ADRIAN’S POV

“What do you mean what they found, only a few people knew about it? If it wasn’t Marcus, then who else could bhave /bknown about this?” James asked, his voice sharper than usual, tinged with frustration he rarely showed around meb. /b

I turned slightly, locking my gaze on him. “The only person other than myself who knew where my notebook was hidden and where all those old files were stored on myptop was Olivia,” I said, my tone low, every word measured. “But bwe /bcan’t suspect her. She’s dead. And she didn’t keep friends. That guy she used to talk to? He died with her. That information was supposed to have died with them.”

James fell silent for a moment, processing, then pressed again. “So who found out about it then? Because someone clearly did, and they didn’t just keep it to themselves.”

I clenched my jaw, feeling the cold re of anger simmer under my calm. “Call Dan,” I ordered, my voice dropping even lower. “Tell him to get here immediately.”

James nodded, pulling out his phone without another word.

I turned away from him and walked over to the corner of the room where a tall, dark cab stood. Pulling it openb, /bbI /breached for a decanter of whiskey. My hand barely shook, but I could feel the pressure building in my chest as I poured the

amber liquid into a heavy ss.

“He was meant to have gotten rid of all the evidence,” I added, more to myself than to James. “So how the hell did the police find the bodies?”

The ss felt cold and solid in my grip as I raised it to my lips, the burn of the drink grounding me just enough to stop the thoughts swirling too fast in my head.

Olivia couldn’t have done this. She’s dead. So who?

A few minutester, James moved to the door as it opened. Dan stepped in quietly, his shoulders squared but his eyes

darting briefly between James and me as though trying to read the room before speaking.

“You asked to see me, sir?” Dan said, his voice careful, respectful, as he stepped closer and gave a small bow.

I turned fully toward him, swirling the whiskey in my ss. “Remember a few years ago? The Graysons.” My words were slow, each one deliberate, “After I was finished with them, what did I tell you to do?”

Dan didn’t hesitate. “You told us to get rid of the bodies somewhere no one would ever find them.” His voice was steady,

but his shoulders tensed slightly as he spoke.

“And did you do that?” I asked, my tone/deceptively calm, my gaze locked on his face.

“Yes, boss,” he replied, nodding once/quickly. “We took them far out, to the river bend. Weighted them down, left nothing that could point back to you. No one should ever find them.”

I let his words hang in the air for a second, staring at him as though weighing something invisible. Then I nodded bslowly/b, deliberately.

b1/3 /b

b09:57 /bbThu /b37 Jul

And then, without warning, I hurled the ss at him.

The crystal shattered against the side of his face, shards skidding across the marble floor. Dan flinched, stumbling back a step, his jaw tightening as blood welled in a thin line across his cheek. But he didn’t lift a hand to touch it. He didn’t cry

out.

The whiskey sshed onto his shirt, the smell sharp in the air.

1 stepped closer, my voice dropping even lower, barely above a whisper but heavy as stone. “So how were the bodies found, Dan? Someone found them, tipped off the police, and now I’ve spent half my morning and more money than you can imagine cleaning up the mess you swore could never happen.”

“Sir, we did exactly like you said,” Dan stammered, blood already trickling down his cheek from the cut I’d given him moments earlier. “After we burned the bodies, we threw them into the bottom of the river.”

The words barely left his mouth before something inside me froze.

“Wait.” My voice turned sharp, slicing through the thick air of the room. “You said river, which river exactly?”

Dan hesitated, his eyes darting briefly toward James, as if hoping for help that wouldn’te. “We dumped them at the bottom of Lake George,i” /ihe said finally, swallowing hard. “The one not too far from here.”

And there it was the moment when realization hit, cold and sharp as steel.

My fingers twitched slightly at my side. “I told you,” I said, my tone dropping lower, quieter, but each word struck like a hammer, “to dispose of them in the middle of the sea, the Pacific if possible. Somewhere so deep no one would ever find them. And you dumped them in the middle of ake?”

Dan’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again. “I… I thought they were all the same thing,” he murmured, his voice

small, pitiful.

A muscle in my jaw tightened, anger beginning to pulse in my temples. “Guess what, Dan,” I said, the words rolling off my tongue slow, deliberate, venomous. “Because of your stupid act because you didn’t know the difference between ake and an ocean someone found those bodies. And now I have someone out there, in the shadows, who knows far too much about me. Someone who could ruin everything I’ve built.”

My tone wasn’t loud. It didn’t have to be. Dan flinched back as if each syble struck him physically.

James, standing just behind me with arms crossed, spoke next, his voice as cool and smooth as marble. “I suggest you leave now before he kills you.”

Dan bowed his head so quickly it looked like a reflex, blood still dripping onto the marble floor. Then, without waiting another second, he turned and all but fled the room, his footsteps retreating fast toward the front door until silence settled in his ce.

For a long moment, I didn’t move. My breath was controlled, but beneath the surface a storm raged–angerb, /bfrustration, and the icy calction that always came before action.

James stepped closer, lowering his arms. “I told you from the start this woulde back to haunt you,” he said quietly, not using, just stating what we both knew. “Now how do you n to handle all of this at once? You’ve got Marcus

09:57 Thu, 31 Jul

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breathing down your neck, this unknown enemy digging up your past, and you’re still trying to unmask the identity bof /bbthat /bmasked woman.”

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