Chương 6
“Why?”
Vincent’s silence answered.
Adrian stepped toward him.
“Why?”
“There was an internal issue.”
“What issue?”
“Billing.”
Adrian laughed without amusement.
“You’re lying.”
“I am not.”
“You blink twice when you lie.”
Vincent’s face went rigid.
The familiarity of the accusation made Elena feel briefly like an intruder.
Then she remembered whose money they were discussing.
“Where is Daniel Mercer now?”
Vincent looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian said, “You know.”
“Not exactly.”
“Phone.”
Vincent stared at him.
“What?”
“Give me your phone.”
“No.”
Adrian held out his hand.
“Then call him.”
“You don’t give me orders.”
“Today I do.”
Vincent took a step forward.
The groom was not small, but beside Adrian the movement looked reckless.
“Do not turn this into one of your power games.”
Adrian’s face remained still.
“My power games didn’t hide four hundred thousand dollars from a woman whose mother died because one of our drivers crossed into her lane.”
Vincent’s eyes flashed.
“You weren’t running the company then.”
“That doesn’t absolve me now.”
“It wasn’t your decision.”
“It was my name on the building.”
“It was Dad’s company.”
“And now it’s mine.”
Elena heard that and looked at Adrian.
Something in his face closed.
She had known he worked for his family years ago.
She had never asked much about it.
At the hospital, when her mother lay unconscious behind gray curtains and the machines hissed around them, Adrian had been the stranger who bought her coffee because the vending machine rejected her crumpled dollar.
He had stayed because nobody else came.
She had never connected that stranger to the blue logo on the truck.
Her stomach turned.
“You knew the company had been involved.”
Adrian looked at her.
“No.”
“You were there.”
His brow furrowed.
“At the hospital.”
“I was there because of you.”
“How did you find me?”
The question changed everything.
Adrian’s mouth closed.
Elena saw the hesitation and felt something colder than shock enter her chest.
“Adrian.”
He looked away for the first time.
“How did you know I was there?”
Vincent’s expression shifted.
A small, ugly satisfaction appeared.
Madison noticed it too.
Adrian said, “I was sent.”
Elena’s fingers went numb again.
“By who?”
“My father.”
The answer barely carried.
“You told me you were visiting someone.”
“I was.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Her hand slipped from the chair.
She steadied herself.
Every memory of those days rearranged itself at once.
Adrian sitting beside her in the cafeteria at three in the morning.
Adrian finding a charger for her dead phone.
Adrian arguing with a nurse when Elena had been told to wait outside intensive care.
Adrian driving her home after her mother died because she could not remember her own address clearly enough for a cab driver.
She had thought kindness had found her accidentally.
It had been dispatched.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the truck.”
“I knew one of our vehicles had been involved in an incident.”
“An incident.”
His face tightened.
“That was the language I was given.”
“My mother was dying.”
“I know.”
“You knew that day.”
“I knew there had been a crash and that the company was trying to contact the family.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was told not to discuss liability until counsel spoke with you.”
Elena stared at him.
“You stayed with me for four days.”
His eyes darkened.
“Yes.”
“You slept in a chair outside intensive care.”
“Yes.”
“You brought me breakfast.”
“Yes.”
“Were you reporting back?”
The question hit him harder than anything else had.
“No.”
She waited.
“Never?”
He swallowed.
“The first night I called my father.”
Elena felt something break inside her.
“What did you tell him?”
“That your mother was still in surgery.”
“What else?”
“That you were alone.”
She turned away.
Adrian moved toward her.
She held up a hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Madison’s eyes filled again, but this time she looked at Elena, not Vincent.
Vincent said, “This is exactly why Dad wanted it handled through lawyers.”
Adrian turned on him.
“Shut up.”
“I’m serious.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“You think being sentimental makes you innocent?”
Adrian’s face changed.
Vincent pressed on.
“You were supposed to make sure she had representation and keep her from going to the press.”
Elena turned back.
Adrian’s shoulders stiffened.
Vincent looked almost relieved to finally wound him.
“That was the assignment.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
He did not deny it.
Her voice came out thin.
“Was it?”
He took a breath.
“At first.”
The room disappeared for Elena.
There was only his face.
“At first.”
“I met you because my father sent me.”
“To keep me quiet.”
“To make sure someone from the family was there before counsel arrived.”
“That’s not what he asked.”
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
“No.”
“What did he ask?”
“Elena.”
“Say it.”
“He wanted me to keep you calm.”
She laughed again, but there was no humor in it.
“You did a very good job.”
“I didn’t stay because he told me to.”
“How convenient.”
“I stayed because you were twenty-four years old and sitting alone in a hospital with blood on your shoes.”
“Stop.”
“You hadn’t eaten.”
“Stop.”
“You were terrified.”
“I said stop.”
Adrian fell silent.
Elena could feel every guest watching, but shame had become too small for what was happening.
“You let me trust you.”
“Yes.”
“You let me tell you things.”
“Yes.”
“You knew your family was involved and you let me think you were just some man who happened to be there.”
“Yes.”
The honesty made it worse.
She stepped toward him.
“Why?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because by the second day, I was ashamed of why I came.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Because I liked you.”
Vincent looked away.
Madison’s lips parted.
Elena’s face burned.
Adrian continued before she could stop him.
“And because every hour I waited to tell you made telling you harder.”
“So you didn’t.”
“No.”
“For four days.”
“Yes.”
“Then my mother died.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“And after that?”
