Chapter 6 - THE MAN NOAH TRUSTED
Noah turned slowly.
Marcus stood at the bottom of the greenhouse steps.
His face was unreadable.
For fifteen years, Marcus Reed had protected the Hale family.
He had coordinated kidnappings threats, hostile shareholders, stalkers, and corporate espionage investigations.
Noah had trusted him with passwords.
Schedules.
Family travel.
Medical transportation.
Mia’s security routes.
Everything.
Now Ruth lay injured on the floor claiming that a man wearing Marcus’s unmistakable cuff links had attacked her.
Marcus looked down at his wrists.
No cuff links.
“Noah.”
“Don’t move.”
Marcus raised both hands.
“I didn’t touch her.”
Ruth’s breathing became weak.
Paramedics rushed into the greenhouse.
Noah stepped between Marcus and Mia.
“When did you remove your cuff links?”
“This morning.”
“Why?”
“One broke.”
“Where are they?”
“My apartment.”
Noah called one of the detectives waiting outside.
“Search it.”
Marcus looked furious.
“You think I did this?”
“I think I’m done assuming anyone is innocent.”
Ruth was taken to the hospital.
A fractured wrist.
Concussion.
Three broken ribs.
But she survived.
Marcus voluntarily surrendered his weapon and phone.
His apartment was searched.
The blue cuff links were found inside a dresser.
Both of them.
Unbroken.
Security footage from his building showed Marcus leaving home wearing neither.
Someone had copied them.
Another planted clue.
Another attempt to turn the family inward.
Mia understood before Noah did.
“Scarlett wants you suspicious of everyone.”
“She’s succeeding.”
“That doesn’t mean everyone is guilty.”
“She erased footage.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Adrian disappeared.”
“We don’t know why.”
“My father may have been murdered.”
Mia took his face between her hands.
“Noah.”
He stopped.
“This is how they win.”
He looked at her.
“They make you so afraid of being betrayed that eventually you have no one left to trust.”
The words struck him.
Because his father’s warning had done exactly that.
Do not trust loyalty that depends on money.
But it had not said trust no one.
That afternoon, investigators discovered the attack on Ruth had been captured by a garden camera.
The image was blurry.
A man in a dark coat.
Same height as Marcus.
Same build.
Blue cuff links visible.
But his face remained hidden.
Then Mia noticed something.
“Play it again.”
The detective did.
The attacker grabbed Ruth.
She fought.
His coat opened briefly.
Mia pointed.
“There.”
They froze the frame.
A thin white scar appeared across the back of the attacker’s right hand.
Marcus had no scar.
Adrian Vale did.
The conclusion seemed obvious.
Too obvious.
Noah refused to accept it yet.
They checked Adrian’s old medical records.
The scar matched.
Scarlett’s brother had attacked Ruth.
That night, Noah visited Scarlett.
She had not been charged yet.
Evidence remained incomplete.
But she was under court-ordered travel restrictions.
She stayed inside her penthouse with two attorneys.
Noah met her in the library.
“You always loved dramatic rooms,” she said.
He remained standing.
“Where is Adrian?”
Scarlett smiled.
“You think I keep him in a closet?”
“You know where he is.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“That accusation used to hurt me.”
Noah placed the photograph from the greenhouse on the table.
Scarlett looked at it.
Her smile vanished.
“You were there.”
Silence.
“The morning after my father died.”
Scarlett stared at the image for several seconds.
Then laughed softly.
“You really know nothing about your own family.”
“What happened?”
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“No, you don’t.”
She stood.
“You want a villain.”
She moved closer.
“You want me to be the woman who spent eighteen years plotting revenge because you didn’t marry her.”
“You pushed my pregnant wife.”
Scarlett’s eyes hardened.
“I lost control.”
“Why?”
“Because Mia was going to destroy everything.”
“What?”
Scarlett stopped herself.
Noah saw it.
“What was she going to destroy?”
Scarlett looked away.
He lowered his voice.
“What happened to my father?”
For the first time, she appeared genuinely frightened.
Not for herself.
Of something.
“My father did terrible things.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I was twenty-two.”
“You knew.”
“I knew enough.”
“You helped him.”
“I thought I was protecting my family.”
“Did Grant kill my father?”
Scarlett looked at Noah.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Ask Adrian.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah stepped closer.
“Scarlett.”
She whispered:
“If Adrian disappeared, it isn’t because he’s running from you.”
“Then who?”
Her answer came barely above a breath.
“Our father.”
Noah stared at her.
Scarlett continued.
“Adrian found something six months ago.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He stopped trusting me.”
“Why?”
“Because I was still protecting Dad.”
Noah felt something shift.
Scarlett turned away.
“When Mia became pregnant, Adrian started talking about leaving the company.”
She wiped her eyes angrily.
“He said the baby changed the timeline.”
“The audit.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Scarlett looked toward him.
Then said:
“Probably where Dad takes everyone who knows too much.”
Noah’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
Scarlett opened her mouth.
A shot shattered the library window.
Glass exploded across the room.
Noah dragged Scarlett to the floor.
Security rushed in.
Scarlett stared at the broken window.
Her face was white.
May you like
Then she looked at Noah.
“That,” she whispered, “is why I didn’t tell you.”
