CHAPTER SIX

ADRIAN’s POV

“I want every camera angle from that bridge.” The order left my mouth the second I walked into my office.

Nobody answered immediately, the atmosphere inside the conference room felt tense, three members of my security team stood near the screen while Damien remained seated at the far end of the table watching me carefully.

News channels still played Serena’s death across every television in the building. I was sick of seeing it, sick of hearing reporters discuss my marriage like they knew anything about it. One of the investigators finally spoke.

“We already recovered most available footage, sir. There are gaps”

I loosened my tie roughly as I sat down.

“What kind of gaps?”

The man hesitated briefly. “Several traffic cameras near Westbridge Coastal Road were remotely disabled for eleven minutes during the time of the crash.”

I knew immediately that wasn’t random, I looked toward the screen ahead, paused footage showed Serena’s car entering the highway during the storm.

Then another vehicle appearing several minutes later behind her, a black SUV, it’s license plate is not visible.

“Track that vehicle.” I roared out, pointing at the black SUV on the screen.

“We’re still tracing it, the storm complicated identification.” One of the investigators responded.

“Do everything you need to do quickly, I need visible results.” I snapped back.

I rubbed my face briefly before looking back toward the investigators again. “What about the bodies?”

“We still haven’t recovered them.”

I stopped myself right there, the sound of them made my head buzzed. Nobody outside a few close people knew Ethan had been inside the car that night, I kept it away from the media intentionally. Reporters were already feeding off Serena’s death like vultures, the last thing I needed was them dragging my son into this circus. But deep down, the fact that Ethan was in that accident hurt me so much.

My expression went placid as I battled with my thoughts. Serena would never leave him.

Damien noticed my expression. “You still think they survived.”

I looked at him, curiosity written all over my face. “Damien, I think there’s more to what I see. I think something happened on that bridge that we still don’t understand.”

One of the investigators exchanged glances with another member of the team before speaking.

“Sir, we just discovered another thing.”

I moved closer to him. “Talk to me.”

“We intercepted unusual activity connected to your private network approximately one hour ago.”

I looked at him confused. “What does that mean?”

“Someone used encrypted Laurent credentials attempting to access a private estate security system.”

I stared at him for a second, trying to process what he just said. “What estate?”

The investigator glanced at his colleague for a second before answering. “Leonard Arden’s estate.”

I was stunned into silence, even Damien straightened up in his seat. Everyone knows Leonard Arden in the elite world. Powerful, private and highly connected, enough to make billionaires nervous. Even men of my status tremble at the sound of his name.

Leonard is a man powerful enough to influence governments without ever appearing publicly. I had never met Leonard before. Even linked projects and subtle deals pass through his senior executive.

I finally spoke. “Why would my network target Arden?”

“That’s the strange part, sir. The request didn’t come from inside this building.”

My expression darkened instantly. “Then where did it come from?”

“We don’t know yet, we’re still working on it.”

I was stupefied, one thing I noticed since this occurrence has been going on is that the entire situation felt dirtier by the minute. The dots are not connecting and it worsened the situation, like someone was carefully moving pieces around behind the scenes.

Damien leaned back slowly. “You think it’s connected to Serena?”

Before I could respond, the conference room door opened. Celeste walked in looking exhausted too. Her hair was tied back loosely and her expression carried the same pressure everyone around me had worn since the accident happened.

“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t know you were still in a meeting.”

I softened my tone slightly. “It’s fine.”

I gestured to the investigation team to leave, I watched as they packed up the documents on the table, closed the laptop and filed out.

Celeste glanced briefly toward the screens showing Serena’s news coverage before looking back at me again.

“My father keeps getting calls from reporters,” she said. “The media found out about the hotel.”

Damien muttered indistinctly under his breath.

I closed my eyes briefly as Celeste stepped closer. “Somebody leaked private footage from that night.”

I looked at her fully now. “What kind of footage?”

“Enough to confirm we were together before Serena disappeared.”

Silent swept across the room, this is becoming bad for the company too. The partnership between the Laurent Group and the Moreau family was still in negotiation stages despite the progress we already made. One scandal like this could damage both sides badly.

Celeste folded her arms tightly. “My father wants reassurance this situation won’t affect the merger.”

Celeste words flickered through my ears, at this point, nothing made sense again. The Laurent company was already under pressure this quarter, investors were nervous, markets reacted badly to instability. And now my personal life was becoming national news.

I looked toward the screen again where Serena’s picture still filled every broadcast. My gaze shifted toward the window overlooking the city, rain still covered most of the skyline. The exact kind of weather from the night Serena disappeared.

A soft knock interrupted my thoughts, I turned to look at the door as one of the investigators entered the office again.

“Sir, the DNA result from the forensic examination is out.” He said as soon as he stepped in.

“The identity of the dead body has been confirmed.”