Chapter 4 - THE ROOM BENEATH THE HOUSE
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The old Thorne estate sat outside Chicago behind eleven-foot walls and acres of dead winter grass.
I hadn't been there since my father's funeral.
The basement corridor smelled exactly the same.
Dust.
Iron.
Old wood.
At the end stood a steel door.
My father's office above it had been untouched for fourteen years.
I inserted the key.
Nothing happened.
Then I noticed a second keyhole.
Elena stepped beside me.
“Adrian found that.”
“Where?”
“In your mother's jewelry box.”
I pulled a thin blade from my pocket.
Marcus looked at me.
“Boss?”
“I know.”
I opened the hidden latch.
The door released with a hydraulic hiss.
Inside was an archive.
Boxes.
Ledger books.
Photographs.
Audio recordings.
And a child's red mitten.
Chloe immediately ran toward it.
“Elena!”
Elena grabbed her.
“Don't touch anything.”
Chloe pointed.
“That was Daddy's.”
I looked at the mitten.
Inside was a tiny label.
A date.
And a name.
ADRIAN THORNE.
My hands shook.
A monitor activated by itself.
My father's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, Vincent, you've finally learned that fear is a poor substitute for truth.”
I stared at the screen.
He appeared on camera.
Not fourteen years ago.
Three weeks ago.
“He knows about the child,” my father said.
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
The screen changed.
A map of Chicago appeared.
Red markers surrounded the city.
“The Bellini war was never about shipping.”
I stepped closer.
“It was a test.”
My father explained that Dominic Bellini had never betrayed the family.
He had been following orders.
The ambush that supposedly killed three of my men had been staged.
My younger brother had not vanished into witness protection.
He had been extracted.
By my father.
“Why?”
“To see whether Vincent would become ruthless enough to inherit.”
I felt sick.
All those years.
Every death.
Every decision.
Every sleepless night.
A test.
My father had manufactured a war to transform me into his perfect successor.
Then the recording revealed the part that broke me.
“Adrian refused.”
He looked almost proud.
“He chose his daughter instead.”
The screen changed.
A surveillance image showed Adrian holding baby Chloe.
Then another.
Adrian standing beside Elena.
Then another.
Adrian handing something to Samuel Voss.
A black ledger.
My father's voice returned.
“That ledger contains the names of everyone I own.”
I looked at Samuel.
“You have it.”
He said nothing.
I pulled my weapon.
“Where is it?”
Samuel stared at me.
“In a place your father could never reach.”
“Where?”
Samuel pointed toward Chloe.
“Her.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“The truth is hidden in the only place no one would search.”
Elena's expression changed.
She understood.
“No.”
Samuel nodded.
“Adrian tattooed the access code beneath her birthmark.”
I looked at Chloe.
A harmless little mark behind her left shoulder.
My stomach turned.
My father had been hunting a child for information encoded into her body.
Then the monitor changed again.
A live camera feed appeared.
Adrian was standing in a dark warehouse.
Alive.
Older.
Bruised.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Vincent.”
I stepped toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Don't come alone.”
“Who has you?”
He looked behind him.
Then whispered:
“Dad.”
The feed cut.
The room went silent.
Because my father was dead.
May you like
At least—
That was what every one of us had been taught to believe.
