Chapter 18 - THE MIDNIGHT AGREEMENT|
Adrienne received the transfer documents at 9:17 p.m.
They were delivered to the estate by a courier who claimed he had been paid to hand them directly to him. The package contained a corporate resolution, an authorization form, and a letter written in Nathan's name.
The letter was brief.
Adrienne,
I have spent eight years trying to keep the people we love alive. You can call it cowardice if you want. You can call it betrayal. But if you refuse to sign, Lena will pay for a war she never chose.
Sign the documents before midnight. Do not involve the police.
N.
Adrienne read the letter twice.
Marisol stood beside him.
“Would Nathan really threaten a child?”
“I don't know what my brother has become.”
“Could someone have written this to make you believe it's him?”
“Yes.”
“Then we need to find Lena before you make any decision.”
Grant had already traced the courier's route. The man had collected the package from a locker near the harbor. The locker had been rented using a false identity, but the security camera captured a person entering the area wearing a dark coat and a cap.
The figure's face was never visible.
At ten o'clock, the detective assembled a small team to locate the school in the photograph. The building had been identified as a private academy outside Boston. Lena was not currently enrolled there, but a former teacher remembered a girl who had attended for one semester under the name Lena Reed.
Her records had been withdrawn abruptly.
The guardian listed on the enrollment form was a woman named Claire Bennett.
Marisol searched the name.
A Claire Bennett had worked for the Hawthorne Foundation years earlier as a caseworker, arranging temporary housing for vulnerable families. She had retired and disappeared from public records.
“Could she be the woman who took Lena from the hospital?” Marisol asked.
“Possibly,” the detective said. “We need to confirm it.”
A financial trail led to a small rental property on the outskirts of Worcester. The lease was held by a nonprofit that had once received funding from the foundation.
Police arrived at the address shortly before eleven.
The house was empty.
A red scarf lay on the kitchen table beside a half-finished cup of tea. In a bedroom upstairs, investigators found a child's drawing of a large house with a garden and a man standing in the doorway.
Above the drawing, a child had written:
MY DADDY WILL COME BACK WHEN IT IS SAFE.
Marisol felt her throat tighten.
The detectives found a second clue inside a drawer: a photograph of Nathan holding a little girl in a red coat. The image was recent enough to show that he had aged, but the scar above his eyebrow was unmistakable.
Nathan was alive.
And he had been near Lena.
At 11:23 p.m., Adrienne received a video call from an unknown number.
The screen showed a dimly lit room.
Nathan sat at a table, older and thinner than in the photographs. His hair had turned gray at the temples. A healing cut crossed his forehead.
“Hello, little brother,” he said.
Adrienne could not speak.
Nathan smiled sadly.
“You look exactly the same.”
“You're alive.”
“Obviously.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
Nathan's smile faded.
“Because home was where the people trying to kill us had the most power.”
“Did you arrange the poisoning?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange Emilio's kidnapping?”
“No.”
“Did you send the documents?”
Nathan looked toward someone outside the frame.
“I sent the letter. The documents came from someone else.”
“Who?”
Nathan leaned closer to the camera.
“Malcolm told you about the trust, didn't he?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know he was involved.”
“He says he was trying to protect you.”
“He was trying to protect the company. There is a difference.”
Adrienne gripped the desk.
“Where is Lena?”
Nathan's expression hardened.
“Safe, for now.”
“Then bring her to us.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because if I bring her to you, they will follow her. If I stay away, they can use her to force me out of hiding. There is no safe move left.”
The clock on the wall ticked toward midnight.
Adrienne looked at the documents.
“If I sign, what happens?”
“The company changes hands. The trust becomes inaccessible. Gideon gets what he's wanted since Father died.”
“Then why are you asking me to sign?”
“Because I am not the one who sent the ultimatum.”
Nathan's voice lowered.
“Adrienne, listen to me. Someone has been using my name to move the pieces. Celeste was one piece. Victor was another. But the person who controls the entire operation is someone you still trust.”
The screen flickered.
Nathan looked over his shoulder.
Then he whispered one final sentence.
“Do not let Marisol open the second envelope.”
The call ended.
Adrienne stared at the blank screen.
Marisol stepped back.
“What second envelope?”
Neither of them knew.
But someone had already placed one on the desk.
It was sealed in red wax.
May you like
And on the front, written in a familiar hand, were the words:
FOR MARISOL VEGA ONLY.
