Chapter 10 - The Woman I Trusted
I refused to believe it.
Renee was family.
She had protected me when Grace died.
She had read my employment contract.
She had helped uncover Pelican Meridian.
But evidence doesn't care who you love.
Renee admitted meeting Martin.
Not secretly.
Under instructions from federal investigators.
She had been helping build the financial case.
The photograph was surveillance from the operation.
Victor had only half the story.
The two-million-dollar withdrawal had another explanation.
Martin created an automated transfer triggered if he failed to access the account for seven days.
The biometric signature had been cloned years earlier from Gabriel's archived company records.
Nobody inside the mansion had betrayed us.
But somebody had collected the money.
A company called Magnolia Children's Foundation.
My stomach dropped.
I knew that name.
They funded the infant-cuddler program where I'd volunteered.
Martin had used a children's charity to move stolen money.
Worse, he'd selected volunteers through that program.
Including me.
My meeting with the triplets hadn't been planned.
But Martin had known who I was long before the diner.
That explained the old photographs.
He monitored everyone who spent significant time around the children.
Isabella discovered it.
Then she learned about Grace.
Not because she was spying on me.
Because Martin already had.
I felt violated in a way I couldn't explain.
My grief had been catalogued.
My hospital records stolen.
My weakest days turned into data.
Antoine found me packing again.
This time he didn't stop me.
He sat on the bed.
“If you need to go, I'll help.”
I looked at him.
“You've learned.”
“Slowly.”
I laughed through tears.
“I don't want to leave.”
“Then don't.”
“I don't want to stay because the children need me either.”
“Then stay because you want to.”
I did.
That night, we kissed for the first time.
Not dramatically.
No orchestra.
No desperate grabbing.
He touched my cheek.
I kissed him.
Then we both laughed because Theo walked in holding a stuffed alligator and said:
“Della kiss Papa.”
So much for privacy.
The relationship developed slowly.
Antoine never asked me to replace Isabella.
I never asked him to stop loving her.
Love wasn't a chair with one seat.
Weeks passed.
Martin's trial approached.
Then the prosecution received a threat.
If Martin testified, evidence would surface connecting Antoine to several old shipping crimes committed during his father's era.
Antoine insisted he was innocent.
Gabriel wasn't.
His past could destroy the company.
Gabriel decided to testify anyway.
“I built the mess,” he said. “Antoine shouldn't inherit my lies.”
The morning before the hearing, Gabriel disappeared.
His room showed no struggle.
Only one thing remained.
A handwritten note.
I'M FINISHING WHAT I STARTED.
Antoine cursed.
Then my phone rang.
Gabriel.
His voice was strained.
“Della, don't let Antoine come.”
“Where are you?”
“Pier seventeen.”
“Why?”
“I found Martin's last partner.”
“Who?”
A gunshot exploded through the phone.
Then a woman's voice said:
“Hello, Della.”
May you like
I knew that voice.
It belonged to someone who had been inside the mansion every day.
