Chương 4
A bookshelf.
A television that looked older than everything else in the room.
Maria walked slowly toward the kitchen.
She didn't touch anything.
She just looked.
"I've never been here."
Her voice was quiet.
I watched her reaction.
There was no recognition.
No hidden memory.
Only sadness.
"You never wondered where he went when he said he had work?"
Maria gave a small laugh without humor.
"Of course I wondered."
"Then why didn't you follow?"
"Because I trusted him."
The answer was simple.
It made me uncomfortable.
Trust was something I rarely gave and almost never received.
To me, secrets were usually weapons.
To her, a secret had been something a person could carry because they were afraid.
Marcus moved toward the back room.
"Boss."
I followed him.
The bedroom was empty except for a closet.
The closet door was slightly open.
Inside were several boxes.
Nothing unusual.
Until Marcus picked up the first one.
It was filled with old company documents.
I felt my jaw tighten.
Maria came behind us.
"What is it?"
I pulled out a folder.
The logo on the corner belonged to one of my companies.
The waterfront project.
The same project that had cost me millions.
The same project that had supposedly ended with accounting errors.
The same project connected to a dead man.
I opened the folder.
The first pages were invoices.
The numbers looked familiar.
Too familiar.
I had seen them before.
But I had never looked closely.
That was the problem with being powerful.
People brought information to me after cleaning it.
They removed confusion.
They removed problems.
They gave me summaries.
And sometimes, they removed the truth.
"These aren't copies," Marcus said.
I looked at him.
"How do you know?"
"Because the signatures are original."
He pointed at the bottom of a page.
I recognized one name.
Vincent Russo.
My former lieutenant.
The man who betrayed me.
The man I believed had only sold information to a rival family.
I stared at the signature.
Something inside me shifted.
Not because Vincent had lied.
I already knew he had.
Because I suddenly wondered how long he had been lying.
Maria noticed my expression.
"What is it?"
I didn't answer immediately.
That was rare for me.
She noticed that too.
"Daniel."
I placed the paper down.
"My betrayal might have started earlier than I thought."
The sentence sounded strange coming from me.
I had spent years believing Vincent's betrayal was a single event.
A moment where someone chose money over loyalty.
But maybe it had been something slower.
A series of decisions.
A chain of people making small choices until everything became impossible to hide.
Marcus opened another folder.
"There's more."
Inside were copies of bank transfers.
Dates.
Amounts.
Names.
Some I knew.
Some I didn't.
Then I saw Adrian's notes.
Small handwritten comments in the margins.
Questions.
Arrows.
Warnings.
He had been building something.
Not a report.
A case.
Maria moved closer.
"That is his handwriting."
I nodded.
She touched the edge of the paper but stopped herself.
"He was trying to prove something."
"Yes."
"What?"
I read the next line.
Then I read it again.
"That someone inside the company was moving money through fake vendors."
Marcus looked at me.
"How much?"
I continued looking through the documents.
"Enough."
That was not an answer.
But it was the only one I had.
The amount was large enough to hurt.
Not large enough to be noticed immediately.
That was how professionals stole.
Not with one dramatic move.
With small pieces.
Small enough that nobody wanted to admit something was wrong.
Maria sat down on the edge of the bed.
Her face had changed.
"What happened to him?"
I didn't respond.
Because I was asking the same question.
A sound came from the hallway.
All three of us froze.
Sofia looked up.
"Mommy?"
Marcus moved immediately.
He stepped in front of us.
His hand went toward the weapon hidden under his jacket.
I hated that my first instinct was not fear.
It was anger.
Someone had entered a place connected to my past.
Someone had put Maria and her daughter in danger.
And I still didn't know who.
The hallway remained silent.
Then a small object rolled into the room.
A phone.
An old one.
It stopped near my shoe.
Nobody moved.
Marcus looked at me.
"Don't touch it."
I nodded.
A second later, his own phone rang.
The sound made everyone jump.
He answered.
"Bell."
A voice came through.
His expression changed.
"What do you mean missing?"
I watched him.
"Who reported it?"
A pause.
"Send me the information."
He ended the call.
"What happened?"
Marcus looked at the phone on the floor.
Then at me.
"The police found out someone accessed Adrian Cole's old records last night."
"Who?"
"They don't know."
"Then why does that matter?"
"Because the person who accessed them used Adrian's old employee credentials."
The room went silent.
Maria looked confused.
"But Adrian is dead."
Marcus nodded.
"Exactly."
I stared at the phone sitting on the floor.
Someone had left it for us.
Someone wanted us to find it.
Or someone wanted us to think we found it.
Either way, it was a message.
I picked it up.
Marcus immediately stepped forward.
"Boss."
I ignored him.
The screen was cracked.
The battery was almost dead.
There was one notification waiting.
A message.
No number attached.
Only a name.
Adrian.
My fingers stopped.
I knew it was impossible.
I knew phones could be manipulated.
I knew people could fake things.
But for one second, standing in that empty apartment with Maria and her daughter behind me, I felt the same thing I had felt when I first heard Adrian's voice in my old voicemail.
A person I ignored was trying to reach me.
I opened the message.
There was only one sentence.
"Daniel, if you are reading this, they know I failed."
I read it again.
May you like
Then the phone went black.
I stared at the dead screen until my reflection appeared in the black glass.
