Chapter 8 - The Son Nobody Mentioned
My father had another son.
Melissa found the birth record before breakfast.
His name was Adrian Cole, forty-three years old, born to a woman named Margaret Cole when my father was twenty-six. Dad had quietly paid child support for eighteen years through a law firm. After that, Adrian vanished from public records for almost a decade.
Then he resurfaced under a new corporate identity.
Adrian Cross.
The name made my blood go cold.
Cross Risk Management had handled private security for Mercer Holdings since before Rebecca died.
The same company had access to our estate camera system.
The same company had hired the supervisor who told me the hallway video had been remotely deleted.
I called him into my study.
“Who authorized remote access yesterday?”
He sweated immediately.
“I don’t know.”
“You have ten seconds before the police hear that answer.”
His eyes dropped. “Mr. Cross.”
Grace whispered, “Adrian.”
The supervisor nodded.
“He said it was a maintenance emergency.”
I fired him on the spot and had our new security team escort him outside.
Noah walked in a few minutes later holding a picture he had drawn. Me, him, his mother in heaven, and Grace beside a tree.
“Is Miss Victoria gone forever?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He studied my face. “Are you mad at Grace?”
“I’m trying to understand some things.”
He took my hand. “She didn’t lie about loving me.”
Five-year-olds have a way of cutting through adult excuses.
That afternoon, Melissa discovered Adrian had visited my father four times during the final month of Dad’s life.
Eric had visited six times.
I had visited twice.
Then an email arrived from Victoria.
ONE MEETING. NO POLICE. I’LL TELL YOU WHO REALLY WANTED REBECCA DEAD.
There was an address for a closed restaurant by the lake.
Grace said, “It’s a trap.”
“Probably.”
“You’re still going.”
“Yes.”
She grabbed her coat.
“No. You stay with Noah.”
Her expression sharpened. “Daniel, my sister died in this too.”
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
It was Eric.
His voice was barely a whisper.
“Don’t meet Victoria.”
“Why?”
May you like
“Because Adrian already knows where she is.”
A gunshot cracked through Eric’s phone.
