Chapter 7: The Girl in the Photograph
The photograph on the phone was less than an hour old.
I knew because the little girl in it was wearing the same yellow cardigan she'd worn in the picture beside Evelyn. Her wrists were bound to the arms of a wooden chair, and a strip of gray tape covered her mouth.
Her eyes were open.
Terrified.
Alive.
“Marco,” I said, “get the car ready.””
My security chief was already speaking into his radio.
“Two teams to the north entrance. One team to the chapel. Nobody approaches the target until I give the order.””
I enlarged the photograph.
Behind Lily stood a concrete wall marked with faded blue numbers. A metal staircase disappeared into darkness on the right. On the floor beside the chair was a white plastic container with a cracked lid.
I recognized the setting.
Three years earlier, I'd purchased an abandoned textile warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The previous owner had used the property to store machinery before bankruptcy forced him to sell.
The building had remained empty ever since.
Its walls were concrete. Its loading bays were numbered in blue paint.
And the staircase looked exactly like the one in the photograph.
“Cancel the second vehicle,” I ordered.
“We'll take the service road to the old textile warehouse.””
Marco studied the image.
“Are you certain?””
“No. But my daughter is tied to a chair, and every second we waste gives whoever took her another chance to move her.””
I turned toward the basement.
Evelyn was still sitting on the bed, shaking so badly that Grace's cardigan slipped from her shoulders.
I had almost forgotten Grace was there. She'd followed us to the chapel after insisting Leo needed someone he trusted nearby. When the shooting started upstairs, she'd pulled Evelyn beneath the bed and shielded her with her own body.
Now she was holding the child against her chest.
“I'm going to find your sister,” I told Evelyn.
She caught my sleeve.
“Don't let them take her somewhere else.””
“I won't.””
“You promised you'd find me.””
I knelt in front of her.
“And I did.””
Her lips trembled.
“Then promise you'll bring Lily home.””
I held out my little finger.
She wrapped hers around it.
“I promise.””
This time, I understood exactly what that promise meant.
I had spent years believing that power meant making the world obey me. But power was useless if I couldn't protect the people who depended on me.
I rose and turned to Marco.
“Take Evelyn and Grace to the estate. Double the guards. Leo stays with them, and nobody enters the children's wing without your personal approval.””
“What about Vanessa?””
“If she returns, don't confront her alone. I want her alive.””
Marco nodded.
I headed upstairs.
The chapel doors stood open, rain blowing across the broken stone floor. Outside, our guards were searching the surrounding trees.
One of them hurried toward me.
“Sir, we found a vehicle abandoned near the eastern wall.””
“Whose?””
“Registered to Dr. Samuel Reed.””
I stopped.
“Is he inside?””
“No, sir. The car is empty.””
I looked toward the road.
Vanessa had disappeared. Reed had disappeared. Adrian was alive, and my daughters had been separated under a conspiracy that reached back into my father's business.
The pieces were beginning to form a picture.
But I still couldn't see who had drawn it.
“Find Reed,” I ordered.
“Alive.””
Then I got into the car.
The warehouse stood twelve miles from the estate, beyond a row of shuttered factories and an old railway crossing. The service road was barely wide enough for two vehicles, and weeds scraped against the sides of our SUV as we approached.
Marco's replacement driver kept the headlights low.
At the final turn, I saw a light burning behind the warehouse's upper windows.
“Stop here,” I said.
The driver pulled over.
I checked my phone. The message containing Lily's photograph had arrived from an unregistered number. Beneath the image, the sender had included one additional line.
*Come alone if you want her alive.*
I showed it to Marco.
He read it twice.
“It's a trap.””
“Of course it is.””
“Then we should wait for the full team.””
I looked at the illuminated window.
“Lily doesn't have time for a full team.””
Marco's jaw tightened.
“I'm not letting you walk in there without support.””
“Then stay close enough to help and far enough away that nobody sees you.””
He considered this, then nodded to two men waiting in the second vehicle.
They moved into the darkness around the loading bays.
I approached the warehouse alone.
The side door was unlocked.
Inside, the air smelled of rust, damp concrete, and old oil. My footsteps echoed through the empty building. Somewhere above me, metal scraped against metal.
“Lily?””
No answer.
I followed the sound toward the staircase.
Halfway up, I saw a fresh footprint in the dust.
Small.
A child's shoe.
At the top, a narrow corridor led to a room with a single fluorescent light.
I pushed open the door.
Lily sat exactly as she had in the photograph, her wrists tied to the chair. The tape remained across her mouth.
But the room was empty otherwise.
No guard.
No weapon.
No visible camera.
I moved toward her.
“Lily, I'm going to remove the tape. Don't be afraid.””
She shook her head frantically.
I stopped.
“What is it?””
She looked past me.
I turned.
A voice came from the doorway.
“You shouldn't have come, Dante.””
Adrian stepped into the light.
My brother looked older than he had four years earlier, but not nearly as old as a dead man should have looked. His hair had grown longer, silver streaking his temples. A deep scar ran from his jaw toward his ear.
He wore no disguise.
He didn't need one.
I had seen his face in every family photograph since childhood.
For a long moment, neither of us moved.
Then I said, “You let me bury an empty coffin.””
Adrian looked at Lily.
“I didn't have a choice.””
“You always had a choice.””
“I was trying to protect the children.””
“By stealing them from me?””
His expression tightened.
“By keeping them alive.””
I stepped toward him.
“You separated my daughters, let Isabella disappear, and watched me spend six years searching for answers you already had.””
“I didn't know where Isabella was.””
“But you knew she was alive.””
He didn't deny it.
My hands curled into fists.
“Why?””
Adrian glanced at the girl.
“Because our father wasn't the only man involved in what happened. There were people who would have killed anyone who threatened to expose the network. Isabella found proof that two senior partners were using the adoption operation to blackmail powerful families.””
“And the girls?””
“They were leverage.””
The words made my stomach turn.
Adrian continued.
“If Evelyn and Lily remained together, anyone searching for them could find both. Separating them gave them a chance to survive.””
“You could have told me.””
“You would have brought every man in your organization down on them. You would have hunted the people responsible, and they would have struck back.””
“So you decided I couldn't be trusted with my own children?””
“I decided you were dangerous.””
The answer was so familiar that it almost sounded like something our father would have said.
I looked at Lily.
She was watching us with wide, frightened eyes.
“Untie her.””
Adrian didn't move.
“First, you need to understand what you're dealing with.””
I stepped forward until we stood inches apart.
“Untie. My. Daughter.””
Something in my voice finally reached him.
He took a small knife from his pocket, moved behind Lily, and cut the ropes.
She scrambled away from him and ran straight into my arms.
I caught her.
She clung to my coat, sobbing into my chest.
“It's okay,” I whispered.
“You're safe.””
Adrian watched us without expression.
Then he said, “You need to leave now.””
I lifted my head.
“Why?””
He looked toward the corridor.
“Because the man who ordered Lily's abduction knows you're here.””
A loud metallic crash sounded downstairs.
Then came the unmistakable click of a weapon being cocked.
Adrian's face changed.
“Get down!””
He lunged toward me as the first shot tore through the doorway.
Glass exploded above our heads.
I dragged Lily behind the concrete wall while Adrian returned fire.
Three more shots rang out.
Then silence.
I looked toward my brother.
“Who the hell is shooting at us?””
Adrian's face had gone white.
He looked at me, and for the first time since his return from the dead, I saw genuine fear.
“Your security chief,” he whispered.
“Marco?””
Adrian nodded.
May you like
Then he said the words that shattered whatever trust I had left.
“He's been working for our father since before you took over the family.””
