“Adrian explicitly wanted you kept out of it,” Colleen replied, tears welling in her eyes. “He was trying to shield you from the people who attempted to take his life.”
I froze. “What are you talking about?”
“The crash wasn’t an accident, Meredith,” she whispered, stepping closer. “Someone deliberately tried to eliminate him because he uncovered something within his former firm that he was never meant to see.”
Colleen reached into her handbag and produced a faded photograph. It showed Adrian standing outside his former corporate office alongside an older man in a dark suit.
I recognized the man instantly. He had been present at Adrian’s memorial service three months ago, standing silently in the back row.
“That man is the reason Adrian had to erase his past,” Colleen murmured.
Before she could explain further, three slow, deliberate raps sounded on the storage room door. Colleen turned deathly pale and snatched the photograph back. “Don’t say a word,” she whispered in a panic.
The doorknob turned, and the door swung open.
Adrian stepped into the room. He looked at his mother, then at the photograph in her hand, and finally locked his gaze onto me. The warm demeanor he had displayed at the altar vanished completely, replaced by an intense, guarded severity.
He pulled the door shut behind him and turned the deadbolt.
“Meredith,” he said softly—speaking my name for the first time since his reported death. “You shouldn’t have come looking for answers. You’re standing directly in the crosshairs now.”
