Chapter 2 - The Penthouse With No Family Photographs
Adrian Kane did not live in a penthouse.
He lived in a fortress suspended above Manhattan.
By six that evening, Mia and I were standing inside a residence that occupied the top three floors of a glass tower overlooking Central Park. The elevator opened directly into a marble foyer larger than my entire apartment. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the living room. A black grand piano sat near one wall. Original art hung beneath museum-style lighting.
Mia stared at everything with open-mouthed wonder.
"Does Batman live here too?"
Marcus Venn actually smiled.
Adrian removed his jacket.
"Only on weekends."
Mia nodded as if this were reasonable.
I did not smile.
I was too busy noticing the security.
Two men in dark suits remained near the private elevator. Another walked the terrace perimeter. Marcus had already sent a team to my apartment to check for cameras, fingerprints, and signs of forced entry.
I had never felt more protected.
I had also never felt more exposed.
Adrian handed me a glass of water.
"Drink."
"I'm not one of your employees right now, remember?"
"You are severely dehydrated. That has nothing to do with payroll."
I looked at the glass, then at him.
"Do you always sound like an order even when you're being nice?"
"Usually."
Mia climbed onto one of the white sofas and hugged her elephant.
"I think he needs practice, Mommy."
Adrian's mouth twitched.
I caught it.
So did Mia.
"See? I made him almost smile again."
For one irrational moment, the day felt normal.
Then Marcus entered the room carrying a tablet.
"We found a camera across from Ms. Carter's building."
The warmth vanished.
"Where?" Adrian asked.
"Vacant apartment on the fifth floor. Short-term lease paid through a shell company. The angle matches the photograph. Whoever used it had line of sight into Emily's kitchen and bedroom windows."
My skin crawled.
"Bedroom?"
Marcus gave me an apologetic look.
"Yes."
I wrapped my arms around myself.
Adrian's expression hardened.
"Trace the lease."
"Already started."
"And her building access logs?"
"Someone used a copied maintenance credential at 5:12 this morning."
"Nathan?"
"We don't know yet."
Mia was listening.
I could tell by the way she had stopped moving.
I forced my voice to stay light.
"Sweetheart, would you like to see if Mr. Kane has any food that normal people eat?"
She brightened.
"Mac and cheese?"
Adrian pressed a button on the wall.
A housekeeper appeared from a hidden corridor so quickly that I almost laughed.
"Mrs. Alvarez, could you make Mia macaroni and cheese?"
"Of course, Mr. Kane."
Mia hopped down.
"Can I help?"
Mrs. Alvarez looked at Adrian for permission.
He looked at me.
I nodded.
"Only if you listen to Mrs. Alvarez."
"I always listen."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Almost always."
She followed the housekeeper toward the kitchen.
The moment she was gone, I turned to Adrian.
"Now tell me everything."
He did not pretend not to understand.
He walked to the bar, poured nothing, and rested both hands on the counter.
"Nathan and I met at Columbia. We were twenty. I had money. He had none. I had a family name. He had an instinct for numbers that was almost frightening."
"You trusted him."
"Completely."
There was no drama in the word.
That made it hurt more.
"When my father expanded Kane Global, Nathan came with me. By thirty-four, he was COO. He knew every weakness in the company. Every account. Every executive. Every private arrangement."
"And he stole from you."
"From investors. From the company. From me personally."
Adrian looked toward the windows.
"But the money wasn't the worst part."
I waited.
"My father had a heart attack the week the fraud became public."
His voice changed.
Quiet. Flat. Controlled.
"He died two days later."
I looked around the immense residence again.
There were no family photographs.
Not one.
"I'm sorry."
Adrian nodded once.
"After Nathan vanished, regulators investigated everyone. The press treated me like I had helped him. We recovered most of the money eventually, but not all of it. More importantly, we never proved whether he acted alone."
"You think someone inside the company helped him."
"I know someone did."
"Who?"
"That's the problem."
He reached for a thin folder Marcus had left on the table.
Inside were printed transaction maps.
"Nathan's transfers required two levels of authorization. His credentials account for one. The second came from an executive token assigned to a person who was supposedly in London on the night three major transfers cleared."
"Who?"
Adrian held my gaze.
"Victor Hale."
The name hit me differently.
Victor Hale was Kane Global's vice chairman.
He was also the investor scheduled to hear my million-dollar presentation that morning.
"Victor was in my meeting today."
"Yes."
"He has been reviewing my campaign for months."
"Yes."
"Does he know I was connected to Nathan?"
"Until today, I didn't know you were connected to Nathan."
"That wasn't my question."
Adrian's silence was answer enough.
I stared at him.
"You think Victor knew."
"I think we should assume he might have."
A chill ran down my back.
Images from the last six months flashed through my mind.
Victor asking oddly personal questions about Mia at a Christmas reception.
Victor insisting I lead the Lumiere campaign even though two other directors were more senior.
Victor pushing me to attend investor dinners I had repeatedly declined because of childcare.
Victor once saying, "A woman with your history understands reinvention."
At the time, I assumed he meant my resume.
Now I wondered what history he meant.
"Why would he bring me closer if he knew?"
"Because proximity is useful."
"For what?"
"Leverage. Surveillance. Or bait."
I felt sick.
"Bait for Nathan?"
"Possibly."
My phone rang.
Both of us looked at it.
Unknown number.
My blood turned cold.
Adrian moved beside me.
"Don't answer unless you're ready."
I stared at the screen.
Then I pressed accept and switched on speaker.
"Hello?"
For a moment, there was only static.
Then Nathan's voice filled the room.
"Nice view, Em?"
I stopped breathing.
Adrian's face became stone.
"What do you want?" I asked.
Nathan laughed softly.
"You always did skip the small talk when you were angry."
"Stay away from my daughter."
"Our daughter."
"You gave up the right to that word six years ago."
"That's not how biology works."
"Biology doesn't make you a father."
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
"Careful. You don't know the whole story."
"Then tell me."
"Ask Adrian why I disappeared."
I looked at Adrian.
He did not move.
"I already did."
Nathan was silent for a beat.
"Did he tell you about the gun?"
"Yes."
"Did he tell you who fired it?"
My eyes moved back to Adrian.
"He said it went off during the fight."
Nathan gave a low laugh.
"Of course he did."
Adrian leaned toward the phone.
"Nathan."
The voice on the other end stopped.
For the first time, Nathan sounded unsettled.
"Adrian Kane. Still collecting broken things so you can pretend you're a hero?"
"If you go near Emily or Mia again, I will make sure every law enforcement agency that has been searching for you knows exactly where to look."
"You still think this is about avoiding prison?"
"What is it about?"
"Justice."
Adrian almost laughed, but there was no humor in it.
"You stole forty-two million dollars."
"I stole what was already being stolen."
"By whom?"
Nathan said nothing.
Then he addressed me again.
"Emily, check the bottom drawer of your old desk. The one in storage. Blue folder. If Adrian gets to it first, you'll never know who he really is."
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Adrian immediately looked at Marcus.
"Trace?"
Marcus shook his head.
"Too short. Routed overseas."
I turned to Adrian.
"My old desk is in a storage unit in Queens."
"You are not going there tonight."
"If Nathan left something there, I need to know what it is."
"And if he's waiting for you?"
"Then your security team can come."
"Emily-"
"You promised me the whole story. If there is evidence in that drawer, I'm seeing it."
He studied me for several seconds.
"Fine. At first light."
"Tonight."
"No."
"Adrian."
"I said no."
"And I said you don't get to order me around outside the office."
"This isn't about authority. It's about keeping you alive."
"I have been keeping myself alive for six years."
"And now a fugitive who once put a gun in my face is photographing your child from across the street. Your old methods are no longer enough."
The words struck harder than he intended.
I took a step back.
Adrian saw it immediately.
"Emily-"
"No. You're right. I couldn't even keep Mia from hearing him threaten me."
"That is not what I meant."
"But it's true."
"No."
His voice sharpened.
"Listen to me. You kept that little girl safe, fed, loved, educated, and laughing while working sixty-hour weeks. You did it without money, protection, or anyone sharing the load. Do not turn Nathan's criminal behavior into evidence that you failed."
I stared at him.
Nobody had ever said that to me.
Not my mother, who loved me but lived three states away and had her own health problems.
Not my coworkers, who saw the finished presentations but not the nights I worked after Mia fell asleep.
Not even me.
My eyes burned.
"You barely know me."
"I know what your work looks like when everyone else has gone home. I know you have never missed a deadline, even when you came to the office with a fever. I know you once turned down a promotion because it required three weeks of travel and you wouldn't leave Mia that long."
I blinked.
"How do you know that?"
"I read every senior promotion file."
"Of course you do."
"And I know you haven't eaten since breakfast."
I almost laughed.
"That one was less impressive."
His eyes softened.
"Still true."
Mia appeared in the doorway carrying a bowl almost as big as her head.
"Mommy, Mr. Kane has the fancy mac and cheese. It has three cheeses."
"Apparently we've entered a different tax bracket."
Mia climbed onto a stool.
"Mr. Kane, do you have kids?"
Adrian went still.
"No."
"Do you want kids?"
I choked on my water.
"Mia."
"What? I'm asking important questions."
Adrian looked at her for a long moment.
Something unreadable passed through his face.
"I used to think I did."
"But not now?"
He glanced at me.
"I haven't thought about it in a long time."
Mia considered this while eating.
"You should. You're good at mac and cheese."
"Mrs. Alvarez made it."
"But you own the house."
Adrian actually laughed once.
Then Marcus's phone rang.
He stepped away, listened, and turned toward us with a grim expression.
"We have a problem."
Adrian rose.
"What?"
"The team entered Emily's apartment. It had already been searched."
My hand tightened around the glass.
"Searched?"
"Drawers emptied. Mattress moved. Closet opened. Nothing obviously stolen."
"Then what were they looking for?"
Marcus glanced at Adrian.
"We think we know."
"What?"
"There was an empty space in the bottom drawer of Emily's bedroom dresser. Rectangular dust line. About the size of a document box."
I frowned.
"I never kept a box there."
Marcus held my gaze.
"Someone did."
A memory hit me.
The old desk.
The blue folder.
Nathan's apartment, seven years ago.
A key he once slipped into my coat pocket before a business trip and told me never to lose.
I had forgotten about it because I never knew what it opened.
After he vanished, I had taped it beneath the bottom drawer of my old desk.
I looked at Adrian.
"The storage unit."
He understood immediately.
"What is there?"
"A key."
"To what?"
"I don't know."
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was a text.
A photograph loaded.
My storage unit door.
Open.
May you like
Beneath it, one line.
Too late.
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