Chapter 9 - THE TRAITOR IN ADRIEN’S HOUSE
The traitor was Marco.
At least that was what the login said.
His access badge.
His terminal.
His floor.
Adrien did not believe it.
That surprised me.
“Check first.”
Marco had been his closest man for fifteen years.
I expected rage.
Instead, Adrien demanded evidence.
Progress again.
Security found Marco in the garage.
He surrendered immediately.
“I didn’t access anything.”
“Your credentials did,” Adrien said.
“Then someone copied them.”
“Who?”
Marco looked toward me.
“Someone who knew I searched Blake’s apartment.”
My pulse changed.
Only a handful knew.
Adrien.
Marco.
Two security men.
Dr. Bell.
I stopped.
“Dr. Bell.”
Adrien turned.
“What?”
“He was there after I collapsed.”
“Yes.”
“He treated Marcus at the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“And Marcus died through his IV.”
Silence.
Adrien’s face became terrifying.
Dr. Bell was gone before they reached his apartment.
His car was found near LaGuardia.
Empty.
Then we uncovered the truth.
Dr. Samuel Bell was not Samuel Bell.
His real name was Samuel Reddick.
Calvin’s younger brother.
My uncle.
He had entered Adrien’s circle twelve years earlier under a false identity.
He knew medical vulnerabilities.
Passwords.
Private residences.
Everything.
“Why keep me alive?” I asked.
Adrien answered.
“To find Evelyn’s archive.”
Of course.
Marcus watched me outside.
Bell watched Adrien inside.
My father had built cages on both sides.
Then Nora found one more medical record.
The night my mother “died,” Dr. Bell had signed emergency transfer authorization.
Not to a morgue.
To a private clinic.
My heart stopped.
“Adrien.”
He read it.
Then again.
“No.”
Nora whispered, “Mom survived the crash.”
Eighteen years.
My mother might have survived.
“Where did they take her?”
The clinic closed fourteen years ago.
But patient files had been transferred.
We found one record.
Jane E.
Female.
Age thirty-four.
Severe trauma.
Memory loss.
Transferred after nine months.
Destination:
Grayhaven Psychiatric Center.
New York State.
My hands started shaking.
Grayhaven still existed.
We drove through rain.
No cameras.
No reporters.
Just Adrien, Nora, Marco, and me.
The director initially refused records.
Adrien did not threaten him.
I did.
“With my lawyer.”
Adrien looked impressed.
“Growth,” he murmured.
The director eventually opened the archive.
Jane E. had remained at Grayhaven six years.
Then discharged.
“To whom?” I asked.
He checked.
A guardian.
Samuel Bell.
My stomach dropped.
“Where did he take her?”
No address.
Only an annual payment account.
The same account still active.
Marco traced it to a house in the Hudson Valley.
We reached it after midnight.
Lights on.
No guards visible.
Adrien stopped me at the gate.
“You stay behind me.”
I stared.
He corrected himself.
“Please.”
Better.
We entered.
The house smelled of lavender.
A woman sat by the fireplace.
Silver threaded through dark hair.
Thin shoulders.
A book open in her lap.
She turned.
I stopped breathing.
My childhood returned in one second.
Bedtime stories.
Warm hands.
A red scarf.
My mother.
Older.
Alive.
“Mom?”
Her face went blank.
Then changed.
She stood slowly.
“Lena?”
I broke.
So did she.
I crossed the room.
She held me.
Eighteen years disappeared.
Nora stood behind me crying.
Evelyn looked over my shoulder.
“Nora?”
Our mother remembered both of us.
Then her eyes found Adrien.
And fear replaced joy.
“Get away from him.”
I froze.
“Mom?”
She pointed at Adrien.
“His father tried to kill you.”
Adrien’s face hardened.
Evelyn shook her head violently.
“No. You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Vittorio did not protect you because Calvin threatened you.”
She looked at me.
“He protected you because Calvin wasn’t your father.”
My entire body went cold.
May you like
Then she looked directly at Adrien.
“His father was.”
