Chapter 4 - The Ledger’s Weight
The room fell into an intense silence. Adrian processed the information rapidly. The maid he had hired eight months ago was carrying the ultimate collateral against Victor Kane—and her child was Kane’s own niece.
“Where are the ledgers now?” Adrian asked directly.
Clara pointed with a hand that trembled visibly toward the small wooden closet in the corner of her room. “In the false bottom of my trunk. Hard drives and encrypted flash drives containing ten years of Victor’s illegal operations.”
Adrian signaled to Daniel, who was standing near the door. Daniel walked over to the closet, retrieved a heavy black lockbox from behind a panel, and brought it to Adrian.
“Why come here?” Adrian asked, fixing his gaze on Clara. “Why take a job as a maid in my house?”
“Because you were the only man in Chicago Victor was afraid of,” Clara said fiercely, meeting his eyes for the first time. “I knew if I was anywhere else, his men would catch us and bury us. I thought... I thought if I stayed hidden under your roof, in the background, your security would keep us safe without you ever having to know.”
“You used my estate as a shield,” Adrian said, his tone dropping dangerously low.
“I was protecting my daughter!” Clara cried out, her voice breaking. “I didn't care what happened to me! But Victor... if he gets Lily, he will raise her to be just like him, or worse. I had no choice!”
Lily looked up at her mother, sensing her distress, and wrapped her small arms around Clara’s neck. “Don't cry, Mommy. The tall man said you were going to be okay. He promised.”
Clara looked at Adrian with a mixture of shock and desperation. Adrian felt a strange, uncharacteristic discomfort in his chest. He had made a promise to a three-year-old child, and in his world, a Moretti never broke his word.
“Marcus betrayed us,” Adrian said flatly, changing the subject. “He gave Kane’s man the entrance codes tonight.”
Clara’s face went pale. “Marcus? But he was the one who helped me get hired here...”
“Then Marcus was Kane’s asset from the very beginning,” Adrian concluded grimly. “He let you hide here, waiting for the right moment when Victor wanted to retrieve the drives without sparking an open war with me. But tonight, they got greedy.”
Adrian stood up and straightened his coat. “Daniel, move Clara and Lily to the master suite in the main house. Post four armed guards at the door. Nobody goes in or out without my personal authorization.”
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“The master suite, sir?” Daniel asked, surprised. The master suite was the safest, most heavily fortified bunker in the entire mansion.
“You heard me,” Adrian said. He turned back to Clara. “You wanted my protection, Miss Vance. Now you have it. But from this moment on, you follow my rules.”
