Chapter 3 - The Girl Behind the Red Door
I didn't tell Adrian where Lily was.
Not that night.
Not the next morning.
Trust wasn't a switch.
It was a bridge.
And mine had been burned too many times.
But something changed after the shooting.
Adrian stopped asking questions about Lily.
Instead, he started asking questions about me.
Did I sleep?
Had I eaten?
Why did I flinch whenever a phone rang?
Why did I count doors?
Why did I always sit facing the exit?
I hated how quickly he learned me.
I hated even more that I liked it.
Three days later, he asked me to come with him.
"Where?"
"To the hospital."
"Why?"
"Because one of my men was injured."
I followed.
The hospital was privately owned.
Of course it was.
Adrian walked through the halls like he owned them.
He stopped outside a pediatric room.
I froze.
A little girl sat on the bed.
Dark curls.
Purple sweater.
Stuffed rabbit.
Lily.
I stared at Adrian.
"You knew."
He nodded.
"I had someone find her."
My heart pounded.
"You said you weren't asking."
"I wasn't."
"You lied."
"I protected her."
I walked into the room.
Lily looked up.
For half a second she didn't recognize me.
Then she jumped from the bed.
"Aunt Elena!"
I caught her.
She buried her face against me.
I cried.
I had not allowed myself to cry since Clara disappeared.
Not properly.
Not like this.
Adrian stood outside the room.
Lily looked at him.
"Who's that?"
I wiped my face.
"Adrian."
She studied him.
"Are you a bad guy?"
He crouched down.
"Sometimes."
Lily frowned.
"That's honest."
"Usually."
She held up the stuffed rabbit.
"This is Mr. Button."
Adrian nodded seriously.
"Nice to meet him."
Lily laughed.
It was the first time I'd heard her laugh in weeks.
Adrian looked at me.
Something soft entered his eyes.
The next hour changed everything.
Lily told us that the people who had taken Clara had mentioned a "blue room."
A room beneath an old hotel.
She had heard one name.
Cross.
And another.
Vasile.
Adrian's expression hardened.
"My name?"
Lily nodded.
"She said Uncle Adrian."
I looked at him.
"I don't have an uncle Adrian."
Adrian was silent.
Then he asked,
"Did your mother say why?"
Lily shook her head.
"She said he would come."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
He stood.
"I'll be back."
I followed him into the hallway.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
He looked at me.
"Yes."
I stared.
"Why?"
"Because I think your father and mine were connected."
My breath caught.
"Your father?"
"He was the man who trained me."
"Was?"
"He's dead."
"How?"
"Poison."
I whispered,
"You think my family and yours are connected."
"I think your father may have worked for my father."
"And Clara?"
"May have found out."
I felt sick.
Adrian placed a hand on my shoulder.
"We'll find her."
"How can you promise that?"
"Because I don't make promises lightly."
Three hours later, we found the blue room.
Beneath an abandoned hotel.
The room contained photographs.
Dozens of them.
Clara.
Me.
Lily.
Adrian.
His father.
My father.
Five years of surveillance.
I stood in the center of the room, shaking.
Then I saw the last photograph.
Adrian and me.
Taken at table 17.
The caption beneath it read:
Phase Two complete.
I looked at Adrian.
"What is phase two?"
He didn't answer.
I found another file.
Inside was a document.
Target: Elena Marlowe.
Status: active.
Secondary target: Adrian Vasile.
My heart dropped.
"They were watching both of us."
Adrian took the file.
At the bottom was a signature.
Nathan Cross.
But underneath it was another signature.
Elias Vasile.
Adrian's father.
I looked at him.
"Your father ordered this?"
Adrian stared at the page.
His face went cold.
"My father died six years ago."
I pointed.
"Then someone is using his name."
He looked at the signature.
"No."
"What?"
"I recognize this handwriting."
"Then who wrote it?"
He slowly answered.
"My father."
Silence.
His father wasn't dead.
The same impossible truth I had discovered about mine.
And somewhere in the city, two dead men were still controlling our lives.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
"What?"
A pause.
"Where?"
He hung up.
I asked,
"What happened?"
He looked at me.
"They found Clara."
My heart stopped.
"Alive?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Arbor Hotel."
I grabbed his hand.
"Take me there."
He looked at our joined hands.
Neither of us moved.
Then he squeezed mine.
May you like
"Stay beside me."
And this time, I didn't hesitate.
