Chapter 10 — Dr. Adrian Vale
Dr. Adrian Vale had vanished nine years ago.
At the time, the newspapers called it a financial scandal.
Missing clinic funds.
Forged patient records.
Possible suicide.
No body was ever found.
Now he had walked through Juliano’s basement carrying a gun.
Vanessa stared at the image.
“That can’t be him.”
Juliano watched her closely.
“You just said he was your brother.”
“I thought it was him.”
“You thought?”
“He contacted me six months ago.”
“By phone?”
“Encrypted messages.”
“What did he want?”
Vanessa looked toward the detective.
“A lawyer.”
The detective folded his arms.
“You’ll need one either way.”
Vanessa ignored him.
“He said the Ferraz family ruined his life. He said your father forced him to falsify medical records.”
“For my mother?”
“For dozens of people.”
Juliano felt the room tilt slightly.
“What people?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I don’t know everything.”
“You knew enough to help him enter my house.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“I didn’t know he was going to hurt anyone.”
“You disabled cameras.”
“I asked Mateo to do it.”
“You gave Adrian access.”
“I gave my brother access.”
“He shot Clara.”
Vanessa flinched.
A real one this time.
“I didn’t know he had a gun.”
“You locked us in the west wing.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Juliano stepped back.
He almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the woman he planned to marry had built her entire defense out of missing pieces.
The detective leaned toward Vanessa.
“Where is Adrian now?”
“I don’t know.”
Juliano looked at her.
She met his eyes.
Then glanced toward the garden.
A mistake.
Small.
Unplanned.
But real.
Juliano moved before anyone could stop him.
He crossed the terrace and ran toward the glass greenhouse at the edge of the estate.
The detective shouted behind him.
Inside, rows of white orchids stood under warm lamps.
The door at the back swung shut.
Juliano followed.
He found Adrian Vale beside the irrigation controls, one hand pressed against his bleeding side.
The doctor smiled.
“You look like your father.”
Juliano stopped several feet away.
“You shot Clara.”
“I missed.”
“You held my mother underground.”
“I kept her alive.”
“You declared her dead.”
“Your father paid me.”
“For what?”
Adrian’s smile faded.
“To hide what she discovered.”
“Which was?”
“Your empire was built on bodies.”
Juliano’s fists clenched.
Adrian reached inside his jacket.
Juliano tensed.
But the doctor pulled out a black flash drive.
“Names. Accounts. Judges. Hospitals. Children.”
“Children?”
Adrian looked toward the entrance.
“You think Clara’s brother was an accident?”
Juliano’s face went cold.
“What did my father do?”
“He bought silence.”
The greenhouse door opened behind Juliano.
Vanessa stepped inside.
She held a gun in both hands.
May you like
But she was not aiming at Adrian.
She was aiming at Juliano.
