He Took One Bite and Remembered His Mother

Chapter 4

Elise gasped, but Adrian stepped in front of her.

Lucien closed the door behind him and kept the gun steady.

"I hoped your mother would die before you returned," he said. "Old women and loose memories are inconvenient."

Adrian's jaw tightened. "You stole her life."

Lucien gave a small shrug. "I preserved mine."

He glanced at the ledger in Adrian's hand.

"That book belongs to my family."

"No," Adrian said. "It belongs to the dead workers your family buried."

Lucien smiled faintly. "And who will believe a soldier with grief in his eyes and a mother the whole town thinks is mad?"

Adrian said nothing.

That was what frightened Lucien.

He was expecting rage. A reckless move. Instead, Adrian seemed calm, almost focused.

Lucien motioned with the gun. "Give me the box."

But before Adrian could respond, Elise spoke.

"You made one mistake," she said.

Lucien turned toward her for half a second.

That was enough.

Adrian lunged. The gun fired into the ceiling. Plaster rained down. Elise grabbed a heavy metal tray from the old counter and struck Lucien's wrist. The gun clattered away.

The three of them crashed into a table, sending old flour tins to the floor.

Lucien fought like a desperate man. Adrian fought like someone who had buried too much already.

When it was over, Lucien lay on the ground bleeding from the mouth, Adrian pinning his arm behind his back.

Outside, voices were coming.

Elise had done more than follow Adrian. Before leaving the hotel, she had quietly sent a note to the local magistrate, along with one of Marianne's letters and a copy of the first page of the ledger.

Now men entered the bakery with lanterns.

Among them was the magistrate.

And behind him, wrapped in a shawl, stood Marianne.

She looked at Lucien and said with trembling clarity,

"You told me my son forgot me. You told me no one was coming."

Lucien laughed bitterly through split lips.

"He did forget you. For eleven years."

Marianne flinched.

Adrian turned to her at once.

"No," he said. "I was stolen from you."

Marianne began to cry.

The magistrate took the ledger from Adrian and flipped through it, his face darkening with every line.

"This is enough to reopen the deaths at the mill," he said. "And enough to arrest Lucien Varel."

As the constables dragged Lucien away, he twisted his head toward Adrian.

"You think this ends with me?" he said. "You have no idea who protected my family."

The magistrate looked up sharply.

Adrian felt a cold dread move through him.

Because Lucien no longer sounded like a liar.

He sounded like a man who had just shared only the smallest part of the truth.