Chapter 4 - Twelve Years Ago
Adrian wanted Nora moved to a safe house.
She refused.
"I spent twelve years not knowing whether my father was alive. I'm not hiding now."
"This isn't courage."
"And what would you call running into your burning library?"
Adrian looked away.
Dominic coughed to hide a smile.
The next morning, they met in a secure apartment overlooking the harbor.
Adrian finally told her what happened twelve years earlier.
Daniel Bennett had been a forensic accountant.
Not a gangster.
Not an informant.
A numbers man hired by Vale Shipping to review missing cargo payments.
He discovered Adrian's father, Vincent Vale, was laundering millions through port contracts.
Worse, Vincent was not working alone.
Police officers.
A city procurement official.
A federal customs supervisor.
And someone inside the Bennett family's own bank.
"My father was going to testify?" Nora asked.
"He was building the case."
"Then why did he disappear?"
Adrian stared at the harbor.
"Because the night before he was supposed to meet federal agents, the evidence vanished."
"And him?"
"Same night."
Nora folded her arms.
"You expect me to believe your family didn't kill him?"
"My father ordered it."
The honesty hit harder than denial.
"What?"
"Vincent ordered Daniel Bennett killed."
Nora stepped toward him.
Dominic moved between them.
Adrian held up a hand.
"Let her."
Nora slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Adrian did not move.
"That was for knowing," she said.
His eyes stayed on hers.
"Fair."
She wanted to hate the calm in his voice.
Instead, she hated that he looked ashamed.
"Why are you alive if your father ordered my father dead?"
"Because I warned Daniel."
Nora froze.
Adrian continued.
"I was nineteen. I heard the order through a door. I drove to Daniel's house and told him to run."
"Then where did he go?"
"He never told me."
Dominic opened an old file.
Inside was a handwritten note from Daniel.
A.V. - IF I DISAPPEAR, DO NOT TRUST THE MAN WHO WEARS THE SAINT CHRISTOPHER MEDAL.
Nora stared at Adrian's chest.
May you like
No medal.
Dominic slowly reached beneath his shirt.
