Chapter 6 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The address led to an abandoned Sterling Meridian distribution facility near Long Beach.
Grant wanted police.
I wanted Leo.
We compromised.
Detective Lena Ortiz, a financial-crimes investigator Grant trusted from an old corporate fraud case, coordinated a surveillance team several blocks away.
No sirens.
No visible officers.
Grant and I went inside carrying a duplicate flash drive.
"You can barely walk," I whispered.
"I can walk."
"You're leaning on me."
"Technical distinction."
"This is not funny."
"You say that often."
"Because you keep doing stupid things."
He looked at me.
"Yet you're still here."
I didn't have an answer.
The warehouse lights came on.
Julian stood alone.
No Leo.
No Sofia.
"Where is my son?"
Julian frowned.
"What son?"
"Don't."
"I didn't send you that photograph."
Grant studied him.
"Then who did?"
A voice came from the darkness.
"I did."
Grant froze.
An older man stepped into the light.
Same height.
Same Sterling eyes.
Silver threaded through his dark hair.
Grant whispered one word.
"Thomas."
Julian turned.
His face went completely blank.
The man smiled.
"Hello, son."
Julian stumbled backward.
"No."
Thomas Sterling had been dead for nine years.
Yet there he stood.
Alive.
Julian looked like a child seeing a ghost.
"I buried you."
"No. You buried three hundred pounds of concrete and a sealed coffin."
Julian lunged at him.
Thomas's security men appeared from behind the columns.
Guns raised.
Julian stopped.
"Why?"
Thomas shrugged.
"Freedom."
"You left me."
"I positioned you."
"You made me poison him?"
Thomas smiled.
"I gave you an opportunity."
Julian looked at Grant.
For the first time, I saw shame on his face.
Thomas continued.
"Grant was always Father's favorite. Brilliant Grant. Ethical Grant. The self-made genius who somehow forgot his empire was built using family money."
Grant's jaw tightened.
"You killed Evelyn."
"She became inconvenient."
Julian stared at his father.
"You told me her accident was Grant's fault."
Thomas sighed.
"You were twenty-four and angry. Very useful combination."
Julian looked sick.
"And Uncle Grant?"
"You wanted the company."
"You said the medication was experimental."
"Did you truly believe that?"
Silence.
Thomas laughed.
"Don't suddenly grow a conscience because the corpse started talking."
I stepped forward.
"Where's Leo?"
Thomas looked at me.
"Safe."
"Where?"
"Give me Evelyn's drive."
I raised it.
"Leo first."
His smile vanished.
"You're negotiating with the wrong man."
"No. You're threatening the wrong mother."
Grant glanced at me.
Even then, I saw the smallest flash of admiration.
Thomas extended his hand.
"Drive."
A door opened behind him.
Sofia emerged.
Leo was in her arms.
She was crying, but unharmed.
I almost ran toward them.
A guard blocked me.
Thomas smiled.
"Now."
I tossed him the drive.
He caught it.
"Let them go."
Thomas handed the drive to a guard.
Then he nodded.
Sofia ran toward me.
I grabbed Leo.
The second he touched my arms, every part of me broke.
I kissed his hair.
His cheeks.
His tiny hands.
"I'm sorry."
He stared at me sleepily and grabbed my nose.
Grant touched Leo's back.
Then Thomas spoke.
"Heartwarming."
Police lights suddenly flooded the warehouse windows.
Thomas didn't panic.
Instead, he laughed.
"You brought police."
Grant said, "Obviously."
Thomas nodded toward his guard.
The man pressed a button.
An explosion shook the far side of the building.
Sprinklers erupted.
Smoke poured from storage rooms.
Everyone moved.
Thomas disappeared through a service corridor.
Julian ran after him.
Grant tried to follow.
His legs failed.
I caught him.
"Let him go!"
"No."
"Mariana—"
"You can't save anyone if you're dead."
Police stormed inside.
Thomas escaped.
But Julian didn't.
Ortiz found him sitting outside against a shipping container.
He wasn't running.
He was holding a phone.
"My father left this," he told her.
On it was a message.
You were always disposable.
Julian laughed bitterly.
Then he started crying.
It didn't absolve him.
He had knowingly allowed Barragan to inject Grant.
He had threatened me.
He had participated.
But Thomas had spent years shaping Julian's resentment.
That night, Julian agreed to cooperate.
He gave Ortiz account numbers, names and properties.
He also admitted something Grant didn't expect.
"Barragan said the drug would keep you incapacitated until the board removed you."
Grant stared at him through the interrogation-room glass.
"You never asked what happened afterward?"
Julian lowered his eyes.
"No."
Grant's voice was quiet.
"You wanted me dead enough not to ask."
Julian couldn't answer.
Later, Grant sat outside the police station beside me.
Leo slept against my shoulder.
Los Angeles glittered below us.
"I thought money made people safe," I said.
Grant gave a humorless laugh.
"Money makes danger wear better suits."
I smiled faintly.
Then he looked at Leo.
"May I?"
I hesitated only a second.
I placed Leo in his arms.
Grant held him carefully.
Leo immediately settled against his chest, exactly as he had that first night.
Grant looked down.
"He woke me up."
"I know."
"No."
His eyes met mine.
"I mean before I moved."
I frowned.
"I heard him crying. For hours."
Grant swallowed.
"I'd stopped fighting. Then you put him on me."
His hand rested gently on Leo's blanket.
"He was warm. Breathing. Alive."
His voice cracked.
"And I remembered I wanted to be."
I couldn't speak.
Grant looked at me.
"Your son saved my life."
I shook my head.
"You saved yourself."
"Maybe."
His fingers touched mine.
Neither of us moved away.
Then Ortiz came outside.
"We found Isabel."
Grant stood too quickly.
"What?"
Ortiz's expression wasn't relieved.
"She's alive."
Grant exhaled.
May you like
Then Ortiz continued.
"But Thomas found her first."
