Chapter Three

Adrian didn't move out the next morning.

Instead, he called Marcus and ordered him to remove everything that belonged to me.

Then he walked up the path behind the house.

I knew where he was going.

Lila Moore was buried at the top of the ridge.

Her grave had a view of the valley and a photograph set into the stone. She had a sweet face, bright eyes, and a smile that belonged to someone who expected to live much longer than twenty years.

Adrian knelt in the wet grass.

"She's dead, Lila."

His fingers traced the edge of the photograph.

"I made her pay."

He waited as if the grave might answer.

The sunrise spread across the valley behind him. He didn't look at it.

For years, hatred had given his life a direction. He had gone from a scholarship student with two shirts to one of Bellhaven's richest developers. He made enough money and built enough influence to challenge my family, then used both to isolate me and tear through Hart holdings one company at a time.

Now the woman he'd built it all to destroy was dead.

He should have looked satisfied.

He looked empty.

After an hour, he returned to the garage and drove into the old east side of the city.

The neighborhood had once been working class. Now half the buildings were abandoned and the other half were being turned into expensive apartments. Adrian parked outside a narrow brick duplex and knocked on the left-hand door.

No one answered.

He knocked again.

The woman next door opened her window.

"Some people are trying to sleep."

Then she recognized him.

Her irritation turned cautious. Adrian's face had appeared in enough business magazines that even people who hated developers knew him.

"Where are the Moores?" he asked.

"Gone."

"Where?"

The woman shrugged. "Moved somewhere nicer. Funny how fast people get rich after they bury their kid."

Adrian's jaw tightened. "What did you say?"

"Who are you?"

He hesitated. "Lila's boyfriend."

The woman studied him, then gave a humorless laugh.

"Oh. You're the boyfriend. Honey, those people sold that girl out long before she died, and you bought every word they told you."

Adrian crossed the yard so fast she stepped back from the window.

"What do you mean, sold her out?"

She shut the glass in his face.

He stood there breathing hard.

Then he drove to my family's home.

The Hart estate had once employed twenty people. That day the front gate stood open, the gardens were overgrown, and no one came to meet the car. Adrian's campaign had frozen accounts, frightened partners, and forced my father to sell assets simply to keep the oldest company alive.

Daniel opened the front door before Adrian reached it.

"You've got some nerve showing up here."

He grabbed Adrian by the coat and hit him.

This time, there were no guards.

Adrian hit back.

They crashed into a table in the entry hall. A vase fell and broke. Daniel drove his shoulder into Adrian's chest, and Adrian shoved him into the wall.

"Tell me where Evelyn's heart came from," Adrian demanded.

Daniel laughed in his face. "Now you want to know?"

"Tell me."

"It came from your precious first love. Isn't that what you've been screaming at us for years?"

Adrian swung again.

"Stop."

My father's voice came from the library doorway.

He had aged ten years since I last saw him. His hair was almost white. He carried a thick folder against his chest.

"Dad," I whispered.

He could not hear me.

He threw the folder at Adrian's feet.

"The donor heart came through the regional transplant network. Evelyn was already on the emergency list. We did not select the donor, contact the family, or arrange the procurement. Every authorization we received is in there."

Adrian bent to pick up the papers.

My father continued, each word hard and controlled.

"After the surgery, I learned the donor family was poor and had another child. I gave them ten million dollars through counsel. Call it gratitude. Call it guilt because my daughter lived while theirs died. It was all on the record. We didn't buy anything."

Adrian turned pages with shaking hands.

Consent forms. Hospital records. Transplant-network notices. The recipient side of the file was painfully clean.

"This proves nothing," he said.

"It proves you never asked before you punished her."

Daniel wiped blood from his mouth. "She begged you to listen."

Adrian looked up.

"She never begged."

I stared at him.

That was true. After the first few weeks, I had stopped trying. Every denial became evidence of manipulation in his mind. Every tear became an insult to Lila. Silence had been the only thing he couldn't twist.

My father's face changed.

"You don't know what she did because you made sure no one could speak to her alone."

Adrian's phone rang.

Marcus's voice was faint but clear in the ruined hall.

"Mr. Vale, the crew found a medical envelope under the bathroom cabinet. It's Ms. Hart's."

Adrian pressed the phone to his ear.

"What kind of medical envelope?"

Marcus went quiet.

"A prenatal report."