Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Wanted Everything
Adrian confronted Evan at Cole Tower.
Not privately.
During the board meeting.
Twelve directors watched as Adrian rolled into the room and dropped the garage records onto the table.
Evan's smile disappeared.
“Explain.”
Evan looked around.
“Not here.”
“Here is perfect.”
The directors exchanged uneasy glances.
Evan admitted being in the garage.
But he denied touching the car.
He claimed he had gone there to retrieve documents.
“Seventeen minutes?” Adrian asked.
“I made a phone call.”
“To Marcus?”
Evan's face changed.
That was enough.
Adrian ordered an emergency audit of Hudson Crown.
Evan stood.
“You can't do that.”
“I just did.”
“You haven't actively managed operations in two years.”
Adrian's voice became quiet.
“Don't mistake a wheelchair for retirement.”
The room went silent.
Evan left furious.
Three hours later, Adrian received another shock.
Naomi had found the call.
Evan had contacted Marcus from the garage.
But their conversation lasted only forty-three seconds.
Immediately afterward, Marcus called a number belonging to Samuel Crane, Cole Enterprises' former head of security.
Crane disappeared six months after Adrian's crash.
The pieces were forming.
But not cleanly.
Evan was involved.
Marcus was involved.
Crane was involved.
The question was how.
Then Adrian's rehabilitation took a sudden leap forward.
With braces and parallel bars, he took one step.
His right foot moved.
His knee held.
His left followed less successfully.
Adrian gasped.
Rebecca stood nearby.
“Again.”
He did.
One step.
Then another.
He collapsed into the therapist's arms.
Hannah was crying.
Adrian laughed.
Actually laughed.
“Don't cry.”
“I'm not.”
“You're terrible at lying.”
She hugged him.
For several seconds, Adrian forgot conspiracies.
Money.
Family.
He simply held her.
That evening he told Hannah something nobody else knew.
The night of the crash, he hadn't been driving home.
He had been going to meet someone.
His father had left behind a safe-deposit key.
Adrian had discovered it that afternoon inside an old desk.
A note instructed him to meet a retired accountant named Peter Lang.
Peter claimed he had evidence concerning Hudson Crown.
Adrian never reached him.
“What happened to Peter?”
“He disappeared.”
Hannah looked disturbed.
“Then the crash wasn't only about getting control of the company.”
“No.”
“Someone was stopping you from reaching him.”
Naomi began searching.
Peter Lang had not disappeared voluntarily.
He had entered a private assisted-living facility under another name.
The bills were paid through a foundation.
Vale Medical Foundation.
Marcus again.
They drove there the next morning.
Peter Lang was seventy-eight and suffering from early dementia.
But when Adrian entered his room, Peter recognized him.
“Richard's boy.”
Adrian sat beside the bed.
“Did you arrange to meet me two years ago?”
Peter began shaking.
“They found out.”
“Who?”
“The doctor.”
“Marcus?”
Peter nodded.
“And the other one.”
“Evan?”
Peter looked confused.
“No.”
“Who?”
Peter grabbed Adrian's wrist.
“The woman.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
“What woman?”
Peter whispered one name.
“Grace.”
Adrian pulled away.
“My mother?”
Peter nodded.
“She knew everything.”
Before Adrian could ask another question, alarms began sounding in the hallway.
Smoke.
Someone had started a fire in the facility kitchen.
Hannah ran to the door.
Staff shouted.
Sprinklers activated.
Adrian looked back at Peter.
The old man was terrified.
“We have to move him.”
Adrian's wheelchair was blocked by a fallen equipment cart.
Smoke entered the corridor.
Hannah tried moving it.
It wouldn't budge.
Adrian looked at Peter.
Then at the doorway.
Then at his own legs.
“Help me stand.”
Hannah stared at him.
“Adrian—”
“Help me.”
She put his arm around her shoulders.
He pushed.
Pain tore through him.
His knees shook violently.
But he stood.
One step.
Then another.
Half dragging himself.
Half leaning on Hannah.
He reached Peter's wheelchair.
Together they moved toward the emergency exit.
By the time firefighters reached them, Adrian was barely conscious.
But he had walked nearly twenty feet.
Later, lying in the ambulance, he looked at Hannah.
“I walked.”
She laughed through tears.
“You picked a terrible place to practice.”
He smiled.
Then Naomi approached.
Her expression killed the moment.
“The fire wasn't accidental.”
Adrian's smile disappeared.
“And Peter?”
“Safe.”
“What did you find?”
Naomi held up a small recorder Peter had hidden beneath his mattress.
“He recorded a conversation before your accident.”
“With whom?”
May you like
Naomi looked at him.
“Your mother and Marcus Vale.”
