Chapter 5 - TWELVE YEARS OF LIES
Grace stopped breathing.
Then she screamed Lily’s name.
Adrian reached the kitchen seconds later.
The back service door stood open.
Wind pushed dead leaves across the stone floor.
Gabriel checked the guard’s pulse.
“Alive.”
Grace ran toward the door.
Adrian caught her.
“Let me go!”
“You run outside blind, you help him.”
“He has my daughter!”
“I know.”
“You don’t know anything!”
Her hand struck his chest.
Once.
Twice.
Adrian let her.
“He watched me for years!”
“I know.”
“He knew Daniel died!”
“I know.”
“He hired me into this house!”
“I know.”
“He touched my child!”
That silenced him.
Grace’s face collapsed.
Adrian held her shoulders.
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
“Grace.”
Her eyes lifted.
“I will bring Lily back.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“How?”
His voice became lethal.
“Because Marcus still wants something from you.”
She stared.
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“He won’t hurt her until he knows whether you have it.”
Grace pulled away.
“You hope.”
“No.”
Adrian looked toward the caramel on the floor.
“I know Marcus.”
Grace laughed through tears.
“So did you this morning.”
The words cut.
Adrian accepted them.
“You’re right.”
Silence.
“Then stop trusting what you think he’ll do,” she said. “Start thinking about what Daniel would have done.”
That changed the direction of the search.
They did not go to Grace’s apartment.
They brought photographs of every object inside it.
Grace studied them.
Daniel’s old jacket.
His books.
The recipe box.
Lily’s toys.
A framed wedding picture.
Nothing.
Then Grace pointed.
“The music box.”
Gabriel enlarged the image.
A cheap wooden carousel sat on Lily’s dresser.
“My husband bought it the week before he died.”
“What’s special about it?”
“It stopped playing years ago.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Why keep it?”
“Lily likes watching it spin.”
“You said Daniel made a false bottom in the recipe box.”
Grace nodded.
“He loved hiding things.”
“Could the music box open?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel sent a team.
Ten minutes later, they video-called.
A guard held the music box.
He removed the base.
Inside was nothing.
Grace’s hope vanished.
Then the guard frowned.
“There’s a second panel.”
He pried it loose.
A small key fell out.
And a handwritten note.
Grace recognized Daniel’s writing immediately.
G—
If I don’t come home, the truth is where we first met.
I love you.
D.
Grace stared.
“Where did you meet?”
Adrian asked.
She already knew.
“Union Station.”
Chicago.
Twelve years earlier, Grace had been twenty-three, carrying a box of accounting textbooks after evening classes.
Daniel walked directly into her.
The books fell.
He bought her coffee.
Three years later they were married.
“What exactly at Union Station?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you have a place?”
She thought.
“The old luggage lockers.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Those were removed years ago.”
“Not all.”
Adrian looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“My father used one during negotiations.”
Grace suddenly remembered.
Daniel loved puzzles.
On their first anniversary, he had taken her back to the station and placed a letter inside Locker 214.
“The key,” she whispered.
“What?”
“The key from the music box.”
The guard held it closer to camera.
Stamped metal.
214.
Adrian stood.
“Chicago.”
Grace stared.
“That’s what Marcus wants.”
“Yes.”
“He thinks Daniel hid the ledger there.”
“Yes.”
“And he has Lily.”
“Yes.”
She grabbed her coat.
“This time I’m coming.”
Adrian did not argue.
The private plane reached Chicago before midnight.
No police.
Not yet.
Adrian knew Marcus would monitor law-enforcement channels.
Instead, Gabriel coordinated with two retired federal investigators Adrian’s father had once trusted.
Grace sat across from Adrian on the jet.
She had not spoken for forty minutes.
Finally she asked:
“Why would Marcus hire me?”
Adrian looked at her.
“To watch you.”
“For six years?”
“He probably believed Daniel had hidden something with you.”
“Why not just search my home?”
“He likely did.”
Grace’s face changed.
Adrian continued.
“If he didn’t find it, keeping you close was easier.”
She closed her eyes.
Every Christmas bonus.
Every polite greeting.
Every time Marcus had asked how Lily was doing.
All of it became ugly.
“He knew I was Daniel’s wife the first day?”
“Yes.”
Grace whispered, “I thanked him for getting me the job.”
Adrian said nothing.
“He told me his mother had been raised by a housekeeper. He said people deserved chances.”
Her laugh cracked.
“He was checking whether I knew.”
“Yes.”
Grace looked out the window.
“Why did your father trust Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should.”
“I intend to.”
She turned.
“You really didn’t know?”
“No.”
“About any of it?”
“No.”
Grace studied him for a long time.
“I believe you.”
Adrian almost looked surprised.
“But?”
“You benefited from the lies.”
There it was.
The truth no one around him usually said aloud.
“Yes.”
“You built your reputation on the war Marcus created.”
“Yes.”
“You killed people because you believed the DeLucas killed your father.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Yes.”
“And what happens if you get Lily back and Marcus goes to prison?”
He did not answer.
Grace continued.
“Do you go back to being the same man with better information?”
The question followed him all the way to Chicago.
At 1:16 a.m., they entered Union Station through a service entrance.
Most of the old lockers had been removed during renovation.
But a preservation corridor held several original brass units behind decorative paneling.
Locker 214 remained.
Grace inserted the key.
Her hand trembled.
Adrian stood beside her.
“Open it.”
She did.
Inside was a brown envelope.
Nothing else.
Grace pulled it out.
On the front:
FOR SEBASTIAN CROSS OR VINCENT DELUCA.
IF BOTH ARE DEAD, GIVE THIS TO SOMEONE WHO STILL HAS A CONSCIENCE.
Adrian almost smiled despite everything.
“Daniel sounds difficult.”
Grace laughed once through her fear.
“He was.”
Inside was a flash drive.
And a ledger.
Black leather.
Adrian stared.
Twelve years.
Marcus had spent twelve years searching for this.
Grace opened it.
Payments.
Dates.
Weapons purchases.
Fake attacks.
Cross money transferred to anonymous crews.
DeLuca money stolen through shell companies.
And one page dated November 14.
9:00 PM — S. CROSS / CARTER MEETING.
10:10 PM — REMOVE BOTH.
Grace stopped.
Her fingers went numb.
Below it:
USE DELUCA VEHICLE.
M.H.
Marcus Hale.
Written in his own hand.
Grace closed the ledger.
“Now we call him.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
“He has Lily.”
“Yes.”
“So call him.”
“He’s waiting for us to find this.”
Grace stared.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian looked around the nearly empty station.
“It means he knows where Daniel hid it.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He knew enough to take Lily tonight.”
Adrian scanned the upper balcony.
Then he saw movement.
A red dot appeared on Grace’s coat.
Sniper laser.
Adrian tackled her behind the lockers.
Glass shattered.
Gunfire cracked through Union Station.
Gabriel returned fire from the corridor.
Grace covered her head.
“Lily!”
Adrian pulled her lower.
“That wasn’t Marcus.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Marcus still needs the ledger intact.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Marcus’s voice.
“Now you understand.”
Adrian looked up.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
Grace grabbed the phone.
“Let me hear her.”
A pause.
Then a tiny voice.
“Mommy?”
Grace broke.
“Lily!”
“Mommy, the nice man says you’re coming.”
Grace’s entire body shook.
“I am. Baby, I am.”
Marcus took the phone back.
“Bring the ledger to Hawthorne Steel. Old South Yard. Dawn.”
Adrian said, “Marcus—”
“Grace comes alone.”
“No.”
“If I see one Cross soldier, Lily dies.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Marcus continued.
“And Adrian?”
“Yes?”
“You always wondered what your father said before he died.”
Adrian froze.
Marcus’s voice softened.
“He said your name.”
May you like
Then the line went dead.
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