green coat.
She had held my hand.
She had whispered something.
I had forgotten her face.
But not the words.
“Don't tell anyone you're alive.”
I looked at Adrien.
“She said that to me.”
His expression changed.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
A guard interrupted.
“Boss, Marcus Blake is back.”
Adrien's eyes went cold.
“Where?”
“Lobby.”
Marcus had returned voluntarily.
That made no sense.
Adrien walked toward the door.
I followed.
“Lena.”
“I want to hear what he has to say.”
Adrien studied me.
Then nodded.
“But you stay beside me.”
We entered the private lounge.
Marcus stood near the fireplace.
His face was bruised.
He looked terrified.
“I didn't shoot at her.”
Adrien stopped.
“No one said you did.”
Marcus swallowed.
“I know who did.”
I stepped forward.
“Who?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Your mother.”
My heart stopped.
Adrien grabbed Marcus by the collar.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Marcus wasn't smiling anymore.
“Lena's mother isn't dead.”
I shook my head.
“You're lying.”
Marcus looked at me.
“She has been paying me for six months.”
Adrien released him.
“Why?”
Marcus reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a small silver necklace.
I recognized it instantly.
It had belonged to my mother.
Marcus placed it on the table.
“She told me to keep you away from Viscari.”
I stared at the necklace.
Then I noticed something engraved on the back.
A single letter.
A.
Adrien saw it.
His expression changed.
“That isn't your mother's initial.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
He turned the necklace over.
“There was another woman in the photograph.”
The woman whose face had been scratched away.
Adrien's voice became almost a whisper.
“Her name was Alessandra.”
Marcus stepped backward.
“And she was my father's sister.”
The room went silent.
Adrien looked at me.
“My father died twenty-five years ago.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
He stared at the necklace.
“He disappeared.”
Then every light in The Velvet Crown went out.
And from somewhere in the darkness came a woman's voice.
“Adrien.”
May you like
A pause.
“Your father wants his daughter back.”
