Chapter 13 - Six Days Before Goodbye
Adrian pressed play.
For a second there was only the soft mechanical hum of Nora's oxygen machine. Then her voice, thin but steady, filled the room.
"Why did you tell Adrian his mother died?"
Preston answered without hesitation. "Because she would've poisoned him against me."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting. Leave the old history alone, Nora. You need your strength."
Nora coughed. "I know about the relief money. The transfers have Owen's company name on them."
A chair scraped across the floor.
"If you put this in front of Adrian," Preston said, "you'll break the only family he has left."
"He has a mother."
"Not one he'll thank you for bringing back."
The recording ended there.
Adrian played it a second time, not because he doubted the words but because he wanted to hear Nora's courage once more.
"She knew," he said.
Tessa nodded. "And she was trying to give you the chance to know too."
Downstairs, Ivy called, "Daddy? Grandma says you forgot dinner."
For once, Ivy's voice reminded him why he had to keep living, not what he'd lost.
He sent the original file to Tessa with a written account of where it had been found. Then he joined Lena and Ivy at the kitchen table.
"What did you find?" Lena asked.
"Proof that Nora believed you. And proof my father knew you were alive."
Lena closed her eyes.
Ivy pushed a plate toward him. "Grandma burned the toast a little."
"I like it that way," Adrian said.
"You always did," Lena whispered.
An alert flashed across Miles's phone. The emergency demolition pause was still active, but a company vehicle had entered Ash Street's rear service yard with its tracking signal turned off.
May you like
Miles showed Adrian the camera image.
A man in a hard hat was rolling a heavy cutting torch toward the locked basement door.
