Chapter 12 - The Price of Bringing Her Home
The document was authentic.
Federal attorneys confirmed it.
Thomas Hughes had been given fifty percent of Woods Maritime after saving young Gunther's life.
Gabriel later concealed the transfer.
Kayla and Sam were heirs to a fortune.
Kayla laughed when the attorney told her.
Not because it was funny.
Because three weeks earlier she had worked seventeen hours for enough overtime to buy Sam a brace.
Now she owned half a shipping company.
Gunther watched her absorb it.
“What will you do?”
“I don't know.”
“You don't have to decide today.”
She looked at him.
“That's new.”
“What?”
“Someone telling me I don't have to solve everything today.”
Sam received surgery from one of the country's best specialists.
His rehabilitation improved.
For the first time, Kayla stopped calculating every grocery bill.
Gunther continued cooperating with prosecutors.
He sold properties tied to criminal operations.
He closed illegal businesses.
Men who once feared his name began testifying.
Some called him a traitor.
Gunther didn't care.
He kept the estate.
Not because it represented power.
Because Kayla asked him to.
“This place doesn't have to belong to your father forever,” she told him.
Gunther understood.
They rebuilt the master suite.
Kayla refused to let decorators recreate the old room.
“No charcoal mausoleum.”
“It was not a mausoleum.”
“It looked like Dracula owned a hedge fund.”
Gunther stared.
Sam laughed until his side hurt.
For the first time, Gunther laughed too.
The new bedroom had warmer walls.
Books.
Photographs.
A chair Kayla actually liked.
But the relationship wasn't magically easy.
Gunther still tried to control everything.
Kayla still reacted badly whenever protection felt like imprisonment.
They fought.
They apologized.
They learned.
One evening, Gunther came home and found Kayla asleep on the sofa.
He stood watching her.
The memory of that first night returned.
Only this time, he didn't reach for a gun.
He reached for a blanket.
As he covered her, Kayla opened one eye.
“Caught you.”
“Go back to sleep.”
“You're getting soft.”
“Tell anyone and I'll deny it.”
She smiled.
Then the doorbell rang.
Victor answered.
Minutes later, he entered holding a sealed federal envelope.
Gunther opened it.
His expression tightened.
Kayla sat up.
“What is it?”
Gunther handed her the letter.
Gabriel Woods Sr. had agreed to testify.
May you like
But only under one condition.
He wanted to speak to Kayla alone.
