CHAPTER 7
For three weeks, I convinced myself that peace was real.
That was my first mistake.
People like Nathan Coleman didn't get peaceful endings.
Not because they didn't deserve them.
Because the world they lived in always demanded a price.
I learned that on a quiet Tuesday morning when Marcus came running into the kitchen holding a broken toy airplane.
"Sarah!"
I turned around.
"What happened?"
His face was serious.
The kind of seriousness only children could create over something adults considered small.
"Someone broke my plane."
I smiled slightly.
"Maybe Mason stepped on it?"
"I didn't!" Mason shouted from across the room.
"I didn't even touch it!"
Their argument was so normal that I almost forgot how impossible normal had seemed three months earlier.
Almost.
Then I noticed something.
The toy airplane wasn't broken accidentally.
The plastic wing had been cut.
Cleanly.
Precisely.
I picked it up.
My smile disappeared.
Nathan noticed immediately.
He had learned my expressions.
"What is it?"
I didn't answer.
I turned the toy over.
Inside the hollow plastic body was a tiny black device.
Not a tracking chip.
Something smaller.
Something newer.
Nathan's entire expression changed.
The father disappeared.
The leader returned.
"Get Vance."
The room changed instantly.
The children didn't understand.
But I did.
Because whoever planted that device didn't want money.
They wanted access.
Thirty minutes later, the estate was locked down.
Vance examined the device under a scanner.
His face became darker with every passing second.
"Boss..."
Nathan looked at him.
"Talk."
Vance placed the tablet on the table.
"This isn't Moretti technology."
Silence.
That was worse than hearing a name.
Because it meant the danger wasn't over.
Nathan leaned forward.
"Then whose?"
Vance hesitated.
"I don't know."
I looked at the device.
"Yes, you do."
Everyone looked at me.
I pointed at the screen.
"The manufacturing pattern."
Vance frowned.
"You recognize it?"
I nodded slowly.
"Not the device."
A pause.
"The person who builds things like this."
Nathan looked at me.
"Who?"
My stomach tightened.
Because I hadn't heard that name in twelve years.
"Adrian Vale."
The room went silent.
Nathan's face changed.
"That can't be possible."
I looked at him.
"You know him?"
Nathan didn't answer.
And that scared me more than anything.
Because Nathan Coleman wasn't afraid of many people.
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But Adrian Vale...
He was.
