Chapter 5 - What Happened to His Eyes
Thea did not shout.
That worried Lachlan more than shouting would have.
She handed Sophie to Emil, waited until the child was safely down the corridor, then closed the conference-room door.
After that, she placed the note in front of her husband.
“You have ten seconds.”
“Thea.”
“Nine.”
“This is complicated.”
“Eight.”
“I did tell you how my sight returned.”
“You said it returned fourteen months after the accident.”
“Yes.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“Seven.”
He stood.
“Someone operated on me.”
She stopped counting.
“What?”
“An experimental procedure.”
“Who?”
“Adrian Shaw.”
“The ophthalmologist who knows you can see.”
“Yes.”
“Why was that a secret?”
“Because Adrian was not authorized to perform it in the United States at the time.”
Thea frowned.
“What procedure?”
“Corneal nerve reconstruction combined with a retinal implant.”
“That sounds fairly important.”
“It was.”
“And successful.”
“Eventually.”
“How eventually?”
“For the first three weeks I saw light. Then shapes. Then color.”
His voice changed.
“Then faces.”
Thea heard something underneath the words.
“You didn't tell your family.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because two days after I recognized Adrian's face, someone tried to kill him.”
Silence.
“What happened?”
“A car struck him while he crossed the hospital parking lot.”
“Was he hurt?”
“Broken pelvis. Internal injuries. He survived.”
“And you thought it was because whoever caused Elena's crash learned your vision might come back.”
“Yes.”
“So Adrian falsified your medical records.”
“He reported no meaningful improvement.”
“That is illegal.”
“Yes.”
Thea paced.
“Anything else?”
Lachlan hesitated.
Her eyes narrowed.
“No secrets.”
“There is one detail.”
“Of course there is.”
“After my vision returned, I saw security footage from the night Elena died.”
Thea stopped.
“You saw the man.”
“Not his face.”
“What did you see?”
“His hand.”
She waited.
“A ring.”
“What kind?”
“Voss family signet.”
Thea went cold.
“Your family?”
“Only six rings exist.”
“Who has them?”
“My grandmother. Me. Julian. My uncle Conrad. Elena had one. The sixth belonged to my grandfather and is stored in the family vault.”
Thea sat down.
“So somebody in your family may have been at the crash.”
“Or someone wore a stolen ring.”
“Did Elena still have hers when she died?”
“Yes.”
“Your ring?”
“In the hospital property bag.”
“Astrid?”
“On her hand at the funeral.”
“Julian?”
“He claims his was being repaired.”
Thea stared.
“You're kidding.”
“No.”
“And Conrad?”
“In Singapore.”
“Verified?”
“Flight records say yes.”
“The security footage could have solved this.”
“It disappeared from police evidence two days later.”
Thea laughed without humor.
“You people have the most expensive surveillance systems on Earth and apparently none of them work when someone commits murder.”
“I've had similar thoughts.”
“And Vale?”
“No family ring.”
“So the lake-house man and the crash-site man may not be the same person.”
“Correct.”
“Two people.”
“Possibly more.”
Thea looked at the note.
“Someone knows exactly how much you've told me.”
“Yes.”
“Which means the hospital room might also be compromised.”
Lachlan picked up the hidden phone.
“We relocate immediately.”
This time Thea didn't argue.
Her mother was transferred that afternoon to a private surgical center owned by neither the Voss family nor any company connected to them.
Thea protested the extravagance until a nurse assured her the surgeon remained the same.
Sophie went with Emil to a secure townhouse.
Thea and Lachlan returned to the estate only long enough to prepare for the next day's board meeting.
At eight that evening, Thea stood in the enormous dressing room staring at rows of clothing she hadn't bought.
A knock sounded.
“Come in.”
Lachlan entered.
He stopped.
“You look angry.”
“Your grandmother bought me a corporate-wife wardrobe.”
He examined the dresses.
“Astrid considers shopping a military operation.”
“She bought twelve jackets.”
“Only twelve?”
Thea threw a cushion at him.
He caught it.
Their eyes met.
Something changed.
For a heartbeat, they were not a frightened nineteen-year-old bride and a billionaire hiding from a killer.
They were simply two people in a room.
Then Thea remembered the contract.
The lies.
The murder.
She turned away.
“What should I wear tomorrow?”
“Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“I'll go in pajamas.”
“Vale would be deeply unsettled.”
“Maybe that's our strategy.”
Lachlan smiled.
A real smile.
Thea had not seen one before.
It changed his entire face.
She hated noticing.
“Blue,” he said.
“What?”
“The dark blue suit.”
She found it.
“Why?”
“You look confident in blue.”
Her hand stopped.
“You've seen me in blue exactly once.”
“At the hospital.”
“You remember?”
“I remember most things I see.”
For reasons she couldn't explain, heat touched her cheeks.
She changed the subject.
“Tell me about Graham Vale.”
“Fifty-eight. CFO for eleven years. Worked with my grandfather.”
“Married?”
“Twice. Divorced twice.”
“Children?”
“One son in California.”
“Debt?”
“None that we know.”
“Why steal?”
“People rarely steal because they need.”
“Fair.”
“Vale built much of our overseas payment infrastructure. If Elena found shell companies, he could have created them.”
“And Julian?”
“My cousin wants the CEO position.”
“Does he hate you?”
“Julian doesn't hate people. He categorizes them by usefulness.”
“That sounded suspiciously personal.”
“We grew up together.”
“Were you close?”
“Once.”
“What changed?”
“My grandfather chose me as successor.”
Thea nodded.
“Classic.”
“What?”
“Rich family tragedy. One old man creates a competition between boys, everybody needs therapy, nobody gets therapy, somebody starts moving millions through shell companies.”
Lachlan stared.
“That is an oversimplification.”
“Is it inaccurate?”
He considered.
“Disturbingly little.”
Thea smiled.
His gaze lingered.
She noticed.
He noticed her noticing.
The room became quieter.
Then Lachlan looked away first.
Good.
She needed boundaries.
“Tomorrow,” she said, “what am I looking for?”
“Vale's reaction to Sophie.”
“Sophie isn't going.”
“She will appear briefly by video.”
Thea immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“It's controlled.”
“No.”
“Thea—”
“You said we were protecting her.”
“We are.”
“Using a traumatized six-year-old as bait is not protection.”
His expression hardened.
“I wasn't planning to frighten her.”
“She'll know.”
“We need Vale to believe Sophie remembers nothing.”
“Then show him a recording.”
He paused.
“A recording.”
“Have her drawing. Laughing. Normal. Let him think she's fine and isn't talking.”
Lachlan studied her.
“That might work.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I am reconsidering several hiring practices.”
“Don't hire me.”
“I already married you.”
She looked at him.
“That was your first mistake.”
“Probably.”
Again, almost a smile.
Thea turned toward the window.
The estate looked peaceful at night.
Lights glowed across manicured lawns.
Fountains moved silently.
Beyond the walls, security cars patrolled.
“Did Elena know your grandfather chose you over Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Did she support you?”
“She supported neither of us.”
Thea laughed.
“What did she want?”
“For the company to be broken apart.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
“She thought too much power had accumulated in one family.”
“Smart woman.”
“You really do like her.”
“Yes.”
Lachlan walked to a cabinet.
Inside was a box.
He opened it.
Photographs.
Dozens.
Elena at college.
Elena holding newborn Sophie.
Elena laughing beside a younger Lachlan.
Thea noticed how different he looked.
Not physically.
Open.
Unarmored.
“You were happy.”
“I was younger.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
She picked up one photograph.
Elena stood at the Voss lake house.
Beside her was Graham Vale.
And Julian.
Thea's pulse accelerated.
“When was this taken?”
“Five years ago.”
She turned it over.
A date.
Two years before Elena died.
“Who took it?”
“My grandfather.”
“Look.”
“What?”
Thea pointed at Graham's shoes.
Brown leather.
On the heel, barely visible, a silver bird.
Lachlan's face tightened.
“Sophie remembered correctly.”
“Yes.”
Then Thea noticed something else.
Julian's hand rested on Elena's shoulder.
A ring gleamed on his finger.
The Voss signet.
“His ring wasn't always being repaired.”
“No.”
“Could Sophie have mistaken Julian for Vale at the lake house?”
“She identified Vale's face.”
“But she said a man yelled at Elena. Maybe there were two men.”
Lachlan took the photograph.
“Possible.”
Thea searched through others.
Another photograph fell onto the floor.
She picked it up.
It was taken at a charity dinner.
Elena.
Vale.
Julian.
Astrid.
And a man Thea didn't recognize.
“Who's that?”
Lachlan looked.
His expression changed instantly.
“Adrian Shaw.”
“The eye surgeon?”
“Yes.”
“What is he doing with your family?”
“I don't know.”
Thea turned the photograph over.
The date was eight months before the crash.
A handwritten note covered the back.
To Elena—thank you for believing some things are worth seeing clearly. A.S.
Thea looked up.
“Your sister knew your surgeon.”
Lachlan was silent.
“You told me Adrian entered your life after the accident.”
“He did.”
“No secrets, remember?”
“I had never seen this photograph.”
She believed him.
That was the dangerous part.
Against every reasonable instinct, she believed him.
Lachlan picked up his phone.
“I need to call Adrian.”
The line rang.
Once.
Twice.
Five times.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Marcus called Adrian's apartment building.
The doorman hadn't seen him since the previous evening.
Lachlan contacted the clinic.
Adrian had missed every appointment that day.
Then Marcus found the final piece.
Dr. Adrian Shaw's car was still parked beneath his office.
His wallet was inside.
His phone lay under the driver's seat.
And on the windshield someone had drawn a single symbol in the dust.
A bird.
The same tiny bird stamped into Graham Vale's shoes.
By midnight, the police officially considered Adrian Shaw missing.
And Thea understood something Lachlan had not.
The enemy was no longer warning them.
They were removing witnesses.
One by one.
Tomorrow morning, Graham Vale would sit across from them at the Voss Meridian board table.
May you like
And he had no idea that the blind CEO's young bride knew exactly what shoes to look at.
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