Chapter 3 - The Secret Their Fathers Buried Together
The man escaped before Adrian could reach him.
The storage unit burned.
The evidence almost disappeared.
Almost.
Meredith had managed to photograph the pages.
She backed them up to three separate accounts.
Adrian's security team traced the attacker.
Nothing.
The man had worn gloves.
No cameras.
No identifiable vehicle.
But the message was clear.
Someone was terrified of the past.
Meredith studied her father's report.
“Why would he investigate Lake View Grand?”
Adrian answered:
“Maybe because someone asked him.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Meredith looked at him.
“Your mother?”
“She was alive when my father was building the park.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
“Died?”
“No.”
“She left?”
“That's what I was told.”
Meredith frowned.
“How old were you?”
“Eleven.”
He rarely talked about his childhood.
She understood why.
His father had raised him.
His mother had vanished.
Then he became the heir.
The billionaire.
The man everyone feared.
But some parts of people didn't change when they became powerful.
The lonely child remained somewhere underneath.
Meredith knew that because she had one too.
They found Adrian's mother's old files.
She had investigated the same roller coaster.
The report suggested a contractor had installed inferior electrical components.
The contractor had been paid through a company owned by Vincent Vale.
But Vincent hadn't been alone.
Someone had signed off on the payment.
Thomas Lawson.
Meredith's father.
She stared.
“My father approved it?”
“Apparently.”
“But he later complained.”
“Maybe he realized the mistake.”
“Or maybe someone forced him.”
Adrian looked at her.
“My mother thought the same thing.”
The investigation deepened.
They discovered that Vincent Vale had been involved in illegal financial transactions before Lake View Grand became successful.
The amusement center had been built with hidden money.
The roller coaster wasn't just a ride.
It had been part of a land deal.
A dangerous deal.
A deal involving construction contracts, city officials, and organized crime.
Adrian's family had not started in legitimate entertainment.
They had started with crime.
His father had later tried to become respectable.
But the past refused to disappear.
And Thomas Lawson had known.
Meredith's father had not been a hero.
But he had not been a traitor either.
He had been trapped.
Then they found the missing page.
A handwritten note.
I REFUSE TO SIGN THE FINAL TRANSFER.
Below it was Vincent Vale's signature.
And a second signature.
Thomas Lawson.
Adrian stared.
“My father threatened him.”
“How do you know?”
“The signature is from the night before the accident.”
Meredith felt sick.
“What accident?”
“Your father's.”
They found the police report.
It had been classified.
The elevator had been manually disabled.
No mechanical malfunction.
Someone had cut the emergency brake.
Someone had wanted Thomas dead.
Adrian's father had motive.
But there was another name.
Gabriel Stone.
Head of operations.
The man who had become Lake View Grand's director after Vincent's death.
The same man still employed by the company.
Adrian's expression hardened.
“Gabriel.”
Meredith nodded.
“He's still running everything.”
They returned to the center.
Gabriel greeted Adrian calmly.
“I was wondering when you'd ask questions.”
Adrian stared.
“You knew.”
“I knew your father had enemies.”
“You knew about Thomas Lawson.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Yes.”
Meredith stepped forward.
“You knew my father was murdered.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
“My mother?”
He laughed softly.
“That's interesting.”
Adrian moved.
“Answer her.”
Gabriel took a breath.
“Your father wasn't killed because he knew too much.”
Meredith stared.
“He was killed because he tried to fix what he helped create.”
Silence.
“He signed the contract,” Gabriel continued.
“Then realized the ride was unsafe.”
Meredith's jaw tightened.
“Why didn't he go public?”
“He was afraid.”
“Of my father?”
“Of everyone.”
“What did my father threaten him with?”
Gabriel looked at Adrian.
“His mother.”
Meredith froze.
“Your mother?”
Adrian's face turned pale.
Gabriel continued.
“Vincent knew Elena Vale had discovered everything.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“And my father was protecting her?”
“Yes.”
Adrian's breathing changed.
“What happened to her?”
Gabriel smiled.
“She's alive.”
Adrian stopped moving.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Adrian reached for him.
Meredith stopped him.
“Don't.”
Adrian looked at her.
She shook her head.
“If he wants you angry, don't give him that.”
Gabriel smiled.
“You've always been smarter than your father.”
Meredith stared.
“What does that mean?”
He looked at her.
“Your father didn't know who to trust.”
“And I do?”
“No.”
He walked away.
“But you're learning.”
That night, Adrian finally told Meredith the truth about his mother.
He had spent twenty years believing she abandoned him.
Now he knew she had been investigating his father's crimes.
She had disappeared after discovering something called The Black Ledger.
The ledger contained every illegal transaction.
Every bribe.
Every murder.
Every secret payment.
And Thomas Lawson had hidden it.
Meredith looked at her father's old toolbox.
“The key.”
Adrian nodded.
“It's for the ledger.”
They found the lock in a wall inside the old estate.
The key opened it.
Inside was the ledger.
But one page was missing.
The final page.
And the name written beside it was:
GABRIEL STONE.
Adrian looked at Meredith.
“Then he knows where my mother is.”
Before they could continue, an alarm sounded.
The estate gates were breached.
Someone had arrived.
May you like
Gabriel.
And this time, he wasn't hiding.
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