Chapter 3 - SHADOWS OF THE PAST
The revelation hit Claire like a physical blow. The father who had taught her the Five Gates, the man who smelled of motor oil and peppermint, had been collateral damage in a billionaire's war.
"If you knew," Claire whispered, anger finally piercing her shock, "why are you marrying the daughter of the man who ordered his death?"
Adrian walked to a mahogany safe hidden behind a painting, spinning the dial. "Because to tear down a fortress, you have to be invited inside." He pulled out a thick dossier. "For eight years, I have played the obedient partner. I courted Vanessa, I merged our boards, I played the fool. I needed access to Sterling Development's internal servers to prove they hired the hitman and orchestrated the fraud. The wedding was the final Trojan horse."
He tossed the dossier on the table. It was filled with surveillance photos of Richard Sterling, Vanessa's father, meeting with known syndicate fixers.
"But I was missing the physical ledger," Adrian explained. "Richard is old-school. He keeps a physical black book of his dirty payoffs. It's hidden in the Sterling penthouse here in the hotel. I haven't been able to find it."
May you like
Claire looked at the dossier, then down at her gray maid’s uniform. She thought of her father’s smile, of the empty chair at her mother’s funeral three years later. She stood up, her posture changing. The subservient slump of a hotel maid vanished, replaced by the centered balance of a martial artist.
"You can't get into the penthouse without being noticed," Claire said, her voice like steel. "But I can. I’m invisible."
