Chapter 8 - The Voice Adrian Trusted
The recording continued.
Lily was crying, but her voice remained steady.
“My father will investigate.”
Celeste laughed.
“Your father investigates what his chief counsel tells him to investigate.”
Then a man spoke.
“Enough. Give us the files, Lily.”
Adrian recognized him immediately.
Martin Shaw.
His personal attorney.
His closest friend for almost thirty years.
Martin had handled Lily’s supposed theft investigation. He had presented the forged bank records. He had advised Adrian not to contact Lily directly.
He had also drafted the will that made Celeste his primary heir.
Adrian leaned against the lockers.
“Martin knew everything.”
Quinn stopped the recording.
“He did more than know.”
Financial investigators found Martin had received monthly payments from Graham’s shell corporations for eleven years.
Adrian called him from the station.
Martin answered sleepily.
“Adrian? Is everything all right?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Where are you?”
“Listening to my daughter beg you to tell the truth.”
Martin hung up.
Police units were dispatched to his home.
He was already gone.
His safe was open. His passport, cash, and laptop were missing.
But he had left behind a handwritten note addressed to Adrian.
You chose business over Lily long before Celeste arrived. Don’t pretend you were an innocent father.
The words cut because part of them was true.
Adrian had been demanding. He had expected Lily to earn every opportunity. When she questioned company decisions, he sometimes dismissed her as emotional.
Celeste had exploited the distance between them.
But Adrian had still loved his daughter.
And Martin had used that love as a weapon.
Quinn resumed the recording.
The final section captured Lily telling Celeste the original ledger was stored outside the company.
Celeste demanded the location.
Lily refused.
Then came sounds of a struggle.
A door slammed.
The recording ended.
No one knew where the original ledger had been hidden.
The package Lily mailed before her death might contain only a copy.
And Graham now had it.
Elias received an alert.
Graham’s SUV had been spotted entering an abandoned Vale shipping warehouse near the river.
Martin’s car entered the same property eleven minutes later.
They were meeting.
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And whatever they planned to do with the ledger, they were doing it before sunrise.
👉 Adrian finally knew who betrayed Lily—but Graham and Martin were gathering at the river to destroy the last proof she had died protecting.
