Chapter 3 - The Night Everything BurnedAdeline remembered the fire.
Not clearly.
Not completely.
But enough.
She remembered smoke.
Her father shouting.
Her mother crying.
A black box.
And a man standing in the doorway.
She had been nine.
Posy had been an infant.
The family had been living in a rented building near the harbor.
Her father came home late.
He carried the black box.
He told Adeline to hide.
She didn't understand.
Then the building caught fire.
Her father disappeared.
Her mother survived for another eleven years.
She never spoke about that night.
Until shortly before she died.
“He didn't die,” Adeline whispered.
Roarke looked at her.
“Who?”
“My father.”
“You said he died.”
“My mother said he disappeared.”
“What happened?”
“I don't know.”
Roarke sat beside her.
“Then we'll find out.”
Adeline looked at him.
“You keep saying we.”
“Because you're not alone anymore.”
She almost cried.
The hospital procedure went well.
Posy survived.
Her condition stabilized.
For the first time in months, Adeline slept for more than four hours.
Roarke stayed outside the hospital room.
Silvio found him in the corridor.
“You're becoming attached.”
Roarke looked at him.
“Be careful.”
“You know what I mean.”
Roarke did.
He had spent his whole life keeping distance from everyone.
Now he was sitting outside a hospital room waiting for a little girl to wake up.
It was dangerous.
Not for his business.
For his heart.
The next morning, Adeline brought him coffee.
“You look terrible.”
“So do you.”
She smiled.
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
She sat beside him.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I don't know.”
“That answer again.”
He looked at her.
“I think I saw myself in you.”
She frowned.
“How?”
“You lost your family and decided you had to become responsible for everyone.”
She looked down.
“You do that too.”
“Yes.”
“So we're both stupid.”
He laughed softly.
“Apparently.”
The moment was interrupted by Silvio.
“We found the man from the hospital.”
“Who?”
“Dorian Kane.”
Roarke froze.
Dorian Kane had once been his father's right hand.
He had disappeared twenty years ago.
Everyone thought he was dead.
“What is he doing here?”
“We don't know.”
“Find him.”
Silvio nodded.
Dela—Adeline—looked at Roarke.
“Who is Dorian?”
“My father's former security chief.”
“Was he at the fire?”
“We think so.”
Adeline's breathing changed.
“He was.”
Roarke looked at her.
“You remember him?”
She nodded.
“He carried me outside.”
“And your father?”
“I don't know.”
Roarke opened the old Castellano files.
Dorian's name appeared repeatedly.
Transfers.
Payments.
Security reports.
Then Roarke found something.
A payment to Mercy Northside Hospital.
Twenty years ago.
For an anonymous child.
He looked at the date.
The same week Adeline's father disappeared.
“Your father didn't die,” he said.
Adeline stared.
“He was hospitalized.”
“Where?”
“Mercy Northside.”
“Then why wasn't he listed?”
“Because someone used another name.”
Adeline's hands trembled.
“Which name?”
Roarke turned the page.
Daniel Vance.
Her father's middle name.
Adeline stared.
“He was alive.”
“For eleven months.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared again.”
She closed her eyes.
“Why?”
Roarke didn't know.
Then Dorian called.
His voice was weak.
“I'll tell you.”
Roarke put him on speaker.
“Where are you?”
“Blackwater Station.”
“Why?”
“Because the truth is buried there.”
Adeline leaned closer.
“What truth?”
Dorian paused.
“Your father never worked for the Castellanos family.”
Roarke frowned.
“What?”
“He worked for your father’s enemy.”
“Who?”
Dorian whispered:
“Gideon Vale.”
The line went dead.
Roarke looked at Adeline.
“Your father wasn't protecting our family.”
He opened the ledger.
“He was trying to expose yours.”
She stared at him.
“My family?”
“Someone in your family was involved with Gideon.”
“Who?”
Roarke turned the page.
A name.
Eleanor Vance.
Adeline's mother.
She stopped breathing.
“My mother?”
Roarke nodded.
“No.”
She stood.
“No.”
She walked toward the window.
“My mother would never.”
Roarke followed.
“People can surprise us.”
“She loved us.”
“Love doesn't prevent bad decisions.”
She turned.
“Don't talk about her like she's one of them.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You implied it.”
“I don't know the truth.”
“Neither do I.”
Silence.
Then Roarke took her hand.
“We find it.”
She looked at him.
“Together?”
“Yes.”
May you like
This time she didn't hesitate.
“Yes.”
Related Stories
