Chapter 14 - The Last Enemy at the Woods Estate
The car stopped outside.
Security surrounded it.
Gunther kept Kayla behind him.
The driver's door opened.
A federal marshal stepped out.
The car had been seized months earlier.
There was no attack.
The marshal carried a box of evidence released after Eleanor's conviction.
Gunther exhaled.
Kayla punched his arm.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“You?”
“Yes, me.”
“You were behind me.”
“That doesn't prevent heart attacks.”
Victor opened the box.
Inside were Kayla's mother's remaining possessions.
Photographs.
Letters.
A wedding ring.
And one final cassette.
Kayla listened that night.
Her mother's voice filled the room.
She spoke about Thomas.
About Kayla.
About Sam.
About fear.
But mostly about hope.
She had known her children might someday learn the truth.
She asked them not to spend their lives seeking revenge.
Kayla cried.
Sam cried.
Gunther sat silently beside them.
When the recording ended, Kayla leaned against him.
“It's finished.”
Gunther kissed her hair.
“Yes.”
But he still had one unfinished task.
The following morning, he took Kayla to the rebuilt master bedroom.
On the bed sat a small envelope.
She opened it.
Inside was no contract.
No expensive jewelry.
No dramatic legal document.
Only a photograph.
It showed the original bedroom before the fire.
Kayla was asleep on the bed.
Gunther stood in the doorway.
It was the surveillance photograph Eleanor had taken.
Kayla frowned.
“You kept this?”
“I hated it at first.”
“Why keep it?”
“Because it was the moment everything changed.”
Kayla looked at him.
Gunther reached into his pocket.
This time, there was a ring.
Kayla stopped breathing.
Gunther Woods did not kneel gracefully.
He looked deeply uncomfortable.
Which made Kayla love him more.
“I spent most of my life making sure nobody could become important enough to hurt me.”
He paused.
“Then you fell asleep in my bed.”
Kayla laughed through tears.
“You really know how to make a woman feel special.”
“I'm learning.”
He opened the ring box.
“Kayla Hughes, will you marry me?”
She stared at him.
Then at the ring.
Then back at him.
“Yes.”
Gunther exhaled like a man who had survived a gunfight.
Kayla laughed and kissed him.
Downstairs, Sam and Victor heard her shout.
They already knew.
Gunther had told them.
Kayla discovered that five minutes later and threatened to reconsider.
She didn't.
That evening, however, Victor received one final call from the prosecutor.
He listened.
His smile disappeared.
Gunther noticed.
“What?”
Victor slowly lowered the phone.
“Eleanor asked to see you.”
“No.”
“She says there's one thing your father never told us.”
Gunther's face hardened.
Victor swallowed.
“It's about the night Kayla first fell asleep in your room.”
Kayla looked toward the bedroom.
May you like
Because suddenly she remembered something.
She had not been alone when she entered it.
