Chapter 5 - The Night Elias Chose Her Over His Empire
Elias Baron had spent eleven years believing his father was dead.
August Baron had supposedly died in a private-plane crash over the Atlantic.
No survivors.
No body recovered.
Only wreckage.
Now his face stared back at us from Daniel's hidden evidence.
Older.
But alive.
Elias didn't speak for almost a minute.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Father.”
A man's voice came through.
“Hello, Elias.”
Even through the speaker, there was something cold about it.
“You should be dead.”
“I often thought the same about you.”
Elias's face became stone.
“What do you want?”
“Daniel's evidence.”
“You already know I won't give it to you.”
“Then give me the girl.”
I felt Elias go still.
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
August laughed.
“That quick?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
“Adeline has nothing to do with this.”
“Daniel made her part of it.”
“No. You did.”
A pause.
Then August said, “Midnight. Pier fourteen.”
“And if I don't come?”
“Three warehouses burn.”
Elias's jaw tightened.
“With people inside them.”
The call ended.
I looked at him.
“You're not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then I'm coming.”
“No.”
“Daniel left the evidence to me.”
“He left it to keep you alive.”
“He also told you not to lock me away.”
“This isn't locking you away.”
“What is it?”
“Keeping you breathing.”
I stepped closer.
“You can't fight your father alone.”
Something in his eyes changed.
“Watch me.”
At eleven thirty, I discovered Elias had ordered Marco to take Evan and me to a secure house outside the city.
I was furious.
“Absolutely not.”
Marco sighed.
“I knew you'd say that.”
“Then save us time.”
“He gave me an order.”
“I don't work for him anymore.”
“You technically do.”
“I quit.”
“When?”
“Right now.”
Evan raised his hand.
“Can I quit too?”
“You never worked there.”
“Great. Then I'm ahead.”
Marco rubbed his forehead.
“You two are definitely related to Daniel.”
We didn't go to the safe house.
We followed Elias.
Pier fourteen was empty except for shipping containers and freezing wind.
August Baron waited beneath a warehouse light.
Vincent stood beside him.
Elias approached alone.
Or believed he did.
I watched from behind a container with Marco.
August opened his arms.
“My son.”
Elias stopped twenty feet away.
“You don't get to call me that.”
“You've become sentimental.”
“You threatened innocent people.”
“So?”
“That used to be my answer too.”
August smiled.
“And now?”
Elias looked toward the darkness.
I somehow knew he was thinking about Evan.
About me.
About Daniel.
“Now I understand why Daniel hated you.”
August's smile disappeared.
“Give me the evidence.”
“No.”
“Then everything you built disappears.”
“I can rebuild.”
“Your name?”
“Keep it.”
“Your businesses?”
“Take them.”
“Your territory?”
“I don't want it.”
Vincent looked confused.
August looked furious.
“You would throw away everything?”
Elias's answer was quiet.
“Yes.”
“For what?”
His eyes shifted toward the container where I was hiding.
He knew.
Of course he knew.
“For the first thing I've had in years that isn't built on fear.”
My heart stopped.
August followed his gaze.
“Adeline.”
Marco cursed.
Gunmen appeared behind us.
We had been surrounded.
August smiled.
“Bring her.”
I was dragged forward.
Elias's expression became murderous.
“Let her go.”
August pressed a gun against my side.
“Evidence.”
Elias removed the memory card.
“Don't,” I said.
He looked at me.
Daniel's note flashed through my mind.
Trust the man who chooses you over power.
Elias held the evidence that could save his empire.
Then looked at me.
He tossed it onto the ground.
August laughed.
“There. You see? That's why you'll never be me.”
Elias's eyes remained on mine.
“No.”
He smiled faintly.
“That's why I'll survive you.”
Police sirens erupted.
August spun.
Marco smiled.
“You really thought we brought the only copy?”
The memory card Elias dropped was blank.
The real evidence had been sent to federal authorities an hour earlier.
Chaos exploded.
Vincent ran.
August fired.
Elias threw himself toward me.
A bullet hit him.
He fell.
“Elias!”
I dropped beside him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
For one horrifying second, I saw Daniel again.
Another person dying because of secrets I never asked to know.
“No.”
I pressed my hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes opened.
“Bossy.”
“Shut up.”
“That seems contradictory.”
“Elias!”
He smiled weakly.
Then his eyes closed.
Federal agents flooded the pier.
August was arrested.
Vincent escaped into the water and disappeared.
Elias was taken into surgery.
I waited six hours.
At dawn, the surgeon walked toward me.
“He's alive.”
My legs nearly collapsed.
Evan hugged me.
Marco looked away, pretending his eyes weren't wet.
Three days later, Elias woke properly.
I sat beside him.
He opened one eye.
“You look terrible.”
I laughed and cried simultaneously.
“You got shot.”
“I noticed.”
“You threw yourself in front of me.”
“Poor judgment.”
I squeezed his hand.
“Thank you.”
His expression softened.
“Daniel asked me to protect you.”
“This wasn't about Daniel.”
Silence.
“No,” he admitted.
It wasn't.
But our victory wasn't complete.
August was in custody.
The evidence had begun dismantling his network.
Vincent remained missing.
Then Marco entered the hospital room.
His face told us immediately something was wrong.
“What?” Elias asked.
“They found Vincent.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Marco looked at me.
“At your apartment.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“He was searching for something.”
“What?”
Marco handed me a photograph recovered from Vincent's pocket.
Daniel.
Evan.
Me.
On the back, Daniel had written:
May you like
If anything happens to me, Adeline knows where the last file is. She just doesn't know she knows.
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