Chapter 4 - The Marriage Dempster Would Undo
The woman at the gate was Celia Voss.
Older.
Thinner.
Terrified.
Selena recognized her immediately.
Celia refused to enter until Dempster ordered every guard except one away from the room.
Then she sat across from Selena and began destroying everything Selena believed about her mother’s death.
Marianne had discovered a laundering network called Meridian.
Gabriel Flores had secretly helped her collect records.
But someone inside Gabriel’s organization learned what they were doing.
Marianne planned to take Selena and Brooke away.
She never made it.
“The brakes were cut,” Celia said.
Selena’s throat tightened.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For eleven years?”
“I was threatened.”
“By whom?”
Celia looked at Dempster.
“Your uncle.”
Dempster went still.
“Victor?”
Celia nodded.
Victor Flores was Gabriel’s younger brother.
Dempster had described him once as retired.
Apparently retirement was flexible in their family.
“Victor ordered it?” Dempster asked.
“I don't know. But he came to my apartment after Marianne died. He knew about the evidence.”
Selena stood.
She wanted to scream.
Instead she walked to the window.
Her mother had not simply been taken by bad luck.
Someone had chosen to remove her.
Behind Selena, Dempster asked careful questions.
Dates.
Names.
Accounts.
Locations.
He became frighteningly calm.
Selena understood why people feared him.
But when he approached her afterward, he stopped several feet away.
“Do you want Brooke to take you home?”
Selena turned.
“You're offering to send me away while someone who murdered my mother may be looking for me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because staying with me must be your choice.”
That word again.
Choice.
Alidoro had slowly taken hers.
Dempster kept handing it back.
Selena looked at the annulment papers.
Then at her ring.
“I’m not signing yet.”
Dempster’s eyes lifted.
“Don't misunderstand. This is not romantic.”
“I understand.”
“I need the legal protection.”
“Yes.”
“And access to your archive.”
“Yes.”
“And my own attorney.”
“I already arranged three options.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Of course you did.”
For the first time, he smiled.
It transformed his face.
Selena hated noticing.
Celia left under protection.
That evening, Selena ate dinner with Dempster in a room large enough to seat twenty.
She chose the chair directly opposite him.
“No comments about what I eat.”
He frowned.
“Why would I comment?”
“Habit.”
Understanding crossed his face.
“Alidoro?”
She hated how much one name explained.
“Yes.”
Dempster pushed the bread basket toward her.
“Eat whatever you want.”
Selena stared.
Then took two rolls out of spite.
Later, Dempster showed her the archive.
Gabriel’s office had been preserved behind a biometric lock.
Inside were hundreds of ledgers.
Selena found her mother everywhere.
Initials.
Annotations.
Calculations.
Then she found a photograph.
Marianne stood beside Gabriel Flores.
Between them was a young Dempster.
Maybe nineteen.
Selena turned.
“You met my mother.”
Dempster stared at the picture.
His face changed.
“I didn't remember her name.”
“But you met her.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She came here once.”
“Why?”
“My father made me promise that if a woman named Marianne ever asked for help, I would help her daughters.”
Selena’s breath caught.
“You knew?”
“Not until I found your name six months ago.”
“So that's why you were looking for me.”
“Yes.”
It should have made everything simpler.
Instead Selena felt strangely disappointed.
His interest had been a promise to a dead man.
Not her.
She hated herself for caring.
Then Dempster pulled the photograph from its frame.
Something fell out.
A key.
Small.
Brass.
Numbered 317.
On the back of the photograph, Marianne had written:
Dempster, if you're reading this, your father failed.
Trust neither family nor blood.
Selena looked at him.
Before either spoke, footsteps sounded outside the locked archive.
Dempster reached toward his waistband.
The doorknob slowly turned.
May you like
Someone had entered the mansion without permission.
And a familiar male voice said, “Nephew, open the door.”
