Chapter 13 - The Sins of Adrian’s Father
Adrian opened the letter with a knife from the greenhouse bench.
His father’s handwriting filled four pages.
Evelyn turned away as he read.
Twenty-two years earlier, Daniel Vale had helped Victor Moretti hide money from a federal racketeering investigation. Not because they were friends. Because Victor had evidence Daniel ordered an arson attack against a competing warehouse.
The fire killed a night guard.
Adrian stopped reading.
“My father told me that fire was electrical.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled. “He lied.”
Adrian looked sick.
Elena understood that expression. It was the same feeling she had experienced in the basement: discovering your childhood had been built with locked doors.
The letter continued.
Daniel eventually tried to expose Victor. Before he could, he died in what police called a highway accident.
Evelyn never believed it was an accident.
“Why did you keep this?” Adrian asked.
“Your father made me promise to give it to you if Victor ever came near your life again.”
“He married his daughter to me. That wasn’t close enough?”
“I was afraid.”
Adrian’s laugh contained no humor. “Of Victor?”
“Of what you would become if you learned the truth.”
That answer hurt him.
Elena stepped closer—not touching, only near enough that he noticed.
“What about my credential?” she asked Evelyn.
The older woman looked ashamed. “Victor said Elena would be killed during the wedding if I did not create it. He said he only needed one door opened.”
“You believed him?” Adrian asked.
“No. But I believed he could kill her.”
“So you helped him enter my security system.”
“I created the credential. I never gave him the code.”
“Then who used it?”
Evelyn shook her head.
Mara took the letter into evidence. The old arson case, she said, could explain Bell’s involvement if the property history intersected with current redevelopment deals.
Then a federal analyst called.
They had recovered part of the deleted warehouse server.
One file contained audio.
Victor Moretti and Alderman Bell were speaking.
Victor: “Vale won’t sell.”
Bell: “Then remove him.”
Victor: “And Elena?”
A pause.
Bell answered, “If she survives the marriage, she becomes a witness.”
Then a third voice entered the recording.
A voice Adrian recognized.
May you like
His younger half-brother, Julian Vale.
“Don’t worry,” Julian said. “I can get inside the house.”
