Chapter 3 - THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Mia woke to the sound of rain against the apartment window.
For several seconds, she didn't remember where she was.
Then she felt the unfamiliar mattress beneath her, the absence of Adrian's expensive cologne, and the silence of a home that belonged to nobody.
She placed a hand over her stomach.
“Good morning, little one.”
Her voice cracked.
She had imagined telling Adrian about the baby so many times that the memory of that imagined moment hurt more than the reality of leaving him.
A knock interrupted her thoughts.
Three short taps.
She froze.
The building was supposed to be safe. The landlord had promised that no one would be given information about her.
Another knock.
“Mia? It's me.”
Daniel.
She unlocked the door.
Her brother stood outside wearing a dark hoodie, carrying two paper bags and looking as though he'd driven through the entire night.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Mia reached for him.
Daniel dropped the bags and hugged her carefully.
“You shouldn't have come alone,” he whispered.
“I couldn't stay.”
“I know.”
He pulled back and examined her face.
“Did he find out?”
Mia nodded.
“About the baby?”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Then we need to move.”
“Not yet.”
“Mia.”
“Daniel, please. I need to understand something first.”
She reached into her handbag and removed a folded photograph.
It was old, creased along the edges.
A hospital corridor.
A blood-covered man lying on a stretcher.
Adrian.
And beside him, a younger Mia, wearing a nurse's borrowed uniform.
“You remember that night?” she asked.
Daniel nodded.
“I remember everything.”
Six years earlier, Adrian Vale had been ambushed outside a private club. His car had been riddled with bullets. His security team was attacked, and Adrian was left bleeding beside the road.
Mia had been working as a rehabilitation assistant at the hospital where he was brought.
She recognized him because the news had shown his photograph for weeks.
She also recognized the man standing near his hospital bed.
Her brother.
Daniel had been working security for Adrian's organization, although Mia hadn't known the extent of his involvement.
That night, someone attempted to finish what the gunmen had started.
Mia had hidden Adrian in a storage room, stolen a medical cart, and helped move him through a service corridor before the attackers reached the ward.
A bullet had struck her lower back during the escape.
Her spine was damaged.
She survived.
But she never walked independently again.
Adrian recovered.
And when he learned what she had sacrificed, he insisted on marrying her.
At the time, Mia believed his gratitude would eventually become something more.
She had been wrong.
Or perhaps she had misunderstood what he had never said.
Daniel sat beside her.
“There was another report,” he said.
Mia looked at him.
“What report?”
“The original emergency report. It listed two people who had been brought into the hospital that night. Adrian and another patient.”
“Who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Your father.”
Mia's face drained.
Their father had supposedly died in a warehouse fire three years before Adrian's shooting.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
“Dad was dead.”
“That's what they told us.”
Mia shook her head.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was ordered not to.”
“By whom?”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Adrian's mother.”
Mia stared at him.
“Eleanor?”
Daniel nodded.
“She told me your father had stolen something from the family. Something worth more than money. She said if I spoke about it, you'd be in danger.”
Mia felt suddenly cold.
“What did he steal?”
Daniel reached into his jacket and placed a small silver key on the table.
“I found this in his old apartment.”
Mia recognized it.
It belonged to a private storage facility on the outskirts of Chicago.
Their father had once told them that if anything happened to him, the truth would be waiting there.
Mia had forgotten.
Daniel hadn't.
“We should go,” he said.
Before she could answer, her phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
You have twenty-four hours to come home. Your husband isn't the only person searching for you.
A second message appeared.
It contained a photograph of the apartment building.
Taken from across the street.
Then a third message arrived.
And the baby isn't as safe as you think.
Mia looked at Daniel.
He had already reached for his gun.
May you like
Someone was standing outside the apartment door.
And this time, they weren't knocking.
