Chapter 13 - The Fall from the Tower
The gun clicked.
Nothing happened.
Mia had removed the magazine while Nathan forced her to sign the papers.
Nathan stared at the useless weapon.
Mia pulled the fire alarm.
Sprinklers exploded from the ceiling.
Adrian charged forward.
Nathan threw Mia aside.
She slid across the wet marble floor.
Nathan ran toward the balcony.
Adrian tackled him near the glass doors.
They crashed through a table.
Nathan struck Adrian’s wounded shoulder.
Adrian nearly lost consciousness.
Nathan grabbed a broken piece of glass.
He raised it over Adrian’s chest.
Mia threw the metal fire alarm handle.
It struck Nathan’s temple.
He turned toward her.
Adrian drove his shoulder into Nathan’s waist.
Both men crashed through the balcony barrier.
Adrian caught the steel railing.
Nathan caught Adrian’s injured arm.
They hung above the street.
Mia screamed.
Tactical officers grabbed Adrian’s legs.
Nathan looked up at him.
“Help me.”
Adrian struggled to hold him.
Nathan’s fingers began slipping.
“You murdered my brother.”
Nathan looked toward the street.
“I can tell you where the rest of the evidence is.”
“Where?”
“In your father’s grave.”
Adrian’s grip tightened.
Nathan smiled.
“He took every secret with him.”
Then Nathan reached for Adrian’s injured shoulder.
He pressed his thumb into the bullet wound.
Adrian cried out.
Nathan tried to pull him over the edge.
An officer grabbed Adrian’s wrist.
Nathan lost his hold.
He fell.
A maintenance platform ten floors below caught him.
He survived with multiple broken bones.
Police arrested him at the scene.
The explosives beneath the employees were fake.
Nathan had never intended to destroy the building.
He only wanted Adrian to believe he would.
Hours later, Adrian stood beside Robert Vale’s grave.
Federal investigators obtained an emergency order to open it.
The coffin contained Robert’s remains.
Beneath the coffin was a sealed metal box.
Inside were original patient records.
There were photographs of men and women who had disappeared from shelters.
There were payment ledgers.
There were signed orders.
And there was one final recording.
Robert Vale’s voice filled the cemetery tent.
“If you are hearing this, Julian has failed to keep quiet.”
“Celeste believes she killed him for her family.”
“She does not know I arranged everything.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
His father had manipulated Celeste into murdering Julian.
The recording continued.
“Adrian must never learn the truth.”
“He is too weak to protect what I built.”
Mia stood beside Adrian.
She held his hand.
Robert’s final words played.
“If Adrian ever discovers this, the Vale empire must be destroyed before he can give it away.”
A clicking sound came from inside the metal box.
Brooks looked down.
A red light began flashing.
“Everyone move!”
Officers dragged Adrian and Mia away.
The box exploded.
The cemetery tent erupted in flames.
Most of the original evidence burned.
The remaining files were damaged beyond recognition.
Adrian watched the fire consume his father’s secrets.
Nathan had told the truth.
But someone else had activated the device.
Someone who knew the grave had been opened.
Brooks checked her phone.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?”
She looked at Adrian.
“Celeste disappeared from the hospital.”
Adrian stared at the burning grave.
Celeste was injured.
She was wanted.
And she had nowhere left to run.
Then Mia’s phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Evelyn and Noah were asleep in their hospital room.
Celeste stood beside the crib.
A knife rested against Noah’s blanket.
The message read:
May you like
COME ALONE, OR THE BABY DIES.
---
