Chapter 7 - The Last Lie
The plan was simple enough to explain and dangerous enough to get them killed.
Victor Sloane would be invited to a private meeting at the Cole Meridian headquarters. Adrian would present the trust documents and tell him the family had decided to transfer control of the company to an independent board.
Victor would believe the meeting was an opportunity to negotiate.
In reality, the room would be monitored, the company's outside counsel would be present, and the recording Eleanor had recovered would be authenticated by an independent forensic specialist.
Maya insisted on attending.
Adrian objected for precisely eleven seconds before realizing that every argument he could make sounded like the same controlling instinct that had driven her away.
“You're eight months pregnant,” he said.
“I'm aware.”
“Victor has already tried to kill you.”
“Which is why I should be there when we expose him.”
“We can do this without putting you in the room.”
“No, Adrian. You can do it without putting me in the room. That's different.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“What if something happens?”
“Then I trust the security arrangements, my doctor, and myself to make the right decisions.”
“And me?”
Maya hesitated.
“I want to trust you. But you don't get to demand that trust because you're frightened.”
He absorbed the words without answering.
Finally, he said, “Then we'll do it your way.”
The meeting was scheduled for the following afternoon.
That morning, Maya received a message from an unknown number.
Ask Eleanor what happened to the baby in the blue-room photograph. Ask her why your father was holding him.
Maya read it twice.
Then she went to Eleanor's suite.
“Tell me about the baby in the photograph.”
Eleanor's expression changed.
“What did you hear?”
“Enough to know there's another secret.”
For a long moment, Eleanor said nothing.
Then she sat down.
“The baby was Thomas Vale's son. His name was Samuel.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died.”
“How?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“That's what I was told.”
Maya felt anger rise.
“You keep saying you were told things. You were told your family was in danger. You were told you couldn't contact your son. You were told a baby died. How much of your life have you surrendered to other people's stories?”
Eleanor looked at her with tears in her eyes.
“More than I can bear to remember.”
“Then let's stop repeating it.”
Eleanor reached for a drawer and removed a small envelope.
Inside was a hospital bracelet bearing the name Samuel Vale. The date was thirty years old.
Maya turned it over.
A second name had been written on the back.
L. BENNETT.
Her mother's maiden name.
“Why is my family's name here?”
“Your mother worked at the hospital where Samuel was born. She helped arrange his adoption after Thomas was arrested on a fabricated charge.”
“Was he adopted by my parents?”
Eleanor nodded.
Maya sat down heavily.
“My parents told me I was an only child.”
“You were. Samuel was adopted by another family under a different name.”
“Then why would my father's name appear on this bracelet?”
“Because your father was the one who arranged the adoption. He believed Samuel would be safer away from both families.”
Maya stared at the bracelet.
A brother she had never known existed.
A child connected to the same conspiracy that had killed her father and destroyed Adrian's family.
“Where is he now?”
“I don't know.”
“Does Victor?”
Eleanor's silence answered the question.
Maya returned to the secure suite and told Adrian everything.
He listened, his face growing darker with every detail.
“Victor has been controlling both families for decades,” he said. “He killed your father, poisoned mine, and used the trust to keep us fighting each other.”
“Then why keep Samuel alive?”
“Because he may be the one person who can invalidate the original agreement.”
“Or prove it was forged.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You think Victor wants the trust because of the money?”
“I think he wants it because the person who controls the trust controls the company. And if the agreement is invalid, everything he built on top of it collapses.”
They were still talking when Grant burst through the door.
“Victor has canceled the meeting.”
Adrian stood. “Why?”
“Because someone sent him the recording.”
Maya's stomach dropped.
“Who?”
Grant handed Adrian a photograph.
It showed Eleanor entering the clinic the previous night.
Someone had circled her face in red.
Beneath the image was a message.
BRING ME THE TRUST, OR THE GRANDMOTHER DIES BEFORE THE BABY IS BORN.
Adrian immediately ordered the property locked down.
But Eleanor was already gone.
Her room was empty. Her coat was missing. The rear service door stood open.
On the bed lay a handwritten note.
I'm sorry, Adrian. I have to finish what I started.
Maya read the words, then noticed something beneath them.
A second message, written in a different hand.
DON'T TRUST THE WOMAN WHO RAISED YOU.
She turned toward Adrian.
“What if the recording wasn't the only thing Victor wanted us to find?”
Before he could answer, every light in the clinic went out.
May you like
A gunshot echoed from the corridor.
Then someone screamed Maya's name.
