Chapter 9 - THE SECRET ADRIAN KEPT ABOUT MY MOTHER
I turned toward Adrian.
“What did you do?”
He looked suddenly more afraid of me than of Marcus.
“Nora—”
“No.”
My voice shook.
“Tell me.”
The pounding on the door continued.
Marcus laughed through the intercom.
“Ask him why Diane came to this house six years ago.”
I stared.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“She came to confront me.”
“About what?”
“About Elena.”
I swallowed.
“And?”
“She had evidence Marcus tampered with the syringe report.”
My heart tightened.
“What did she want?”
“She wanted me to go to the police.”
“And you refused.”
His silence answered.
I stepped backward.
“You refused.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the evidence also exposed criminal operations connected to my organization.”
I felt sick.
“So you protected yourself.”
His face twisted.
“Yes.”
The honesty was unbearable.
Marcus spoke again.
“Tell her the rest.”
Adrian’s hands tightened.
I looked toward him.
“What rest?”
He swallowed.
“Diane said if I wouldn't cooperate, she'd expose everything herself.”
My heart pounded.
“And what did you do?”
“I threatened her.”
The room seemed to vanish.
I stared at him.
“You threatened my mother?”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
His voice broke.
“I told her if she went public, I couldn't guarantee your safety.”
My breath stopped.
“You used me.”
“I was trying to frighten her into waiting.”
“You used her daughter against her.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him.
Maybe I did.
For one terrible moment, the man on the floor wasn't the injured patient I'd dragged through snow.
He was exactly what everyone said.
A dangerous man.
A man who used fear when truth became inconvenient.
I stepped away.
Adrian didn't stop me.
“I never ordered anyone to hurt Diane.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Congratulations.”
He flinched.
Then he whispered, “But my threat gave Marcus leverage.”
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Diane became more careful. More isolated. She stopped trusting anyone connected to me.”
His eyes filled.
“When she became sick, I thought it was natural illness.”
“You never checked?”
“No.”
My hands trembled.
“You could have helped her.”
“Yes.”
“You had doctors. Money. Connections.”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing.”
His eyes closed.
“Yes.”
I turned away because I couldn't look at him.
Outside the locked door, Marcus stopped pounding.
Silence.
That terrified me.
I checked the monitor.
He was gone.
“Where did he go?”
Adrian looked toward the system.
“Generator access.”
My stomach dropped.
“If he cuts backup power—”
“The locks release.”
Perfect.
I looked at Adrian.
“We have maybe minutes.”
He tried to stand.
I held up one hand.
“Don't.”
“Nora.”
“I am furious with you.”
“I know.”
“I may never forgive you.”
His expression cracked.
“I know.”
“But I am not letting Marcus kill either of us.”
Something almost like relief crossed his face.
I grabbed the medical kit and radio.
Then I noticed an alert flashing on the monitor.
An incoming file transmission.
The emergency operator had sent information from my mother's complaint.
I opened it.
There were photographs.
Lab reports.
A recorded statement.
And one document that made my knees weak.
Six years earlier, my mother had sent a blood sample to an independent toxicology lab.
Her own blood.
It contained trace amounts of the same sedative class found in Elena’s report.
But another result mattered more.
A rare industrial compound.
One used in metal-treatment facilities.
I stared.
Adrian leaned closer.
“What?”
I showed him.
He went pale.
“Cross Steel used that compound.”
My stomach turned.
“Your company?”
“Yes.”
Then I read the sample documentation.
The exposure pattern suggested repeated low-level contact.
My mother had suspected it came from something delivered to her home.
Medication.
Food.
Or water.
Then the complaint listed a person who visited her regularly during those years.
Marcus Vale.
Not Adrian.
Not Damian.
Marcus.
May you like
And beneath the name, my mother had written:
He tells me he is checking on Nora for Adrian. I believe he is checking whether I am still alive.
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