Chapter 4 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
For one impossible second, I forgot how to breathe.
My father stood on the balcony.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair replacing the black I remembered.
But alive.
The man I had buried eleven years ago was looking directly at me.
Ruby lifted her head.
“Daddy?”
I couldn't answer.
Victor slowly lowered his gun.
He wasn't pointing it at me.
He was pointing at Margaret.
“Enough,” he said.
Margaret's smile faded.
“You always were a coward, Victor.”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“I was a coward once.”
My father stepped forward.
“Sebastian.”
The sound of his voice broke something inside me.
“You died.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To save you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You abandoned me.”
“I hid.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“You were safer believing that.”
I looked at Ruby.
“No.”
My father looked at her.
“She was never safe.”
Margaret raised her gun.
“You're all sentimental fools.”
Warren moved first.
He shot the weapon from her hand.
My men surrounded the chapel.
Margaret stared at him.
“You.”
Warren said nothing.
She understood.
“You betrayed us.”
“No,” Warren said.
“I stopped protecting you.”
My father looked at me.
“Elena was working for an intelligence task force when she met you.”
“I know.”
“She wasn't ordered to fall in love with you.”
My jaw clenched.
“She did anyway.”
My father nodded.
“And that made her dangerous.”
Margaret stepped backward.
“You're rewriting history.”
“No,” my father said. “I'm finishing it.”
He told me the truth.
Elena had infiltrated his organization because she suspected that someone inside was selling names and financial records.
But she discovered something larger.
The traitor wasn't working for another mafia family.
He was building his own network.
A network that had used children as messengers, shelters as hiding places, and corrupted officials to erase evidence.
The leader had a name.
Adrian Vale.
I knew the name.
Everyone in this city knew it.
A respected philanthropist.
A billionaire.
Chairman of several hospitals.
Owner of half the private security firms downtown.
The man who had sponsored my charity gala.
The man who had shaken my hand that night.
The man who had smiled at Ruby.
I remembered something.
Adrian had given Ruby a paper star.
The same kind she'd been holding before she vanished.
My stomach turned.
“He was at my estate.”
My father nodded.
“He wanted the bracelet.”
“Then why didn't he take it?”
“Because Ruby gave it to him willingly.”
I looked at my daughter.
Ruby shook her head.
“He asked me to show him the silver star.”
“Did he touch it?”
“Yes.”
“Then he knows about the microfilm.”
My father stepped closer.
“He knows where it is.”
I looked at the bracelet in my hand.
“No.”
“What?”
I remembered Ruby's words.
Don't trust the people watching.
She had known someone was following her.
Perhaps Elena had taught her without telling her why.
A memory surfaced.
Three years ago, during Elena's final weeks, she had taken Ruby's hand and said:
“Whenever someone asks you about your star, sweetheart, you tell them it is broken.”
I hadn't understood then.
Now I did.
The bracelet had two compartments.
I opened it again.
The microfilm was still there.
But there was another cavity beneath it.
Empty.
My father smiled.
“The real evidence was never in that compartment.”
I stared at him.
“Then what was?”
“A decoy.”
I looked at Warren.
He understood too.
“Then Adrian has the real evidence.”
“No,” my father said.
“Who does?”
My father looked at Ruby.
“Your daughter.”
Ruby reached into her dress.
From a hidden pocket, she pulled out a tiny glass vial.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
“I kept it because Mommy told me to.”
My hands shook as I opened it.
It contained account numbers.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Everything Adrian had done.
And one final line.
The person who betrayed the Cross family is the one who survives when everyone else disappears.
I looked at Margaret.
She smiled.
“Exactly.”
Then the chapel doors exploded open.
Gunmen rushed inside.
Chaos erupted.
My men returned fire.
I grabbed Ruby and moved behind a stone pillar.
Warren dragged Theo and Eli toward cover.
My father fired with terrifying precision.
Victor shielded Margaret from a bullet.
I stared at him.
“Why are you protecting her?”
“Because I need her alive.”
Margaret shot him.
Victor fell.
I fired at Margaret, but she disappeared through the side door.
“Dad!”
Ruby pointed.
A man was running toward Eli.
It was Adrian.
He had entered through the rear entrance.
He grabbed Eli and held a gun against the child's head.
“Drop it, Sebastian.”
I froze.
Adrian smiled.
“You spent years thinking your enemies were crude men with guns.”
He laughed softly.
“I use contracts.”
“Let the boy go.”
“Give me the vial.”
Ruby clutched it.
Adrian saw her.
“Such a brave little girl.”
Ruby stepped forward.
I grabbed her.
“No.”
Adrian's smile widened.
“She has no idea what that contains.”
“She knows enough to hate you.”
His expression changed.
For the first time, I saw the mask slip.
Then Theo did something unexpected.
He whistled.
Ranger lunged.
The dog hit Adrian's arm.
The gun fired.
The bullet missed Eli.
I shot Adrian in the shoulder.
He dropped.
My men rushed forward.
But Eli was gone.
A hidden door had opened beneath the altar.
Adrian had used it.
We found the passage empty.
Victor was alive, barely.
My father helped me carry him outside.
At the hospital, surgeons worked through the night.
While we waited, my father sat across from me.
“You need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Adrian never wanted to kill Ruby.”
“Then what did he want?”
“Her blood.”
I stared at him.
“He believes Ruby inherited a genetic marker from Elena's family.”
“What marker?”
“A rare trait that makes certain neurological data easier to process.”
I almost laughed.
“That sounds insane.”
“It is scientifically exaggerated.”
“Then why?”
“Because Adrian believes the original evidence is encoded in biological research connected to Elena's work.”
I thought of the hospital.
The files.
C-17.
Then another thought hit me.
“Why did he need Ruby?”
My father looked away.
“Because Elena left something in a research facility.”
“Where?”
“Underneath St. Catherine's Children's Hospital.”
I stood.
“That hospital was closed.”
“Officially.”
My father reached into his coat.
He gave me a key.
“Take Ruby nowhere without protection.”
I looked at the key.
“What is this?”
“Your mother's old access key.”
My mother had never worked at a hospital.
At least I thought she hadn't.
Before I could ask, my phone rang.
The doctor.
“Mr. Cross?”
“Yes.”
“There was a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Victor is gone.”
I stood.
“What?”
“He disappeared from his room.”
My father closed his eyes.
“Adrian had help.”
“From whom?”
My father looked toward the hallway.
“From someone who has been beside you since the beginning.”
I felt cold.
“Warren?”
“No.”
May you like
He stared at me.
“Your own sister.”
