For several seconds, I couldn't move.
Rain tapped against the windows.
Mariana stared at Adrian.
“You told us you never met Daniel.”
“I said I never knew him well.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
He sat on the edge of the child's bed.
His shoulders seemed heavier than before.
“I was nineteen.”
He told us his father had sent him to deliver documents to Daniel.
Adrian had not understood what they were.
He only knew that his father was angry.
Daniel had threatened to expose Northstar.
Manuel Vega wanted Adrian to retrieve the documents before Daniel could give them to investigators.
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I met Daniel.”
Adrian said Daniel had looked terrified.
Not guilty.
Terrified.
He had told Adrian that Northstar wasn't simply a financial crime. It was an organization with people in places where they could make problems disappear.
Daniel gave Adrian a message for Manuel.
“Tell him I know what he did.”
Adrian said he left.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel's car crashed.
The official report called it an accident.
Adrian knew it wasn't.
“Did you see anyone?”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“Martin Hale.”
My stomach tightened.
“He was there?”
“He was standing across the road.”
“Did he kill my father?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you tell the police?”
“No.”
The answer hurt more than I expected.
“You watched my father die and said nothing.”
“I was afraid.”
“You were always afraid.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
I walked to the window.
Outside, the street was empty.
“You knew who I was before we met.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about my parents.”
“Yes.”
“You knew someone had changed my identity.”
“Yes.”
“And you still let me believe you loved me without telling me.”
“I did love you.”
I turned.
“That's not enough.”
He didn't argue.
That was almost worse.
Mariana had been examining the documents from beneath the floor.
“There's another page.”
She held it up.
It was signed by Daniel.
The writing was hurried.
He claimed Martin had not been the only person at the scene.
There had been another man.
A man Daniel identified only by initials.
*M.H.**
But beneath those initials was another note.
*Marcus knows.**
Mariana frowned.
“Marcus Hale.”
Adrian nodded.
“My father's former associate.”
“The same Marcus who appears in the Northstar files.”
“Yes.”
We suddenly understood why Martin had insisted that he was not the person we thought.
Martin may have been a protector.
Marcus was the person behind the destruction.
The phone rang.
This time it was Mariana's.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She listened.
Then looked at me.
“Cameron is alive.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Where?”
“The rehabilitation center.”
We drove for nearly three hours.
No one mentioned the house again.
When we arrived, the center was nearly empty.
A nurse confirmed Cameron had been a patient.
“He left yesterday.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
She hesitated.
“He left a message.”
“For me?”
She nodded.
She handed me a folded envelope.
Inside was a photograph of my mother.
On the back:
*She told me never to contact you unless Marcus found you.**
Below that was an address.
A warehouse.
Mariana immediately searched it.
“It's been abandoned for years.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
“It's not abandoned.”
“What do you mean?”
“I've been there.”
He said his father used the warehouse when Adrian was young.
It had once stored company records.
We arrived after midnight.
The building stood behind a chain-link fence.
The gate was unlocked.
Inside, rows of empty shelves filled the darkness.
Then we saw the lights.
Someone was there.
A man stepped from behind a column.
Older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakably familiar from the photographs.
“Cameron?”
He nodded.
His eyes filled when he saw me.
“Lena.”
I almost cried at the sound.
Not because the name was beautiful.
Because someone remembered it.
Someone who knew me before Camila existed.
He approached slowly.
“I've waited twenty-seven years to see you.”
I couldn't speak.
He looked at Adrian.
His expression hardened.
“You brought him.”
“I didn't know you were here,” Adrian said.
Cameron laughed bitterly.
“You always know more than you admit.”
Then he looked at me.
“Your mother didn't abandon you.”
“I know.”
“No. You don't.”
He pulled a small notebook from his coat.
“This is why she disappeared.”
Inside were names.
Payments.
Dates.
Meetings.
And one final entry.
*Marcus Hale ordered the removal of Elena's records.**
I looked up.
“Why?”
“Because your mother had something Marcus wanted.”
“What?”
Cameron stared at me.
“The original Northstar ledger.”
I felt my pulse quicken.
“Where is it?”
He pointed toward the floor.
“Under this building.”
Adrian immediately stepped forward.
Cameron stopped him.
“You don't get to touch it.”
“Why?”
“Because your father hid something there that could destroy everyone.”
Cameron looked at me.
“But your mother left instructions.”
“For me?”
He nodded.
“She said when Elena comes back, give her the truth.”
He handed me a brass key.
It was larger than the others.
Stamped across it were two words.
*NORTHSTAR ORIGINAL.**
Before I could ask anything else, the warehouse lights went out.
A gunshot cracked through the darkness.
Cameron shoved me to the floor.
“Down!”
Another shot tore through the metal shelving.
Adrian grabbed Mariana.
Cameron pulled open a hidden door beneath the stairs.
“Inside!”
We crawled through.
Behind us, footsteps entered the warehouse.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Someone wasn't afraid.
Cameron whispered:
“Marcus.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: The Ledger Beneath the Floor
I Thought My Husband Was Planning a Baby Shower Speech Until One Message Made Me Question Everything I Knew About Him
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