Chapter 12: Divide and Conquer
The second charge detonated twelve minutes later.
It destroyed a records room on the twenty-first floor.
No one was inside.
The third device failed.
Bomb technicians found it near the foundation core.
Had it exploded, the damage might have brought down the entire western section.
Eleanor had built redundancy into her plan.
Just as she had built redundancy into every crime.
Adrian suffered a fractured shoulder and smoke inhalation.
Police arrested him from his hospital bed for violating the restraining order and conspiring to endanger the tower.
He insisted that he had saved my life.
Perhaps he had.
That did not erase the plate.
It did not erase the marriage file.
It did not erase Lydia.
A single decent act did not transform an abusive man into a hero.
Federal prosecutors offered Adrian a cooperation agreement.
He refused unless they promised to protect Eleanor.
When they refused, he asked to speak with me.
I visited him only because Reyes believed he had information about Julian.
Adrian was handcuffed to the hospital bed.
For the first time since I had known him, he looked small.
“You came,” he said.
“Where is Julian?”
“I do not know.”
“Then this meeting is over.”
“My mother will kill him.”
“She may already have.”
Adrian looked toward the window.
“Julian kept records.”
“He always believed Father would sacrifice him first.”
“Where?”
“I do not know the exact location.”
“Then tell the prosecutors everything else.”
“You want my family destroyed.”
“Your family did that without my help.”
His eyes moved toward the scar on my temple.
“I am sorry.”
“Which part?”
“The plate.”
“The lies?”
“The surveillance?”
“Marrying me for my property?”
“Helping your mother steal Lydia’s child?”
He closed his eyes.
“I did not know Lydia was alive.”
“You knew Grace was your daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You allowed her to believe you were her uncle.”
“My mother said it was safer.”
“For whom?”
He had no answer.
I stood.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“The condo was not the only reason I married you.”
“I know.”
“My father knew your father.”
The room became silent.
“Charles threatened him.”
“My father did not order the hit.”
“My mother did.”
“Do you have proof?”
“Julian recorded her.”
“Where are the recordings?”
“Rebecca Sloan has them.”
“Rebecca disappeared years ago.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at me.
“She is alive.”
“Where?”
“She has been inside the Caldwell organization the entire time.”
“Who is she?”
Before he could answer, the hospital fire alarm activated.
Guards entered the room.
A nurse ordered everyone to evacuate.
Adrian’s face changed.
“She found me.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
The hallway filled with smoke.
Sprinklers activated.
Guards unlocked Adrian from the bed and placed him in a wheelchair.
As we reached the stairwell, a nurse approached from behind.
She pushed a medication cart.
Something about her posture felt wrong.
She was watching Adrian instead of the smoke.
I recognized her eyes.
Monica Shaw.
She had escaped federal custody during a staged medical transfer hours earlier.
She pulled a gun from beneath the cart.
I shoved Adrian’s wheelchair sideways.
The first shot struck the wall.
A guard returned fire.
Shaw disappeared into the smoke.
We reached the lower stairwell.
Federal agents surrounded the building.
Adrian was taken to a secure vehicle.
Before the door closed, he grabbed my wrist.
“Rebecca is Caroline Vale.”
I stared at him.
Caroline Vale was Adrian’s aunt.
She had been at the dinner.
She had watched him attack me.
Then she had claimed she saw nothing.
“She married Thomas Vale to get access to his records,” Adrian whispered.
“She has the final recording.”
The vehicle door closed.
I remembered Caroline quietly gathering her children after the plate shattered.
She had not been protecting Adrian.
May you like
She had been protecting her cover.
And now Eleanor knew exactly who she was.
