Chapter 6 - The Night Nora Vanished
Whitmore disappeared forty-eight hours before federal agents planned to arrest him.
His private jet remained grounded.
His passport wasn't used.
His phones went dark.
Adrian immediately moved us to a secure guesthouse on the estate.
I hated living under guard.
Nora thought it was an adventure.
Then Tuesday afternoon, someone triggered the fire alarm at her preschool.
Children were evacuated.
Teachers counted heads.
Nora was missing.
I received the call at 2:17.
By 2:21, Adrian's helicopter was airborne.
I couldn't breathe.
Security footage showed a woman wearing a staff jacket leading Nora toward a gray SUV.
The license plate was stolen.
Adrian sat opposite me inside the helicopter.
His face looked carved from stone.
“We'll find her.”
“What if—”
“We'll find her.”
His hand closed around mine.
I realized he was shaking.
Whitmore called thirty minutes later.
He wanted James's evidence.
All of it.
Adrian agreed instantly.
Marcus protested.
Adrian nearly hit him.
“My niece is worth more than every company I own.”
The exchange location was an abandoned Cole Meridian warehouse near New Haven.
Federal agents surrounded the area without Whitmore knowing.
Adrian insisted on entering alone.
I refused to stay behind.
“You're not going.”
“She's my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
“Don't tell me what being her mother means.”
His expression broke.
“I'm trying not to lose both of you.”
The words silenced us.
I touched his face.
“Then don't.”
We entered together.
Whitmore stood on the upper platform.
Nora sat beside him.
She wasn't crying.
She looked annoyed.
“Mommy!”
I nearly collapsed.
Whitmore demanded the drive.
Adrian held it up.
“Let her go.”
Whitmore laughed.
“You sound like James.”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
“James was better than both of us.”
Something flickered across Whitmore's face.
“You still don't understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
Whitmore did.
He admitted following James that night.
He admitted confronting him.
But he claimed James's crash wasn't planned.
They argued beside the road.
James drove away.
Whitmore followed.
James lost control in the rain.
“I didn't touch his car.”
“You chased him.”
“I wanted the evidence.”
“You killed him.”
“No. Fear killed him.”
I hated him for that sentence.
Adrian threw the drive onto the floor.
“Take it.”
Whitmore moved toward it.
That distraction was enough.
Nora bit his hand.
Hard.
Whitmore shouted.
She ran.
Adrian moved faster than I'd ever seen.
He reached Nora as federal agents stormed the warehouse.
A shot fired.
Adrian jerked.
My scream tore through the building.
He fell while shielding Nora.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Whitmore was arrested seconds later.
I barely saw it.
I was on the floor beside Adrian.
“Stay with me.”
He looked irritated.
“It's my shoulder.”
“You were shot!”
“I've noticed.”
Nora sobbed against his chest.
“You got a boo-boo.”
“A very expensive boo-boo.”
She kissed his cheek.
Then she ordered him:
“Don't die.”
Adrian looked at her.
“I'll do my best.”
At the hospital, surgeons removed the bullet.
He would recover.
I sat beside him all night.
At dawn, he opened his eyes.
“You stayed.”
“Of course.”
“Where's Nora?”
“Sleeping with Mrs. Holloway.”
He relaxed.
Then he looked at me.
“I thought I'd lost her.”
“So did I.”
“I didn't know I could love someone that quickly.”
I understood.
“Nora does that.”
“No.”
His gaze remained on me.
“I meant both of you.”
I stopped breathing.
“Adrian.”
“I know.”
“You're grieving.”
“I've been grieving four years.”
“You were shot twelve hours ago.”
“Technically fourteen.”
“This isn't funny.”
“No.”
He reached for my hand.
“James will always be part of your life.”
“Yes.”
“He'll always be part of mine.”
“Yes.”
“But loving him doesn't mean we're required to spend the rest of our lives alone.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“I don't know how to do this.”
“Neither do I.”
For a man who controlled billion-dollar companies, Adrian looked almost boyish.
“So we learn.”
I squeezed his hand.
Then his phone rang.
Marcus.
Adrian answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
I leaned closer.
Marcus had found something in Whitmore's seized files.
A payment made four years earlier.
To the mechanic who serviced James's car.
Adrian slowly sat upright despite the pain.
Whitmore had lied.
James hadn't simply lost control.
His brakes had been sabotaged.
And the payment authorization hadn't come from Whitmore.
May you like
It had come from someone else.
Someone still inside Cole Meridian.
