Chapter 11 - A Lie Meant to Protect Her
The plan was simple enough to sound reckless.
Grace would publicly announce that she intended to cooperate with federal authorities regarding fraud committed under her identity.
Not all authorities.
The right ones.
Rebecca had contacts in Washington who could bypass Martin Kessler.
But they needed time.
Marcus could not know that.
So Grace would become visible.
Adrian hated the plan.
Which was part of why Grace trusted it.
“You’re asking him to come toward you,” Adrian said.
“Yes.”
“He already came toward you.”
“Then we control where.”
“No.”
Grace stared.
Adrian corrected himself.
“I strongly dislike this.”
“Better.”
He paced the penthouse.
“You don’t know what Marcus will do.”
“I know exactly what he’ll do.”
“How?”
“Because I lived with him.”
Adrian stopped.
Grace continued.
“Marcus cannot tolerate losing control of a story. If I publicly say he forged documents, he will contact me. Not through Wade. Not through Vincent. Personally.”
“Why?”
“To correct me.”
Adrian frowned.
“Correct you?”
“He needs me to know his version.”
Evelyn nodded.
“I knew men like that.”
Adrian looked at his mother.
“Apparently our family knew too many.”
The announcement went live the following afternoon through Rebecca’s office.
Short.
Careful.
No accusations beyond documented identity theft.
Within eleven minutes, Grace’s phone rang.
Marcus.
She let it ring.
Again.
She ignored it.
Third time.
Voicemail.
“Grace, call me before you make this worse.”
She smiled grimly.
There he was.
Not please.
Not we need to talk.
Before you make this worse.
Her fault.
Always.
Twenty minutes later, another call.
Unknown number.
Grace answered.
“Hello?”
A woman.
“You don’t know me.”
“Who is this?”
“My name is Claire Mills.”
Grace stiffened.
“Mills?”
“Wade is my brother.”
Adrian, sitting across the room, looked up.
Claire continued.
“He told me what happened on the train.”
Grace said nothing.
“He wasn’t supposed to bother you.”
“That’s comforting.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“Do you?”
“He was supposed to take your bag.”
Grace’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Why?”
“Marcus thought the USB was inside.”
Adrian stood.
Grace put the call on speaker.
Claire’s voice shook.
“Wade didn’t know what this was. He owes Victor money.”
“Vincent?” Grace asked.
“No. Victor Sloane.”
Another layer.
Adrian wrote the name down.
Grace remembered.
Wade occasionally worked for Sloane.
“What does Sloane have to do with Marcus?”
“Everything now.”
Claire breathed.
“Marcus is cutting Vincent out.”
Daniel’s letter.
True.
“Where is Wade?” Grace asked.
“Gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“He disappeared after the train.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
Claire began crying.
“He called me that night. Said he messed up because he recognized you from a photograph.”
“Whose photograph?”
“Marcus’s.”
Grace’s skin prickled.
“What did it say?”
Claire hesitated.
“Future Mrs. Vale.”
Silence.
Grace looked at Adrian.
He looked equally shocked.
“What?” she whispered.
Claire continued.
“I don’t understand any of it.”
Grace did.
Or part of it.
The phrase on the train had not created Marcus’s interest in Adrian.
Marcus already expected Grace and Adrian to connect.
He knew Daniel’s evidence would eventually lead them together.
“He planned this,” Grace whispered.
Adrian shook his head.
“Not the train.”
“No. But us meeting eventually.”
Claire interrupted.
“Wade said something else.”
“What?”
“The man who hired him knew which train you took.”
Grace felt cold.
“How?”
“Someone at your bookstore told them.”
Grace’s heart stopped.
Mr. Kaplan?
Nora?
No.
It couldn’t be.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
The call disconnected.
Grace immediately called back.
Number unavailable.
Adrian looked toward the door.
“We move you.”
“No.”
“Grace.”
“Someone at Marlowe Books is feeding Marcus information.”
“Yes.”
“I need to know who.”
“That is exactly why you shouldn’t go back.”
“And exactly why I should.”
Adrian stared.
“You have an extraordinary ability to make terrible ideas sound reasonable.”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t praise.”
“I’m accepting it anyway.”
Later that evening, Adrian drove Grace back to Nora’s empty apartment.
He insisted on checking the hallway first.
Grace allowed it.
Inside, everything appeared untouched.
She turned on a lamp.
Adrian stood near the door.
“You can go.”
“I know.”
He didn’t.
Grace removed her coat.
“You don’t want me to be alone.”
“No.”
“Because you think Marcus is coming?”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Then why?”
Adrian’s answer came slowly.
“Because I know what it feels like when an old house becomes frightening again.”
Grace stopped.
He had not meant the apartment.
He meant memory.
The room grew quiet.
“You were fourteen,” she said.
“When you were kidnapped.”
“Yes.”
“You never told me what happened.”
“There isn’t much to tell.”
“Three days is a lot to tell.”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“My father refused one business arrangement. Men took me to force him to reconsider.”
“What did they do?”
“Enough.”
Grace did not ask again.
After a moment Adrian said, “When I came home, everyone kept telling me I was safe.”
“That didn’t help.”
“No.”
“Because your body didn’t believe them.”
His eyes moved to hers.
“Yes.”
Grace understood.
“After I left Marcus, my mother changed the locks. Put lights outside. Bought a dog.”
“What kind?”
“Tiny terrier.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“Terrifying.”
“He thought he was.”
Grace smiled too.
“Every night Mom said, ‘You’re safe now.’ And every night I stayed awake until sunrise.”
Adrian leaned against the wall.
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
He frowned.
Grace continued.
“I stopped waiting to feel safe first. I started doing things while I was afraid.”
Adrian absorbed that.
Then his gaze dropped to her hands.
They were not shaking.
“You did that today.”
“Yes.”
“With Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“And the train.”
Grace considered.
“No.”
“What was different?”
“You stood up.”
Their eyes met.
Something quiet passed between them.
Not rescue.
Not debt.
Recognition.
Adrian stepped closer.
Then stopped at a respectful distance.
“Grace.”
“Yes?”
“If I kissed you right now, would it be because I wanted to or because Marcus put the idea of us into this story?”
The question surprised her.
She thought carefully.
“Both could be true.”
“I don’t want him owning any part of it.”
“Neither do I.”
Adrian nodded.
He stepped back.
And somehow the fact that he did not kiss her made Grace want him to more.
Then her phone buzzed.
A message from the bookstore security system.
Motion detected.
Grace opened the camera feed.
A person stood behind the register.
Not Mr. Kaplan.
Not Nora.
A man in a baseball cap.
He opened the locked cabinet.
Removed something.
Then looked directly at the camera.
Marcus.
He smiled.
And held up a photograph of Grace and Adrian entering the bookstore together.
Written across it:
HE DOESN’T LOVE YOU. HE’S USING YOU TO AVENGE DANIEL.
Grace stared.
Adrian read over her shoulder.
His silence told her Marcus had found another truth.
Not the whole truth.
May you like
But enough of one to hurt.
---
