Chapter 12 - Dempster's Final Debt
Selena did not retreat.
Victor expected fear.
Men like him always did.
She gave him conversation instead.
“You killed my mother.”
Victor smiled.
“She was stubborn.”
Selena’s phone lay face down on the table.
Recording.
“Why?”
“She thought evidence mattered more than power.”
“And Gabriel?”
“Same disease.”
“You killed him too?”
Victor’s smile changed.
There.
The answer.
“He discovered what you did.”
“He discovered many things.”
Selena kept him talking.
Meanwhile her laptop silently transmitted the audio through the emergency protocol Dempster had installed with her permission.
Victor approached.
“You inherited Marianne’s worst quality.”
“Intelligence?”
“Defiance.”
“Alidoro hated that too.”
“Alidoro is a child.”
Victor reached for her.
Selena threw the lamp.
Glass exploded.
She ran.
Victor caught her near the door.
Then someone hit him from behind.
Brooke.
Holding Selena’s cast-iron skillet.
“You seriously left without telling me?” Brooke yelled.
Victor collapsed.
Selena stared.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
Police arrived minutes later.
Not Dempster’s men.
Federal agents.
Victor was arrested.
The recording Selena captured included enough admissions to strengthen the case.
Dempster arrived afterward.
He crossed the hallway toward her, then stopped.
He wanted to grab her.
She saw it.
But he waited.
Selena closed the distance herself.
His arms wrapped around her.
“You trusted me,” she whispered.
“I hated every second.”
She laughed against his chest.
“That counts.”
He kissed her hair.
Victor’s arrest triggered panic across Meridian.
Charles Wright attempted to flee.
Helena testified.
Celia testified.
Thomas testified.
Marco negotiated cooperation.
Alidoro remained under investigation for fraud, conspiracy and kidnapping-related offenses.
But one problem remained.
The original five-million-dollar debt.
Legally, it connected Dempster’s companies to the transaction Alidoro had used to target Selena.
Dempster could protect himself.
Instead he did something else.
He disclosed everything.
Every questionable company.
Every inherited connection.
Every transaction his father had concealed.
His attorneys warned him it could cost hundreds of millions.
Possibly more.
Selena found him signing disclosure documents.
“You could lose Flores International.”
“Yes.”
“Your hotels.”
“Possibly.”
“Your planes.”
“I have too many.”
She almost smiled.
“Why?”
“Because I cannot ask you to build a life with me while keeping rooms locked.”
Selena looked at him.
“Build a life?”
Dempster froze.
For once, the frightening billionaire looked nervous.
“I phrased that poorly.”
“No.”
She moved closer.
“You phrased it clearly.”
He looked down at her ring.
Selena touched his face.
Then kissed him.
This kiss was not brief.
When they separated, Dempster whispered, “Selena.”
“Yes?”
“There is something else.”
Her stomach tightened.
He opened his desk.
Inside lay the annulment papers.
Signed by him.
Beside them was another document.
A letter addressed to Selena.
From Gabriel Flores.
She unfolded it.
The first line made her hands shake.
If my son ever marries you, make certain he knows the truth about the night your mother died.
Selena looked up.
“What truth?”
Dempster stared at the letter.
May you like
And then Selena read the next line.
Gabriel had written: Dempster was there.
