Chapter 13 - The Evidence Alidoro Buried
Dempster remembered.
Not all at once.
Pieces returned as he read his father’s letter.
He had followed Gabriel to the garage.
Seen Victor near Marianne’s car.
He had confronted him.
Victor hit him.
Gabriel found Dempster unconscious and sent him away before Victor could realize what he had witnessed.
Years later, a head injury and trauma had blurred the memory.
Gabriel carried the guilt alone.
Selena read the letter twice.
Dempster looked devastated.
“My father knew.”
“He was protecting you.”
“He failed your mother.”
“So did many people.”
Dempster turned away.
Selena understood something important.
Love did not mean rescuing someone from guilt.
Sometimes it meant refusing to let guilt lie.
“Your father should have gone to police.”
“Yes.”
“He should have protected my mother.”
“Yes.”
“He was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“And that doesn't make you guilty.”
Dempster looked at her.
She took his hand.
They delivered Gabriel’s letter to investigators.
Days later, forensic auditors discovered Alidoro had buried another piece of evidence inside Selena’s stolen code.
A transaction map.
Apparently he had used her algorithm to catalog Meridian accounts, planning one day to steal from the organization himself.
His greed became evidence against everyone.
Selena visited him once.
Through reinforced glass.
Alidoro looked smaller.
“You ruined me,” he said.
Selena almost smiled.
“No.”
She leaned toward the glass.
“You mistook my work for yours, my body for something you could grade, my love for weakness and my silence for permission.”
His jaw tightened.
“You'd be nothing without Flores.”
That sentence would once have destroyed her.
Now it sounded ridiculous.
“I built the technology that made you rich.”
Silence.
“My mother funded the company that gave you your name.”
Alidoro looked away.
“And Dempster?”
Selena touched the ring.
“He knows I can leave.”
That was the difference.
She stood.
Alidoro pressed his hand against the glass.
“Selena.”
She stopped.
“I did love you.”
She looked back.
“No. You loved having someone you could convince was smaller than you.”
Then she left.
Outside, Dempster waited beside the car.
He did not ask what happened.
Selena took his hand.
“Home.”
His expression softened.
“Which one?”
Selena understood the question.
Queens?
Alpine?
Anywhere?
She smiled.
“Ours.”
That evening, investigators called.
They had enough to indict Charles Wright and several Meridian members.
But Charles had disappeared.
Then Dempster received a photograph.
Charles stood outside the cemetery where Marianne Roundtree was buried.
Underneath:
BRING THE ORIGINAL DRIVE.
COME ALONE.
Selena read it.
“No.”
Dempster nodded.
“No.”
She blinked.
“You agree?”
“I've recently discovered marriage is easier when I don't make idiotic unilateral decisions.”
“Excellent progress.”
They contacted investigators.
A controlled operation was arranged.
At the cemetery, Selena watched remotely.
Charles appeared.
He wanted the drive because it contained one final account.
A reserve fund.
Two hundred million dollars.
Money stolen from victims across decades.
Dempster handed him a decoy.
Agents moved.
Charles ran.
He reached Marianne’s grave.
Then stopped.
Someone was already standing there.
Helena Wright.
His wife.
She looked at him and said, “It’s over, Charles.”
He raised a gun.
Selena screamed at the monitor.
Dempster turned.
A shot exploded.
May you like
The feed went black.
And nobody knew who had been hit.
