Chapter 8 - THE SIGNATURE UNDER MY PARENTS’ NAMES
Theo Russo escaped from Marco’s men just before dawn.
He stumbled into a police station with a broken wrist, dehydration, and one piece of information.
“Marco is moving tonight.”
Elena sat beside her younger brother in the hospital, tears running down her face.
Adrian stayed near the door.
Theo looked at him.
“He wanted Elena inside your house because he needed the token.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Theo shook his head.
“He needed more than that.”
Elena looked up.
Theo continued.
“He knew Claire would leave if she saw you with Elena.”
Adrian went still.
“You’re saying he expected the kiss?”
“No. He expected conflict.”
Marco had placed one of Nicholas’s hidden microphones inside the guest wing.
He knew Elena was frightened.
He knew Claire was uncomfortable.
He knew Adrian was protective.
Any explosion would work.
A fight.
An accusation.
A jealous scene.
Something that pushed me away from Adrian’s direct protection.
The kiss was simply better than Marco could have hoped.
Adrian looked destroyed.
Elena whispered, “I gave him exactly what he wanted.”
“So did I,” Adrian said.
Back at the safe apartment, Mara brought me a copy of the document Marco had anonymously sent to her office.
My hands shook before I even read it.
SECURITY CONTAINMENT AUTHORIZATION.
Date:
Sixteen years earlier.
Three days before my parents died.
At the bottom:
ADRIAN BELLANDI.
His signature.
The authorization referenced:
MERCER INFORMATION LEAK.
My maiden name.
I stared at those words until they blurred.
Mara said quietly:
“Claire, don’t decide what it means before you verify it.”
“My husband signed it.”
“Maybe.”
I called Adrian.
Not because I wanted comfort.
Because I wanted an answer.
He arrived twenty minutes later.
I put the page in front of him.
His face changed immediately.
“I signed this.”
The room went cold.
Mara swore softly.
I couldn’t speak.
Adrian sat down.
“Claire, look at me.”
“No.”
“I signed an order sixteen years ago to contain a financial leak inside one of Marco’s divisions.”
“My parents.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“The document says Mercer.”
“That line wasn’t there.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t fight me.
“That sounds convenient because it is exactly the kind of excuse I would expect you not to believe.”
He pulled out his phone.
“Carlo kept originals of every executive order.”
An archived copy arrived minutes later.
Same document.
Same signature.
But the line beneath SUBJECT read:
INTERNAL PROCUREMENT DISCLOSURE.
No Mercer name.
Marco had altered the copy after Adrian signed.
I wanted relief.
Instead I felt something worse.
“Did you investigate the leak?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Marco told me it was resolved.”
“You believed him.”
“Yes.”
“My parents died three days later.”
“Yes.”
“And you never connected anything.”
“No.”
I stood.
“So even if you didn’t kill them, you helped create the kind of world where Marco could.”
Adrian’s face emptied.
He could have argued.
He didn’t.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt.
But it was true.
Then my burner phone rang.
Marco.
I answered.
He sounded almost cheerful.
“Now you understand, Claire.”
“What do you want?”
“Your voice.”
“No.”
A video appeared.
Mara gasped.
Her own sister, Rachel, was tied to a chair.
Marco continued:
“You have until midnight.”
Then another image appeared.
A digital copy of the Continuity archive.
Ninety-eight percent encrypted.
Two percent visible.
One visible folder carried a name I recognized.
NICHOLAS DANE.
Another carried Elena Russo.
And a third carried mine.
CLAIRE MERCER BELLANDI - DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR.
May you like
I stared at the screen.
Successor to what?
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