Chapter 14 - The Enemy Inside Adrian’s House
Samuel Price had worked for Adrian for nine years.
He drove Evelyn to medical appointments.
He attended Daniel’s funeral.
He stood behind Adrian during negotiations.
He had keys to every residence.
Access to travel schedules.
Family routines.
He had also worked for Vincent for eleven of those years.
Adrian learned the truth while sitting in his childhood home with Marcus pretending he had won.
Samuel stood near the door.
Unable to meet Adrian’s eyes.
“Why?” Adrian asked.
Marcus laughed.
“Does it matter?”
Adrian ignored him.
“Samuel.”
The older man swallowed.
“My daughter.”
Adrian’s anger shifted.
“What?”
“Vincent paid her medical bills.”
Adrian stared.
Samuel’s daughter had leukemia at fourteen.
Now twenty-six.
Alive.
Adrian had believed insurance covered most treatment.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“You were twenty-three and fighting your father for control of three companies.”
“I would have helped.”
“I know that now.”
Adrian looked away.
Betrayal did not become painless simply because it had a reason.
But reason mattered.
It always mattered.
Marcus hated that.
“You see?” Marcus said. “Everyone has a price.”
Adrian looked at him.
“No.”
Marcus smiled.
“No?”
“Everyone has something they’re afraid to lose.”
The distinction mattered.
Marcus didn’t understand it.
Outside, Grace waited two houses away with Rebecca and federal agents.
She was not supposed to enter.
Then Lena’s hacked camera feed showed Vincent arriving through the rear entrance.
Grace watched him walk into Thomas Vale’s old study.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
He looked like a man arriving for dinner.
Not a criminal empire collapsing.
Vincent faced Adrian.
“You should have stayed out of this.”
Adrian laughed once.
“My brother is dead.”
“Daniel was reckless.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
Grace saw it on the feed.
Vincent continued.
“I told Marcus to scare him.”
Marcus turned.
“You told me to solve it.”
Vincent looked at him.
“I told you nothing of the sort.”
There.
The fracture.
Grace leaned toward Rebecca.
“They’re turning on each other.”
“Let them.”
Inside, Marcus stepped toward Vincent.
“You built this operation on fear and then lost your nerve.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“I built everything you have.”
“No. Thomas did.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
Marcus smiled.
“And after Thomas died, you stole his access because you were too cowardly to use your own name.”
Vincent went pale.
Adrian finally understood.
Employee 214.
Thomas’s credentials.
Vincent had hidden behind his dead brother.
Marcus continued.
“Daniel figured it out.”
Vincent pointed.
“And you killed him.”
Marcus laughed.
“You were standing beside me when we changed the routing system.”
Grace’s breath caught.
Changed the routing system.
Daniel’s car.
Could it have been manipulated through logistics software? No, perhaps his route? Maybe they arranged a collision? Better not detail lethal wrongdoing. We can keep vague.
Vincent looked toward Adrian.
“Your brother’s death was an accident.”
Marcus smiled.
“You still telling yourself that?”
Enough.
Rebecca signaled the agents.
Then Grace saw Samuel move.
He stepped behind Marcus.
Not toward Adrian.
Toward the side door.
His hand lifted.
A signal.
Grace understood.
Samuel was giving them an entry point.
Federal agents moved.
Marcus heard something.
He spun.
Adrian rose.
Chaos erupted—but not the cinematic violence Marcus seemed to expect.
Agents entered shouting commands.
Vincent froze.
Samuel raised his hands.
Adrian did too.
Marcus ran.
Not toward the front.
Toward the basement.
Grace saw it on the camera.
“He’s going below.”
Lena switched feeds.
The basement camera flickered.
Marcus disappeared into a passage.
Grace remembered the bookcase.
The safe.
Old house.
Old architecture.
“There’s another exit.”
Adrian knew it too.
He shouted something to the agents.
Grace left the car.
Rebecca grabbed for her.
“Grace!”
“He’s going to the old service road.”
“How do you know?”
“My mother’s letter.”
Daniel had once mentioned deliveries at the rear of the Lake Forest property.
Grace ran.
Not into the house.
Around it.
Toward the wooded lane behind the property.
She reached the service road.
Marcus emerged twenty yards away.
He stopped when he saw her.
For a moment neither moved.
Then he smiled.
“Of course.”
Grace’s lungs burned.
“Stop.”
“You came alone.”
“No.”
Marcus looked around.
No one visible.
He took a step.
Grace stayed still.
“Six years,” Marcus said.
“You wasted them.”
“I waited.”
“For what?”
“For you to understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No, you don’t.”
He moved closer.
“You and I could leave.”
Grace laughed.
“Now?”
“I have money.”
“Stolen money.”
“It spends the same.”
“You’re insane.”
His face hardened.
“Don’t.”
That old warning.
Grace felt it.
Her body remembered before her mind did.
Her shoulders wanted to fold inward.
Her voice wanted to soften.
Then she remembered the train.
Please leave me alone.
Then Adrian standing.
She answered you.
Grace met Marcus’s eyes.
“No.”
He blinked.
“No?”
“No.”
She took one step forward.
“I don’t love you.”
His face changed.
“I haven’t loved you for years.”
“Grace.”
“I don’t forgive you.”
“Stop.”
“And I am not afraid of disappointing you anymore.”
Something shattered behind his eyes.
Not because she had insulted him.
Because she had escaped the version of herself he controlled.
“You think Vale loves you?”
“This isn’t about Adrian.”
“It always becomes about another man with women like you.”
Grace almost smiled.
“No, Marcus.”
Voices sounded in the distance.
Agents.
Approaching.
“This is about me.”
Marcus looked toward the woods.
Calculating.
Running.
Grace knew that face too.
“You won’t get far.”
He looked back.
“You always underestimate me.”
“No.”
Grace shook her head.
“I used to overestimate you.”
That hurt him.
He stepped toward her.
A voice thundered behind Grace.
“Don’t.”
Adrian.
Marcus stopped.
Grace turned slightly.
Adrian stood thirty feet away with two agents.
He did not rush to her.
Did not place himself in front of her.
Did not take over.
He simply waited.
Grace looked back at Marcus.
“Turn around.”
Marcus stared.
“You think this ends me?”
“No.”
Grace’s voice was steady.
“You ended yourself.”
Federal agents moved in.
Marcus did not fight.
Perhaps because he understood the cameras were running.
Perhaps because he still believed he could talk his way out.
As they placed him in custody, he looked over his shoulder at Grace.
“You’ll come back.”
Six years ago, that sentence would have haunted her.
Now Grace smiled sadly.
“No.”
Marcus was led away.
Only after the vehicles disappeared did Adrian approach.
He stopped several feet from her.
“Are you all right?”
Grace laughed and cried at the same time.
“No.”
Adrian nodded.
“Me neither.”
May you like
And somehow that was better than pretending.
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