Chapter 3 - THE BOY VANESSA WANTED BACK
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
My voice sounded steadier than I felt.
Adrian stood near the fireplace.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“No?”
“Not until I know Ethan is safe.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“I do if information could get him killed.”
My anger exploded.
“Everyone has been making decisions for us for nine years!”
The room went silent.
Two security men near the door suddenly found the walls fascinating.
Adrian dismissed them with one glance.
Then he approached.
“You’re right.”
That stopped me.
People like Adrian Vale weren’t supposed to admit that.
He lowered his voice.
“Rebecca left Ethan with your mother because your mother was invisible to Vanessa.”
“Why my mother?”
“They went to college together.”
I blinked.
“My mother never said that.”
“She had reasons.”
“So Rebecca knew she was going to disappear?”
Adrian looked away.
“No. She knew there was a possibility she wouldn’t come back.”
My chest hurt.
Adrian took a file from his desk.
Inside was a photograph of Rebecca Crowe holding a toddler.
Ethan.
Beside her stood a man whose face had been partially torn away.
“Who’s that?”
Adrian hesitated.
Then he turned the photograph over.
A name was written in blue ink.
MICHAEL VALE.
I looked up.
“Vale?”
“My older brother.”
The room became impossibly quiet.
Adrian’s older brother.
Ethan’s father.
Which meant Ethan wasn’t simply Vanessa Crowe’s nephew.
He was a Vale.
I sank into the nearest chair.
“Does Ethan know?”
“No.”
“Did Rebecca know who Michael was?”
“They were together for seven years.”
“What happened to him?”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“He died when Ethan was six.”
“How?”
“That is one of the questions Vanessa doesn’t want answered.”
Before I could push further, Adrian’s security chief entered.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We traced the photograph.”
“Where?”
“Crowe Hotel.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
The Crowe Hotel stood in downtown Chicago.
Vanessa’s flagship property.
Impossible to enter unnoticed.
Adrian picked up his coat.
I stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I walked directly toward him.
“Adrian, Ethan thinks I’m his sister. He trusts me. If Vanessa has him frightened, I may be the only person who can get him to cooperate.”
“You may also be the reason she kills both of you.”
“You said she wants my ledger.”
“She does.”
“Then I’m useful.”
His expression became unreadable.
“That is exactly what worries me.”
Still, twenty minutes later, I was sitting beside him in another black car.
He gave me a small earpiece.
“Stay beside me.”
“I can handle myself.”
“I know.”
“Then stop ordering me around.”
“That will be difficult.”
“Practice.”
His mouth moved slightly.
Then the humor disappeared.
“Claire, Vanessa believes the ledger belongs to her.”
“It doesn’t.”
“I’m not talking about the financial records.”
I frowned.
Adrian looked toward the city lights.
“There’s something else hidden in your files.”
“What?”
“A recording Rebecca made before she disappeared.”
My blood ran cold.
“I never found a recording.”
Adrian turned toward me.
“No.”
May you like
His eyes sharpened.
“But Vanessa thinks you did.”
