Chapter 3 - The Man Who Came to Finish the Lie
Victor Marino entered my home smiling.
That was his first mistake.
His second was assuming I still believed he was family.
He walked through the main hall wearing a charcoal suit, silver tie, and the expression of a concerned uncle arriving during a family emergency.
Behind him came two men I recognized from his security team.
My guards stopped them at the inner doors.
Victor raised both hands.
“Easy.”
Marcus searched him.
Victor looked amused.
“Is this necessary?”
“Yes,” I said.
His smile disappeared when he saw me.
I had positioned my wheelchair in the center of the winter garden.
Lily and Ethan were upstairs with Maria.
Evelyn was testing my blood sample in a portable diagnostic unit she had brought from her clinic.
Nobody else needed to hear what came next.
Victor approached.
“I heard something happened.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“That everyone keeps hearing things from a house where my staff knows how to keep their mouths shut.”
He sighed.
“Caleb.”
“Who told you?”
“No one specific.”
“Then leave.”
His jaw tightened.
“I came because I'm worried about you.”
“For eight years you've been worried about me.”
“I am your uncle.”
“You're also a terrible liar.”
His expression changed.
Just enough.
I reached inside my jacket.
Marcus shifted subtly behind him.
I pulled out Audrey's photograph.
Victor saw it.
The color drained from his face.
There.
Truth.
Not proof.
But truth.
“Where did you get that?”
“Why?”
“No reason.”
“You recognize it?”
“No.”
“You just asked where I got it.”
Victor stared at me.
For decades, our family survived because we knew how to read men.
Victor had taught me that.
Ironically, he'd taught me too well.
“What do you want, Caleb?”
“The truth.”
“About?”
“Audrey.”
His expression closed.
“You're grieving again.”
“Eight years late?”
“Pain doesn't use a calendar.”
Neither did murder.
I turned the photograph over.
I didn't show him Audrey's message.
Not yet.
“Dr. Hayes is in this photograph.”
Victor shrugged.
“He was your doctor.”
“And you.”
His eyes flickered toward the mirror image.
“Could be anyone.”
“It isn't.”
He stepped closer.
Marcus blocked him.
Victor looked irritated.
“What is this?”
“Sit.”
“I prefer standing.”
“I wasn't asking.”
For a moment, the old Victor appeared.
Proud.
Dangerous.
Then he sat.
“Dr. Hayes has been giving me neuromuscular suppressants.”
Silence.
Victor's eyes remained steady.
Too steady.
“According to whom?”
“Dr. Carter.”
He scoffed.
“That woman again?”
“You remember her?”
“Of course.”
“Interesting. You weren't involved in my medical appointments.”
“I was running half your life while you were recovering.”
“That includes firing doctors?”
His face hardened.
“I protected you.”
“From walking?”
The words hit.
Victor looked away.
Only for half a second.
I saw it.
“So you knew.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
“Caleb—”
“My foot moved today.”
His eyes snapped back toward me.
Pure fear.
There it was.
Not joy.
Not disbelief.
Fear.
I leaned forward.
“You don't look surprised.”
Victor said nothing.
“Why aren't you surprised?”
He stood.
“This conversation is over.”
Marcus drew his weapon.
Victor froze.
“Nobody leaves.”
He looked at my bodyguard.
“Marcus, think carefully.”
Marcus didn't blink.
“I am.”
Victor turned back toward me.
“You're making accusations based on the paranoia of a dead woman.”
I don't remember deciding to move.
I only remember my fist connecting with his mouth.
The wheelchair rolled backward slightly from the force.
Victor stumbled.
Blood appeared on his lip.
Marcus grabbed his shoulder.
Victor wiped his mouth.
Then he laughed.
A dark, humorless laugh.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“My nephew.”
I hated the affection in his voice.
“You always were better angry.”
“What happened that night?”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Maria heard you and Hayes.”
His expression changed.
“Maria?”
“She survived.”
That landed harder than my punch.
“You thought she was dead.”
Victor said nothing.
I understood.
“Who ordered her taken?”
He looked toward the guards.
“I need a lawyer.”
“You need better answers.”
“Caleb.”
“What happened to Audrey?”
He finally exploded.
“I DIDN'T KILL HER!”
The words echoed through the glass dome.
Silence followed.
Victor realized what he had done.
I spoke quietly.
“I never said you did.”
His shoulders fell.
For the first time, he looked old.
“Tell me.”
He turned away.
“No.”
“Tell me.”
“You don't want this truth.”
“I've lived eight years inside a lie.”
He looked back.
“And what if the lie was keeping you alive?”
I felt something cold move through my chest.
“Explain.”
Victor sat again.
He rubbed his hands over his face.
“Your father left you everything.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the public will.”
I stared.
“There was another condition.”
“What condition?”
“If you became permanently incapacitated, controlling authority transferred to the family trustee.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
Of course.
“Money.”
Victor shook his head.
“It started that way.”
“Started?”
“Our shipping operation was expanding. You wanted to cut ties with several people.”
“What people?”
“People your father had deals with.”
“I knew about those.”
“You knew some.”
The room seemed smaller.
“There were contracts hidden through shell corporations. Arms shipments. Counterfeit medicine. Human cargo.”
My stomach turned.
“I never authorized that.”
“I know.”
“You did?”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Rage surged through me.
“You used my company.”
“Our company.”
“My father left it to me.”
“And I spent thirty years building it!”
“So you poisoned me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Victor looked toward the glass ceiling.
“Hayes suggested something.”
My hands clenched.
“What?”
“A temporary medical event.”
“Temporary?”
“You were supposed to be sick for six months. Maybe a year. Long enough for me to control the board and protect the contracts.”
“You drugged me.”
“I signed off on medication. Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“And the crash?”
Victor's eyes filled with something I had never seen there before.
Shame.
“That wasn't supposed to happen.”
“Audrey found out.”
“Yes.”
“She confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“The night she died.”
He nodded.
“We argued at the charity dinner. She said she had evidence. She threatened to go to federal investigators.”
“What did you do?”
“I called Hayes.”
“And?”
“He panicked.”
My voice became almost inaudible.
“What did Hayes do?”
Victor stared at the marble floor.
“He altered your medication before you left.”
“Why?”
“To make you disoriented. He thought if you appeared unstable, we could discredit anything Audrey told authorities.”
I remembered driving.
Rain.
Audrey shouting something.
Headlights.
My vision blurring.
My hands heavy.
Then—
Metal.
Glass.
Her screaming my name.
I couldn't breathe.
“You drugged me before I drove?”
“I didn't know he would do that.”
“You knew enough.”
Victor's eyes reddened.
“I followed you.”
“What?”
“I realized something was wrong. I followed your car.”
Memories exploded.
A second vehicle behind us.
Headlights.
Always behind.
I had thought—
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You saw the crash.”
“Yes.”
“You left us.”
“No!”
Victor stood.
“I pulled you out.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“What?”
“You were unconscious. Audrey was trapped.”
My heart hammered.
“You pulled me out?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did the police report say paramedics did?”
“Hayes changed it.”
My mind raced.
“What about Audrey?”
Victor's face collapsed.
“She was conscious.”
I gripped the wheelchair.
“She was alive?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Victor looked away.
“How long?”
“Twenty minutes.”
The room swayed.
Twenty minutes.
Audrey had been alive.
“What did she say?”
Victor began crying.
I had never seen him cry.
“She kept telling me to save you.”
My throat closed.
“She knew what we'd done. She knew I helped drug you. And she still told me to save you.”
I couldn't speak.
“When the fire started, I tried to reach her.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“The fuel caught. Police arrived. I couldn't—”
I looked away.
I wanted to kill him.
But something didn't fit.
“If you felt guilty, why continue drugging me?”
His expression hardened again.
“Because Hayes told me there was no going back.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said once your body adapted to the medication, stopping suddenly might kill you.”
“Was that true?”
“I don't know.”
“You never checked?”
“I trusted him.”
The irony almost made me laugh.
Victor reached inside his jacket.
Marcus aimed immediately.
“Slow.”
Victor removed a folded paper.
“I came today because Hayes called me.”
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
“What did he say?”
Victor handed me the paper.
An address.
Industrial district.
Warehouse 17.
“He told me to bring you there tonight.”
“Why?”
“He said if your foot had started moving, we had a serious problem.”
I looked up.
“We?”
Victor shook his head.
“He still thinks I'm with him.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn't.”
For once, that sounded true.
Then Evelyn entered.
Her face was pale.
“Caleb.”
“What?”
“I finished the first blood analysis.”
She looked at Victor.
Then at me.
“You need to hear this alone.”
Victor stood.
“No.”
“Marcus.”
My guard escorted him toward the side room.
Before leaving, Victor turned.
“Caleb.”
I looked at him.
“Do not go to that warehouse.”
“Why?”
His answer came quietly.
“Because Hayes isn't trying to keep you paralyzed anymore.”
The doors closed behind him.
Evelyn placed a report on my lap.
“What did you find?”
“Three compounds.”
“Suppression drugs?”
“Yes. But there's something else.”
“What?”
“A compound designed to gradually damage peripheral nerve tissue.”
My stomach tightened.
“So?”
“So whoever adjusted your medication recently wasn't trying to keep your condition stable.”
She swallowed.
“They were trying to make the paralysis permanent.”
I thought of Hayes.
Then something worse occurred to me.
“When was the dosage changed?”
Evelyn checked the data.
“Based on blood concentration? Probably within the last month.”
My pulse accelerated.
A month.
Maria had begun investigating six weeks earlier.
Someone had realized the old lie was becoming dangerous.
“Can the damage be reversed?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“We have to stop the drugs and begin treatment immediately.”
“Will I walk?”
She looked at me.
“I don't know.”
The words no longer crushed me.
Because today, my foot had moved.
Hope had already returned.
And now it was angry.
Marcus came back.
“Sir, we have another problem.”
“What?”
“Lily is missing.”
Everything inside me froze.
“What?”
“Ethan says she went downstairs five minutes ago.”
“Search the house.”
“We are.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A little girl's frightened voice whispered:
“Mister Caleb?”
“Lily.”
My chest tightened.
“Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Who's with you?”
Silence.
Then a man's voice replaced hers.
Dr. Hayes.
“Good evening, Caleb.”
My blood went cold.
“You touch her and—”
“She isn't the one I'm interested in.”
“Then release her.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When you come to Warehouse 17.”
I looked toward Victor's note.
Hayes continued.
“And Caleb?”
“What?”
“Come alone.”
The line went dead.
Marcus stared at me.
I lowered the phone.
Eight years ago, Dr. Hayes had taken my ability to walk.
Now he had taken Lily.
He had made one mistake.
My legs might still be weak.
But there was nothing wrong with the rest of me.
May you like
And for the first time in eight years, the Harbor King was going hunting.
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