Chapter 5
Lily, still shaking beside him, told him there was more.
Earlier that evening, Lily had knocked over her drink. Victor had been ready to blame someone, and Clare had stepped forward and said the mistake was hers.
A stranger had protected Lily even then.
“Why would a stranger do that, Adrien?”
For the first time in his life, Adrien had no answer.
His entire understanding of the world had been built on 1 principle.
Everything had a price.
Everyone could be bought.
Every kindness was a transaction wearing a disguise.
Anyone smiling at you was calculating what they could take.
Adrien had seen that principle confirmed thousands of times and built an empire around it.
Now a woman who needed a favor from a man like him more than almost anyone alive had thrown herself in front of a blade for a stranger and had seemed unable to understand why anyone would ask her to explain it.
She needed help.
Those 3 words reached something inside Adrien that 20 years of threats and enemies had failed to touch.
He looked at Marcus Reed, pinned to the floor.
In another time, Adrien would have wanted him to suffer.
Instead, with Clare’s blood on his hands and Noah’s photograph in his pocket, he heard himself say something Maya had never expected.
“Get him out of here. Alive.”
He wanted to know why.
Then Lily told him what had happened with Victor.
Clare had seen Marcus first. She had tried to warn the manager. Victor had threatened to fire her, called her hysterical, and ordered her back to work.
Adrien rose.
He crossed the ruined restaurant toward Victor.
“She came to you.”
His voice was soft.
“She told you there was a man about to hurt someone, and you threatened to fire her.”
Victor stammered that he could not have known.
“She knew.”
Victor tried to explain that Clare was only a waitress.
Adrien stopped him.
“She’s not what?”
Victor had no answer.
“Not important? Not worth listening to? Not worth as much as the people at my table?”
Adrien stepped closer.
“That woman saw what your entire security staff and my own people missed. She saw it because she was the only person in this room paying attention to anything other than herself. And you told her to be quiet. You told her to know her place.”
Victor pressed himself against the wall.
Adrien told him he would remember his face.
Then he turned away.
There were more important things than Victor Hail.
There always would be.
Adrien left the restaurant with Lily and followed the vehicle carrying Clare toward the hospital.
In his pocket was Noah’s photograph.
In his mind were Clare’s 3 words.
She needed help.
The car carrying Clare ran 3 red lights.
Nobody stopped it.
By the time Adrien reached the private hospital, doctors were already waiting outside.
Clare was pulled from the vehicle so pale that Lily made a small, broken sound and buried her face against her brother.
Adrien told Lily not to look.
He looked.
He could not stop.
May you like
Clare disappeared through the hospital doors.
Then there was nothing he could do but wait.
