Chapter 3 - The Funeral Without a Body)
The night Elena supposedly died returned to Marcus in fragments.
Rain against the hospital windows.
Victoria holding his shoulders.
A doctor he did not recognize telling him the burns were extensive.
Adrian standing in the hallway.
The closed coffin.
And Marcus signing papers he had barely read.
At the time, he had called his mother's efficiency a mercy.
Now he saw something else.
Control.
Every decision had passed through Victoria.
Which hospital.
Which funeral home.
Which police contact.
Which attorney handled the estate.
Marcus had not questioned any of it because his wife had just died and his daughter was two years old.
He had been useful precisely because he had been broken.
At six the next morning, Marcus entered the family library.
Victoria was already there.
She stood beside the fireplace holding coffee.
Adrian sat near the window.
Marcus stopped in the doorway.
"I told security he leaves."
Victoria sighed.
"Marcus, don't behave like a child."
"Adrian leaves."
Adrian smirked.
"I think I'll stay."
Marcus nodded toward Nathan.
Two guards entered.
Adrian stood.
"You touch me and you'll regret it."
Marcus looked at him.
"You grabbed my daughter."
"She stole property."
"She's six."
"She went into a private bedroom."
Marcus moved closer.
"What was in the silver case?"
For the first time Adrian hesitated.
Victoria stepped between them.
"There was no silver case."
Marcus smiled without humor.
"I have video."
Victoria's jaw tightened.
"Then you know Lily trespassed."
Marcus looked at his mother for several seconds.
"Is Elena alive?"
Silence.
It was brief.
But too brief.
Victoria's fingers tightened around her coffee cup.
Adrian looked toward her.
Marcus saw everything he needed.
He crossed the room so quickly Victoria stepped backward.
"You knew."
"Marcus, listen to me."
"You knew."
"You don't understand what happened."
Marcus knocked the coffee cup from her hand.
It shattered against the fireplace.
Victoria stared at him.
He had never physically intimidated his mother before.
He hated that it had come to this.
But he hated more that she had looked into his eyes for four years and watched him mourn a woman who might still be alive.
"Tell me where my wife is."
Victoria's expression hardened.
"Elena made choices."
"What choices?"
"Choices that endangered this family."
"Where is she?"
"Some truths are more complicated than you are capable of understanding right now."
Marcus laughed once.
It sounded ugly.
"That sentence may have worked when I was sixteen."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Marcus, you're crossing a line."
Marcus turned.
"No. The line was grabbing my daughter."
He nodded to security.
"Remove him."
The guards approached.
Adrian's arrogance vanished.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Then educate me."
Adrian leaned closer.
"The Thorne name isn't yours because you inherited money."
Marcus stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
Victoria snapped, "Adrian."
Adrian stopped.
Marcus noticed.
Something Victoria feared him saying.
Good.
Marcus looked at his mother.
"What is Subject 07?"
Victoria became perfectly still.
Nathan, standing near the door, noticed too.
Marcus pulled out the old photograph.
"My father. Elias Vale. Adrian's father. Twenty-one years ago."
Victoria stared at the image.
"Where did you get that?"
"So you recognize it."
"Destroy it."
Marcus almost smiled.
"Why?"
"Because your father spent his life trying to make sure certain things stayed buried."
"Like Elena?"
Victoria's eyes flashed.
"Your wife was not innocent."
Marcus took another step.
"Careful."
"She lied to you."
"About what?"
"About who she was."
Marcus's pulse accelerated.
Victoria looked toward sleeping chambers upstairs as though Lily could somehow hear through two floors of stone.
"Elena came into this family for a reason."
"What reason?"
"She was looking for records."
"What records?"
Victoria did not answer.
Marcus pulled out the broken pendant.
Her fear returned.
"What is this?"
Victoria whispered, "A key."
"To what?"
Before she could answer, an explosion shook the house.
Windows rattled.
Lily screamed upstairs.
Marcus ran.
Smoke billowed through the east corridor.
Fire alarms erupted.
One of Nathan's guards shouted that the security room had been hit.
Marcus reached Lily and lifted her into his arms.
Nathan appeared seconds later.
"The server room."
"Fire?"
"Incendiary device."
"Footage?"
"Destroyed."
Marcus looked toward the staircase.
"Adrian."
Nathan shook his head.
"He's gone."
"What?"
"During the alarm. He disappeared through the service exit."
Marcus turned toward Victoria.
She stood at the far end of the corridor.
For the first time she looked genuinely frightened.
"Marcus," she said.
"What?"
"If Adrian ran..."
She swallowed.
"Then they know you have the key."
"Who are they?"
May you like
Victoria looked at the broken crystal in his hand.
"The people your father was trying to escape."
