Chapter 8 - THE MAN ADRIEN TRUSTED MOST
Luca surrendered his gun before Adrien asked.
Then his phone.
Then his security badge.
“I was there.”
Adrien’s voice became flat.
“At Mateo’s warehouse?”
“No.”
“The meeting?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Luca looked at me.
“I was following Conrad.”
My anger rose.
“Convenient.”
“I know.”
He reached into his jacket slowly.
One old envelope.
Inside were photographs of Conrad, Victor, and Coyle.
“Your father hired me to investigate Victor.”
Adrien frowned.
“My father?”
Lorenzo Voss had died five years earlier.
Luca explained.
Lorenzo suspected his brother Victor was stealing from family companies.
After Celeste’s crash, he suspected something worse.
But Adrien was consumed by grief and pushing deeper into the organization.
Lorenzo feared telling him without proof would start a war.
“So he used you.”
“Yes.”
“Did he know Ava survived?”
Luca hesitated.
“Eventually.”
Adrien stepped forward.
“You knew?”
“For twelve days.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Where was she?”
“St. Anne.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Your father ordered me not to.”
Adrien laughed without humor.
“I hope you have a better explanation.”
Luca’s eyes filled.
“Someone inside your security detail had already tried to find her. Lorenzo believed bringing Ava home publicly would get her killed.”
“So you protected her by letting me bury her.”
“Yes.”
Adrien’s jaw clenched.
Luca continued quickly.
“Your father arranged for Anna to leave St. Anne and enter a legitimate foster placement under court supervision. He created distance from every Voss asset.”
“Why not tell me privately?”
“Because you trusted Victor.”
Adrien stopped.
That hurt because it was true.
Victor had helped raise him.
Sat beside him at Celeste’s funeral.
Encouraged retaliation against rival families.
All while knowing Ava lived.
Adrien sank into a chair.
“My father died before he told me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Luca’s answer came painfully.
“Because by then I was ashamed.”
That word again.
The word adults used after silence became too large.
Anna entered.
“You helped move me to Margaret?”
Luca nodded.
“She was vetted. No criminal ties. No Voss connections.”
Anna’s expression softened slightly.
“Did you know Uncle Victor visited me?”
“No.”
“I swear.”
She studied him.
Then looked at Adrien.
“People keep trying to protect us by lying.”
Nobody argued.
Luca turned to me.
“I learned about Mateo too late.”
“When?”
“After the warehouse.”
“So you knew he was investigating.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t warn him?”
“I tried.”
He pulled out a copy of a letter.
Mateo—
Stop asking about Lake County. Take Maria and Lily and leave Chicago.
No signature.
Mateo apparently ignored it.
Of course he did.
Luca looked sick.
“I thought warning him anonymously was enough.”
“It wasn’t.”
“No.”
I appreciated the honesty and hated him anyway.
Both feelings fit.
Then Luca revealed the last thing Lorenzo Voss had entrusted to him.
A sealed document.
Adrien’s father had created a legal protection trust before his death.
Beneficiaries:
Ava Voss.
And Matthew Delgado.
My husband.
Lorenzo intended to compensate Mateo for saving Ava and provide for his family if anything happened.
The trust had never been activated because Mateo died before Luca could safely contact him.
Current value:
$2.6 million.
I stared at Luca.
For four years I had cleaned other people’s houses and counted grocery money while Mateo’s final act had quietly left Lily a future none of us knew existed.
But money was not the biggest thing inside Lorenzo’s trust file.
There was one handwritten letter.
For Adrien.
May you like
And the first sentence read:
Son, if Ava ever comes home, the first thing you must do is dismantle the empire that made hiding her necessary.
