Chapter 7
Adam was trapped inside the car.
Conscious.
Bleeding.
Calling my name.
Martin told me slowly.
I made him.
“Did you call me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Walter answered.
“Because Adam needed to calm down.”
I stared.
“He was injured.”
“He was furious.”
“His car had gone off a mountain road.”
“And?”
That word again.
“And?”
Pain meant nothing if Walter believed he was right.
Martin continued.
“Adam kept asking for Joanna.”
Lydia interrupted:
“He was obsessed with you.”
I turned.
“He was my husband.”
“You made him irrational.”
“No.”
“You made him choose you over blood.”
“Yes.”
Immediate.
Her face twisted.
I looked back at Martin.
“What happened?”
“We got him out.”
“Then?”
“Walter refused to take him to a hospital.”
My breathing stopped.
“Why?”
Walter folded his arms.
“He was alive.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“He could talk.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“We brought him to the lodge.”
Louisa pressed against me.
I felt sick.
“How long?”
Martin looked ashamed.
“Hours.”
Heather said quickly:
“He wasn’t dying then.”
I turned.
“How would you know?”
“He was shouting.”
As if volume meant health.
Lydia smiled coldly.
“He had plenty of strength to insult us.”
“What did he say?”
Walter answered:
“That Joanna would destroy us.”
My heart cracked.
Not destroy the organization.
Them.
Because Adam knew.
He knew if I discovered what they had done, I would never forgive them.
“What did you want from him?”
Walter’s voice remained calm.
“To step down.”
Even then.
After the crash.
After injury.
This had still been about control.
“And if he agreed?”
“We would take him for treatment.”
The room went silent.
I almost couldn’t comprehend it.
“You used medical help as leverage.”
Lydia shrugged.
“He had a choice.”
“No.”
Martin whispered:
“He didn’t.”
Walter glared at him.
Martin continued.
“Adam collapsed before sunrise.”
Heather closed her eyes.
I asked the question anyway.
“Was he alive then?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get help?”
No one answered.
Martin looked at me.
“I tried.”
Walter’s face changed.
And I understood.
May you like
Martin Cole had not vanished because he was afraid of what he saw.
He vanished because he tried to save Adam against Walter’s orders.
