Chapter 6 - The Foundation Account
At 1:08 a.m., Adrian walked into the hospital coffee shop with a dead phone battery, a borrowed charger, and the certainty that his life had been built around lies.
He called Marcus Webb, the Cole family's longtime accountant. Marcus answered on the fourth ring.
“Adrian? Do you know what time it is?”
“Tell me about an eighteen-thousand-dollar payment to Vanessa Hale.”
A pause. “I can't discuss client records over the phone.”
“It's my family's foundation.”
“Your mother is the administrator.”
“And my father is the trustee. Did he approve it?”
“I don't know.”
Marcus had worked for his father for twenty years. He never said I don't know unless the truth was dangerous.
“Meet me in the morning,” Adrian said.
“I'll see what I can do.”
The call ended. Adrian phoned his father's nurse, Mrs. Larkin, and asked if Robert could speak. She sounded relieved to hear him.
“Your father has been asking for you for days,” she said. “Mrs. Cole said you were out of the country.”
“I haven't left Chicago.”
Mrs. Larkin exhaled slowly. “Then perhaps you should come before breakfast.”
Adrian asked her to keep the conversation private. She agreed, but only after saying, “I was going to resign tomorrow. I can't stand watching him treated like this.”
When Adrian returned upstairs, Nora was out of immediate danger. Dr. Flores had ordered continued monitoring and rest. She could stay pregnant for now, but the next forty-eight hours mattered.
Nora was awake when he entered. “You look terrible.”
“So do you.”
She managed a weak smile. For a moment they were simply two exhausted parents who had once known how to make each other laugh.
“I found a payment to Vanessa,” he said. “And something about Dad.”
Nora's smile vanished. “There's a reason I didn't want Patricia near Lily.”
“Tell me.”
“Lily heard your mother tell Vanessa that your father was getting better too fast.”
Adrian stared at her. “When?”
“Last month. Lily thought they were talking about a surprise party.”
A nurse checked Nora's IV. In the brief silence, Adrian remembered his father's trembling hand, the days he'd been too tired to visit, the excuses Patricia always had ready.
His phone vibrated with a photo from Mrs. Larkin: Robert's medication box, one compartment containing a pill with no label.
May you like
Beneath it she wrote: I JUST FOUND THESE HIDDEN IN HIS NIGHTSTAND.
