Chapter 5 - The Truth About Dorian’s Father
Dorian had spent twenty-two years believing his father abandoned them.
His name was Adrian Frost.
He had vanished when Dorian was nineteen.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Margaret never spoke about him.
Dorian turned anger into ambition.
He built Frost Group from a small property business into an empire.
Every building became another answer to the father who had disappeared.
Now Margaret sat before him and said:
“He didn't leave us.”
Dorian stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“He was protecting us.”
Margaret explained.
Adrian had discovered Victor's network first.
He planned to expose it.
Victor learned what he intended to do.
Threats followed.
Then Margaret became a target.
So Adrian disappeared deliberately, allowing Victor to believe he had fled with part of the evidence.
“Where did he go?” Dorian asked.
Margaret's eyes filled.
“I don't know.”
“You never knew?”
“He said knowing would put you in danger.”
Dorian stood and walked toward the window.
Addie recognized that posture.
It was what people did when grief became too large to display.
“Is he alive?” he asked.
Margaret couldn't answer.
Eleanor's recording contained the next clue.
There was a final file hidden in its memory.
Adrian's voice.
Dorian pressed play.
Son, if you ever hear this, then Margaret finally decided you deserved the truth.
Dorian closed his eyes.
I did not leave because I stopped loving you.
Silence filled the room.
I left because Victor had already threatened your mother, and I knew you would become his next weapon against me.
Dorian's hands tightened.
I thought I could end it quickly.
The recording crackled.
I was wrong.
Adrian described gathering evidence with Eleanor.
Eleanor had protected Margaret.
Margaret had protected Addie.
Everyone had spent years protecting someone else.
But secrecy had consequences.
Victor survived.
His network survived.
And eventually, it returned.
Adrian's recording ended with an address in Wisconsin.
Dorian went there the next morning.
Addie accompanied him.
The house was small.
Nothing like the Frost properties.
An elderly man opened the door.
Dorian stopped.
The man's hair was white.
His body had weakened with age.
But the eyes were the same.
“Dorian.”
Dorian could not speak.
Adrian Frost looked at his son for the first time in twenty-two years.
“I wondered if you'd ever find me.”
Dorian's voice was rough.
“You could have come back.”
“I know.”
“My mother spent twenty-two years believing silence was protecting me.”
“I know.”
“You missed my entire life.”
“I know.”
Anger finally broke through Dorian's control.
“Stop saying you know.”
Adrian lowered his eyes.
Dorian's breathing was heavy.
Then he asked the question that mattered.
“Was it worth it?”
Adrian looked at him.
“No.”
The answer disarmed him.
“I thought I was being brave,” Adrian continued. “I was afraid. There is a difference.”
He explained that Victor's operation had weakened but never disappeared.
Bianca was one of many compromised employees.
Adrian had been gathering evidence quietly for years.
Enough evidence now existed to expose the entire network.
But Victor needed one final thing.
Eleanor's recording.
Without it, he could still deny how the network began.
Addie removed the recorder from her bag.
Adrian stared at it.
“You found it.”
“My mother left it.”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“Eleanor was braver than all of us.”
Dorian looked toward Addie.
He knew that already.
The plan became simple.
Give Victor what he wanted.
But not privately.
Dorian contacted federal investigators through his attorneys.
Bianca agreed to cooperate.
Adrian provided records.
Margaret provided testimony when lucid and comfortable enough to do so.
And Addie?
Addie became the person Victor underestimated.
Again.
Victor contacted her two nights later.
“Bring the recording to the Ashford Grand.”
“Why there?”
“Because that's where this ends.”
The lobby was filled with guests when Addie arrived.
Bianca stood behind the front desk.
Dorian remained out of sight.
Victor entered wearing a charcoal suit.
He looked ordinary.
That surprised Addie.
She had expected evil to announce itself.
Instead, Victor looked like a man who might politely hold an elevator.
“You're Eleanor's daughter.”
“Yes.”
“She caused me considerable trouble.”
“She had good judgment.”
Victor smiled.
“You have her mouth.”
“And her recording.”
His eyes dropped toward her bag.
“Give it to me.”
“First tell me why Margaret disappeared.”
Victor sighed.
“She was supposed to be moved somewhere comfortable. Bianca panicked.”
Bianca stiffened.
“You left her in an alley.”
Victor looked toward her.
“You were paid to follow instructions.”
“No,” Bianca said.
For the first time, she stood straight without pretending to be more important than anyone else.
“I was paid to betray people.”
Victor's expression changed.
Bianca continued.
“And I'm done.”
Victor looked around.
He finally understood.
Too late.
Investigators entered through the main doors.
Others emerged from the service corridor.
Victor stepped backward.
Dorian appeared.
The two men faced each other across the marble floor.
Victor smiled bitterly.
“Dorian Frost.”
“Victor.”
“You built quite an empire.”
“And you spent twenty years hiding inside other people's lives.”
Victor's gaze shifted toward Addie.
“She isn't worth this.”
Dorian's expression hardened.
“That sentence is why you lost.”
Victor frowned.
“You spent your life deciding who mattered.”
Dorian looked toward Addie.
“She didn't.”
Addie understood.
She hadn't known Margaret was wealthy.
She hadn't known Dorian was powerful.
She helped because Margaret needed help.
Victor had never understood people who acted without calculating value.
Investigators approached.
Victor did not resist.
As he was escorted away, he turned toward Dorian.
“You think this fixes your family?”
Dorian said nothing.
Victor smiled.
“Ask your father what else he's hiding.”
Dorian's expression changed.
Adrian, standing near the elevators, went pale.
Dorian turned.
“What does he mean?”
Adrian stared at the floor.
“Dad.”
There was no answer.
“What's he talking about?”
Adrian finally looked up.
“There is one more thing.”
Dorian stepped closer.
“What?”
Adrian's gaze moved toward Addie.
“It concerns Eleanor.”
Addie's stomach tightened.
“What about my mother?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Her hospital debt should never have existed.”
Addie froze.
“What?”
“Because I paid it.”
Her heart stopped.
“No.”
“I paid every dollar three years ago.”
Addie stared at him.
“Then why do I still owe forty-one thousand dollars?”
May you like
Nobody answered.
And somewhere inside the Ashford Grand, a second crime was waiting to be discovered.
