Chapter 9 - The House Without a Name.
The safe house stood in Westchester County behind iron gates and a row of bare oak trees.
It had belonged to Adrian's mother before she married Thomas Cafalli.
Almost no one at Cafalli Holdings knew it still belonged to him.
The house smelled faintly of cedar and dust.
Claire carried Noah upstairs while Evelyn prepared a bedroom.
Peter checked every entrance.
Gabriel remained under guard in the library.
Adrian stood alone in the kitchen and called Victor.
His uncle answered immediately.
"Adrian."
Victor sounded warm, almost amused.
"It's been too long."
"Did you kill my father?"
Silence.
Then Victor sighed.
"Still dramatic."
"Answer me."
"Thomas killed himself years before the car went off that road."
Adrian's hand tightened around the phone.
"You always hated him."
"I loved him."
Victor's voice sharpened.
"But your father wanted the benefits of power without paying its price."
"What price?"
"Loyalty."
Adrian looked out at the dark trees.
"You mean obedience."
Victor laughed softly.
"The maid has something she doesn't understand. Give it to me, and this ugliness ends."
"You sent men after a baby."
"I sent men after a key."
"They broke into my home."
"Because you made a simple matter complicated."
Adrian felt something inside him become colder than anger.
"What does the key open?"
Victor did not answer.
That was answer enough.
"You don't know either," Adrian said.
Victor went silent.
Adrian smiled for the first time.
"Daniel hid something from you."
"Be careful."
"You should have been."
Adrian ended the call.
Claire was standing in the doorway.
She had heard enough.
"He killed Daniel too, didn't he?"
Adrian looked at her.
"I don't know yet."
"You know."
Her eyes filled with fury.
"You just don't want to say it."
Adrian did not defend his uncle.
Claire stepped closer.
"Daniel came home one night and told me he had finally found the place where they kept the truth."
Adrian frowned.
"What place?"
"He called it the gray room."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
She touched the brass key in Adrian's hand.
"But he said the key wasn't for a door."
Adrian studied it.
A tiny sequence of numbers was engraved along one edge.
He had missed it before.
4-17-09.
The date meant nothing to Claire.
It meant everything to Adrian.
April 17, 2009.
The day his father took him to the old Cafalli National Bank building for the first time.
The property had been sold years ago.
But the underground vault system remained under a private records company.
Adrian looked at Claire.
"I know where Daniel wanted us to go."
From upstairs came Evelyn's voice.
"Claire!"
Claire ran.
Adrian followed.
They found Noah breathing rapidly in the bedroom.
His fever had climbed again.
Evelyn's face was serious.
"He needs a hospital now."
Claire looked terrified.
Adrian said, "Then he gets one."
"They'll find us."
"Let them try."
At that moment, Peter entered holding his phone.
"They already have."
He showed Adrian a live traffic camera image from the road outside the property.
A black sedan was parked beyond the gates.
On its windshield sat a white envelope.
May you like
Peter had zoomed in enough to read the name written across it.
CLAIRE DAWSON.
