Chapter 12
We went to the marina with police listening.
Adrian wore a wire.
I stayed in the surveillance van with Elias and Simone.
I hated watching from a screen.
But I understood bait.
Charles appeared beside an abandoned boathouse, coat collar lifted against the wind.
He looked smaller without chandeliers behind him.
Adrian approached alone.
“You wanted truth,” Adrian said.
Charles laughed.
“You brought her handlers?”
“She’s not alone anymore.”
Charles’s face hardened.
“She was never supposed to know.”
“Know what?”
“That her father was a thief.”
Adrian stayed calm.
“Then say it clearly.”
Charles stepped closer.
“Thomas Vale stole my future. He built that trust to humiliate me. He planned to expose me, ruin me, leave my children with nothing.”
“So you killed him?”
Charles smiled.
“Men like Thomas create accidents for themselves.”
In the van, my hands clenched.
Elias whispered, “Careful.”
Adrian said, “Did you damage the boat?”
Charles’s eyes sharpened.
Then he laughed.
“The fuel line was already weak.”
Simone looked at the officer beside us.
“That’s enough.”
Police moved in.
Charles saw them too late.
For the first time, panic broke his face.
He tried to run toward the water.
Adrian grabbed his coat.
Charles swung at him.
They fell hard against the dock.
Officers rushed in and pulled Charles away.
He screamed at Adrian.
“You chose her over blood!”
Adrian stood, breathing hard.
“No,” he said.
“I chose truth over rot.”
In the van, I closed my eyes.
My father had not been careless.
He had not left us.
May you like
He had been taken.
And now the man who took him was finally in handcuffs.
