Chapter 10 - Adrian’s Secret
“Tell me.”
Adrian looked around the hotel entrance.
Guests watched through the windows.
Police radios crackled behind us.
“This isn’t the place.”
I laughed once.
“I’ve heard that sentence enough tonight.”
“Mabel—”
“No.”
I stepped away from him.
“My father just told me you know something about Harbor Point.”
“I know something about the land.”
“What?”
Adrian exhaled.
“Come inside.”
“Answer me.”
His eyes met mine.
“There are underground utility tunnels beneath the eastern section.”
I frowned.
“So?”
“They connect to an old shipping terminal.”
“How old?”
“Cold War era.”
“And?”
“The terminal was decommissioned in the nineties.”
I stared at him.
“Why does Victor Sterling care?”
“We think someone used those tunnels.”
“For what?”
Adrian hesitated.
That tiny pause made my stomach twist.
“Moving things.”
“What things?”
“Cash. Records. Possibly electronics.”
“Smuggling?”
“Possibly.”
“You knew this?”
“I suspected it.”
“How long?”
“Six weeks.”
The same time Vale acquired Dad’s debt.
I stepped back.
“You bought the loan because of the tunnels.”
“Partly.”
“You told me it was a portfolio transaction.”
“It was.”
“That’s technically true.”
“Yes.”
“That’s lawyer language.”
“I know.”
I looked away.
My whole life, people had decided what truths I could handle.
I never expected Adrian to become one of them.
He touched my arm.
I pulled away.
“Mabel.”
“Did you investigate my father before tonight?”
Silence.
“Adrian.”
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“How much?”
“Enough to know his finances were unstable.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“When I had facts.”
“You had facts about my father using Harbor Point entities.”
“I had suspicions.”
“You let me walk into this wedding.”
“I asked you not to come.”
I stared at him.
There it was.
Three days earlier, he had said he had a bad feeling.
I thought he meant my family.
He had meant something else.
“You knew this wedding could be dangerous?”
“No. Not physically.”
“Then what?”
“I knew your father was under pressure.”
“And you didn’t think I deserved to know why?”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
I closed my eyes.
The sentence hurt because it sounded so familiar.
Families do things for each other.
I opened my eyes.
“Don’t protect me with lies.”
His face fell.
“You’re right.”
No defense.
No excuse.
Just that.
It took some anger out of me.
Not all.
But some.
Daniel came outside.
“We have movement.”
“What kind?” I asked.
“Sterling East just transferred ownership of three Harbor Point-adjacent parcels.”
“To whom?”
He held up his phone.
“MBC Consulting.”
I stared at him.
“My fake company?”
“Yes.”
Adrian swore under his breath.
Daniel continued.
“And the transfer documents were executed two days ago.”
“By my father?”
“No.”
He turned the screen toward us.
The signature wasn’t Dad’s.
It wasn’t mine either.
It belonged to someone else.
Fiona Callahan.
I stared through the hotel windows.
My sister stood inside, still wearing her wedding gown.
Crying in our mother’s arms.
“She said she knew nothing.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“She may not.”
I wanted to believe that.
Then Daniel enlarged the document.
Beside Fiona’s signature was a handwritten notation.
Payment upon ceremony completion.
Ceremony.
Wedding.
My stomach dropped.
“This wasn’t just a wedding.”
Adrian nodded.
“No.”
May you like
I looked through the glass at my sister.
“This was a closing.”
