Chapter 4 - The Child Grant Wanted Gone
Adrian moved before darkness fully settled.
“Elena, floor.”
She hated that her body obeyed him before her anger could object.
Glass shattered in the living room.
Adrian covered her with his body as Lucas's men returned fire toward the tree line.
Sarah crawled toward the hallway.
“Basement!” she shouted.
Adrian guided Elena down the stairs.
“You brought them here.”
“Yes.”
His immediate admission stopped her.
“No excuses?”
“Not anymore.”
A bullet struck the wall above them.
Adrian shoved the basement door closed.
Sarah followed.
Lucas remained upstairs.
The basement contained canned food, old furniture, a furnace—and an exterior storm hatch.
Adrian examined it.
“We go through there.”
Elena grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
He looked at her hand.
Then her face.
“My baby.”
“Our baby,” he whispered instinctively.
Elena's eyes hardened.
Adrian corrected himself.
“The baby. I understand.”
“No, you don't.”
Another gunshot.
She stepped closer.
“You think Grant wants me dead because I'm your wife.”
“Don't.”
“What?”
“Say dead.”
“Then listen. There's something you don't know.”
Elena reached inside her sweater and removed a flash drive hanging from a cord.
Adrian stared.
“Four months ago, I found discrepancies in the Vale Foundation accounts.”
The charitable foundation was Elena's responsibility.
“I thought they were accounting errors. Then I traced payments to companies that didn't exist. Seventeen million dollars.”
“Grant.”
“I didn't know who. I started copying records.”
Adrian understood.
That explained everything.
The four-month timeline.
The fake transfers.
The surveillance.
Grant had discovered Elena's investigation.
“He framed you before the ambush.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Elena gave him a wounded look.
“I tried.”
Adrian remembered dinners interrupted by calls.
Elena saying, I need an hour with you.
Him answering, Give it to Grant.
His stomach turned.
She continued.
“The night before Whitmore, I finally found the authorization trail. Grant wasn't working alone.”
“Bellamy?”
Her surprise confirmed she hadn't known Adrian had learned that part.
“Yes.”
Adrian looked at the drive.
“This can destroy them.”
“Which is why they're trying to destroy me.”
Above them, the gunfire stopped.
Silence was worse.
Then Lucas called through the door.
“Clear.”
They emerged carefully.
Two attackers had fled.
One was dead.
The other had been captured.
Adrian approached him.
Elena caught his arm.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
She knew what he intended.
“No more bodies because of me.”
“He came here to kill you.”
“And if you execute him, Grant gets exactly the Adrian Vale he understands.”
That sentence stopped him.
Adrian ordered Lucas to turn the man over to a trusted federal contact instead.
Lucas raised an eyebrow but obeyed.
Elena noticed.
So did Adrian.
Something had changed.
Not enough.
But something.
They moved Sarah to a protected location and drove south before dawn.
Elena refused to return to the Vale estate.
Adrian did not argue.
He arranged a secure house on the Connecticut coast belonging to a company Grant did not know existed.
There were four bedrooms.
Adrian took the one farthest from Elena.
For two days, they barely spoke.
Malcolm analyzed Elena's drive.
Lucas traced Grant.
Adrian slept three hours.
Elena slept less.
On the third morning, Adrian found her in the kitchen eating crackers.
She looked miserable.
“Morning sickness?”
She glared at him.
He almost smiled.
Almost.
“That's apparently a stupid question.”
“Yes.”
He poured water.
“Sarah gave me a list of things that might help.”
Elena stopped chewing.
“You asked?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked confused.
“Because you're sick.”
For the first time since the storm, something almost warm passed through her expression.
Then vanished.
“You don't get points for crackers.”
“I know.”
“Or water.”
“I know.”
“Or protecting me.”
“I know.”
That answer disarmed her more than any defense could have.
Adrian set the glass down.
“I don't want points.”
“What do you want?”
“My wife back.”
Elena looked away.
“You may not get her.”
“I know that too.”
Silence.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
Malcolm.
“We broke the drive.”
Adrian put the call on speaker.
The missing money had been routed through eighteen corporations.
Grant controlled twelve.
Roland controlled three.
The final three led to Bellamy's political network.
But there was more.
“Grant purchased a controlling debt position against Vale Maritime,” Malcolm said.
Adrian frowned.
“That's impossible.”
“Not if someone inside manipulated the collateral reports.”
Elena understood first.
“He isn't just trying to kill Adrian.”
Malcolm answered quietly.
“No.”
“He's trying to inherit everything after Adrian dies.”
Exactly.
The ambush had been step one.
Frame Elena.
Kill Adrian.
Blame Elena.
Kill Elena.
Then Grant, grieving loyal friend, takes control.
Adrian looked at his wife.
She had not merely been collateral damage.
She had been the key piece.
Then Malcolm said, “There's something else.”
A document appeared on Adrian's secure laptop.
An insurance policy.
Elena's name was listed.
Adrian was beneficiary.
Twenty-five million dollars.
Elena stared at him.
“I never signed that.”
“I never authorized it.”
Malcolm said, “It was filed six weeks ago.”
Adrian felt cold.
Grant had planned Elena's death even if the ambush failed.
Then another document loaded.
A medical information request.
It had been submitted that morning.
The request sought confirmation of Elena Vale's pregnancy.
Someone knew.
Elena instinctively covered her abdomen.
Adrian's phone rang.
Grant.
Adrian answered.
Grant's voice was calm.
“Congratulations on the baby.”
Adrian said nothing.
Grant laughed.
“You didn't know, did you?”
Elena's face drained of color.
May you like
Then Grant added:
“Don't get attached.”
