Chapter 9 - What Derek Was Really Selling
The man behind the door was twenty-seven.
His name was Noah.
And Elaine recognized him immediately.
Not by his face.
By the crescent-shaped birthmark behind his ear.
Penny had a brother.
Gabriel had raised him through intermediaries.
Noah believed Elaine abandoned him.
He believed Penny was the child she chose instead.
Gabriel had fed that resentment for years.
"Why should I believe you?" Noah demanded.
Elaine showed him the scar from his birth.
Then hospital records.
Then letters she had written every year.
Letters Gabriel intercepted.
Noah broke.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
He sat on the floor and cried.
Penny sat beside him.
Neither knew how to become siblings in one morning.
So they didn't try.
They simply sat.
The hard drive eventually gave them something more useful.
Derek hadn't only monitored Penny.
He had sold information about Gabriel to a federal investigator.
He had been betraying everyone.
"Why?" Penny asked.
Lorenzo answered.
"Money."
But Penny knew Derek.
Money wasn't enough.
She searched his reports.
One recurring name appeared.
Vanessa Cole.
A woman Derek had visited secretly.
They found Vanessa in a rehabilitation center.
She was Derek's younger sister.
Years earlier, Gabriel had caused the crash that injured her.
Derek joined Gabriel's network intending revenge.
Then somewhere along the way, he became exactly like the men he hated.
Vanessa gave Penny a recorder.
"Derek left this for you."
Penny didn't want it.
She took it anyway.
Derek's voice began.
"Penny, if you're hearing this, Gabriel knows I betrayed him."
He confessed.
The surveillance.
The manipulation.
The payments.
He also confessed that his relationship with Penny had become real to him.
Penny stopped the recording.
She didn't need that part.
Love didn't erase harm.
She skipped forward.
Then Derek revealed Gabriel's plan.
Gabriel intended to destroy Lorenzo by forcing him into a public act of violence.
Penny was the bait.
"He's coming for me," she said.
Lorenzo nodded.
"Then we stop running."
That evening, Penny gave authorities copies of everything.
Lorenzo provided financial records.
Elaine prepared testimony.
Noah agreed to testify too.
For the first time, Gabriel's empire had cracks everywhere.
Then Penny's phone rang.
Derek.
She answered.
"Where are you?"
His breathing was ragged.
"Listen carefully."
"Why?"
"Because Gabriel knows about the evidence."
A crash sounded behind him.
"Derek?"
"He knows where you're staying."
Lorenzo stood.
Derek whispered:
"Penny, don't trust anyone who came with your mother."
The call disconnected.
Everyone looked at Elaine.
May you like
Then Clara Vale stepped into the room.
She was holding a gun.
