Chapter 5 - The Diner Trap
I sat in the dark motel room for hours, completely paralyzed by the betrayal of my own flesh and blood.
Mark was an investment banker who had paid for Clara’s funeral when I was too broke and devastated to afford it.
I finally grabbed the motel’s landline phone and dialed my brother’s private number.
He answered on the third ring, sounding groggy and annoyed.
I told him I knew everything about the charity, the money laundering, and Adrian Vale.
There was a long, terrifying silence on the other end of the line.
Mark begged me to meet him at a 24-hour diner on the edge of the city so he could explain everything.
I left Jerry in the motel room to keep him safe and drove to the diner in a stolen maintenance truck.
Mark was sitting in a corner booth, nervously shredding a paper napkin into tiny pieces.
He confessed that Adrian had blackmailed him into processing the dirty money by threatening to kill our entire family.
He swore he had absolutely no idea that Adrian was planning to murder Clara.
He handed me a burner phone and promised to help me take Adrian down once and for all.
I hugged my brother, finally feeling a small shred of hope in this nightmare.
I walked out of the diner and climbed back into the stolen truck.
The burner phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated with an incoming text message.
May you like
I opened it and read a message from Mark that was clearly meant for someone else.
The message read, "The tracker is in his pocket, Adrian, you can send the hit squad now."
