Chapter 5 - Someone Wanted Me Gone
I reached my apartment twenty-seven minutes later.
The door had been kicked open.
Drawers emptied.
Mattresses sliced.
Photographs torn.
Nothing valuable had been taken because there was nothing valuable to take.
Above Brandon's bed, someone had drawn a black crescent moon.
My son stood in the hallway clutching my neighbor's hand.
“Mom?”
I dropped to my knees and pulled both children against me.
That was the moment fear became rage.
Adrian arrived behind me.
He looked into the apartment.
His expression turned frighteningly calm.
“Evelyn.”
“Yes?”
“Get security here.”
I stood.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“No?”
“My children aren't becoming prisoners in your mansion.”
“They're not staying here.”
“They're my children.”
“And someone just broke into their bedroom because of something connected to me.”
“Connected to both of us.”
His jaw tightened.
“Claire.”
“No. You don't get to make decisions for us because you have money.”
He stared at me.
Then Brandon spoke.
“Mom, I'm scared.”
That ended the argument.
We moved temporarily to the Bennett estate.
Emma thought the guest bedroom was a hotel.
Brandon discovered Adrian's enormous library.
Adrian pretended children annoyed him.
Within forty-eight hours, Brandon was sitting beside his wheelchair discussing baseball statistics.
I caught Adrian ordering a new telescope after Brandon mentioned liking astronomy.
“You're terrible at pretending not to care.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“The telescope?”
“For me.”
“You don't know anything about astronomy.”
“I have Google.”
I laughed.
He looked at me.
The room became quiet.
Something had changed between us.
Not romance exactly.
Recognition.
Two people who had spent years surviving separately were beginning to understand what it felt like not to be alone.
Then Daniel's flash drive changed everything.
The files showed Thomas Bennett had stolen more than forty million dollars.
They also contained maintenance records from Adrian's car.
A mechanic had been paid to alter the brake system.
The payment originated from one of Thomas's shell companies.
Adrian stared at the screen for a long time.
“He did this.”
“Yes.”
“He put me in this chair.”
I didn't answer.
He looked down at his legs.
For eighteen months, Adrian had blamed himself for driving too fast on wet pavement.
Now the guilt belonged to someone else.
That didn't make it easier.
It made it worse.
Thomas arrived the following afternoon.
Nobody invited him.
He walked into the study wearing a navy suit and the confidence of a man who'd spent his life believing consequences were for other people.
“Adrian.”
Adrian turned his wheelchair.
“Uncle.”
Thomas saw me.
His smile disappeared.
“Ms. Dawson.”
“You know my name.”
“I know everyone employed by this family.”
“You knew my father too.”
Silence.
Then Thomas smiled.
“Daniel.”
The way he said it made my skin crawl.
Adrian placed the flash drive on the desk.
Thomas looked at it.
Nothing moved in his face.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
“Where did you find that?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“You tried to kill me.”
Thomas sighed.
“Don't be dramatic.”
Adrian's hand clenched.
“You paid someone to sabotage my brakes.”
“You don't understand what you're looking at.”
“Then explain it.”
Thomas looked at me.
“She has filled your head with nonsense.”
“No,” Adrian said. “She emptied it of yours.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“You're vulnerable, Adrian.”
Adrian laughed.
“Because I can't walk?”
“Because you're angry.”
“I've always been angry.”
“Yes. But now someone has given that anger a target.”
I stepped forward.
“My father knew what you did.”
Thomas turned toward me.
“Your father was a thief.”
I slapped him.
The sound cracked through the study.
Nobody moved.
Thomas slowly touched his cheek.
“You're exactly like your mother.”
“Good.”
His eyes darkened.
Adrian positioned his wheelchair between us.
“Leave.”
“This is family business.”
“So is she.”
The words came out before either of us could process them.
Thomas noticed.
So did I.
He smiled.
That smile said he'd found another weakness.
“Careful, Adrian.”
“Get out.”
Thomas leaned closer.
“You think Daniel Dawson was protecting you?”
Adrian stared at him.
“He was.”
Thomas laughed quietly.
“Ask your mother why.”
Then he walked away.
That night Eleanor finally told us.
Richard Bennett wasn't Adrian's biological father.
Daniel Dawson was.
The world stopped.
Adrian stared at her.
I stared at him.
“No,” I whispered.
Eleanor shook her head quickly.
“Claire, Daniel was not your biological father.”
Another blow.
“What?”
“Your mother married Daniel when you were two. Your biological father died before you were born.”
I couldn't speak.
“Daniel raised you,” Eleanor said. “He loved you as his daughter. But biologically, you and Adrian are not related.”
Adrian looked sick.
Eleanor continued.
Years before Blackwater, she and Daniel had been together briefly.
She became pregnant.
Her family forced her to marry Richard Bennett and bury the truth.
Daniel stayed away until Richard died.
Then he returned as a driver because he wanted to know his son.
Adrian touched the crescent birthmark.
“Did he have this?”
Eleanor smiled through tears.
“On his shoulder.”
I remembered.
My father changing his shirt after working in the yard.
The same crescent.
The same moon.
Adrian closed his eyes.
The necklace.
The nickname.
The protection.
Everything suddenly had a reason.
But one question remained.
“How did Daniel die?” I asked.
Eleanor's face changed.
She looked toward the door.
“I don't know.”
A voice answered from behind us.
“I do.”
Thomas stood there.
May you like
And in his hand was a gun.
---
