Chapter 10 - Adrian’s Worst Secret Was Not the One Ethan Expected Me to Fear

Adrian did not ask to speak privately.

He told the truth in front of everyone.

“Five years ago, I believed a man named Tomas Varga ordered the warehouse fire that killed Luca.”

Agent Shaw stood near the desk.

“Why?”

“Because evidence was planted to make it look like Varga’s crew sabotaged the building.”

“What did you do?”

Adrian looked at me.

“I had him taken.”

My stomach tightened.

“And?”

“I interrogated him.”

The word carried more than its dictionary meaning.

“Did you kill him?”

“No.”

I waited.

“He begged me to believe he had nothing to do with Luca. I didn’t.”

“What happened?”

“I broke his hand. Two ribs. Left him in a private clinic under guard.”

Maya, who had come with Reyes, looked sick.

Adrian continued.

“Three days later, Marcus found proof Varga was in Detroit the night of the fire.”

“What did you do then?”

“Released him. Paid his medical bills. Gave him enough money to leave the city.”

I stared at him.

“That doesn’t undo it.”

“No.”

“Did you apologize?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I was a coward.”

Silence.

Even Shaw looked surprised.

Adrian’s voice stayed level.

“I told myself money was the apology. It was easier than hearing him tell me exactly what I had become.”

Ethan’s note had been designed to make me discover a monster.

Instead, Adrian was showing me one himself.

That did not erase what he had done.

But it changed the weapon.

“Where is Tomas now?” I asked.

“Arizona.”

“Alive?”

“Yes.”

“Can I talk to him?”

Marcus looked at Adrian.

Adrian nodded.

“If he agrees.”

Shaw collected the note and Keene’s phone.

Blood analysis later confirmed the drop belonged to Keene.

He was still missing.

The phone contained one unsent draft message to Ethan.

YOU SAID SLOANE WOULD PROTECT US. HE IS CLEANING HOUSE.

That shifted the investigation again.

Keene had run.

Not with Ethan.

From him or Sloane.

His cloud backup gave agents addresses, payment records, and one devastating calendar entry.

BENNETT GIRL—COLE CONTACT PHASE.

Dated eighteen months before I met Ethan.

I stared at the words until they blurred.

Contact phase.

That was what our first date had been.

A phase.

Our anniversary.

A phase.

Moving in.

A phase.

“Claire,” Maya whispered.

“I’m okay.”

This time, the words were not a lie.

I was not well.

But I was okay.

There was a difference.

Adrian stepped away to make the call to Tomas.

An hour later, Tomas agreed to speak by video.

He was sixty now, with white hair and a brace on his left hand.

He looked at Adrian for a long time.

“So,” he said, “Luca’s ghost finally got busy.”

Adrian did not smile.

“I owe you an apology.”

“You owe me more than one.”

“Yes.”

Tomas looked at me.

“You Claire Bennett?”

“Yes.”

“I read about your father in the paper years ago. Didn’t know he was connected.”

“I didn’t either.”

He leaned back.

“Ask.”

I told him about Ethan’s note.

Tomas laughed bitterly.

“Kid thinks exposing Vale’s temper will shock you.”

“Should it?”

“Yes.”

Adrian did not react.

Tomas continued.

“But fear the right thing.”

“What’s the right thing?”

“Adrian is dangerous when he thinks he has to protect someone. Makes him stupid. Makes him cruel. Difference between him and men like Sloane is Adrian eventually looks at what he did.”

I glanced at Adrian.

Tomas shrugged.

“Doesn’t make my hand straight.”

“No,” I said.

“No.”

“Why talk to us?”

“Because Luca once helped my son stay out of prison. And because Victor Sloane framed me.”

Tomas leaned toward the camera.

“I know who planted the evidence.”

Everyone in the room went still.

“Who?” Shaw asked.

“Gabriel Trent.”

Adrian’s face changed.

My chest tightened.

Gabriel had admitted diverting Luca.

He had not admitted framing Varga.

“Are you sure?”

“I saw him pay one of my men to leave a detonator component in my garage.”

Shaw immediately called the hospital.

Gabriel was under protective watch.

Or he had been.

His room was empty.

The agent outside had been found unconscious in a stairwell.

Lila was gone too.

Not kidnapped this time.

Security footage showed father and daughter leaving together.

Gabriel had lied.

Again.

Adrian looked as though someone had reopened Luca’s grave.

Then my phone received another message.

Not from Ethan.

From Gabriel.

I’M SORRY. I COULDN’T LET THEM TAKE LILA AGAIN. ETHAN HAS KEENE. HE WANTS TO TRADE HIM FOR YOU. DON’T DO IT.

A second message followed.

SLOANE IS NOT IN CONTROL ANYMORE.

I read it aloud.

Shaw swore.

“Then who is?”

Adrian answered before I could.

“Ethan.”

That was the moment we stopped treating him as Sloane’s employee.

Victor Sloane had built Riverstone.

Martin Keene had protected it.

Gabriel had served it out of fear.

But Ethan had learned from all of them.

He had spent years being underestimated.

Now Sloane was wounded, Keene was missing, Gabriel was running, and Ethan was still in Chicago.

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