Chapter 13 - The Truth Freya Carried Home
The letter had been written twenty-six years earlier.
Freya’s mother knew Victor might kill her.
So she documented everything.
She wrote about Elias.
About Patrick.
About the network.
Most importantly, she wrote about Freya.
Patrick had known Freya was not biologically his.
He loved her anyway.
He chose her.
That truth mattered more than blood.
Freya read the final lines three times.
A father is not the man whose blood you carry. A father is the man who stays when staying costs him something.
Freya cried.
Not violently.
Quietly.
Gabriel sat beside her.
He did not touch her until she reached for his hand.
Weeks passed.
Victor’s trial began.
The evidence survived every challenge.
Arthur cooperated and accepted responsibility for his crimes.
Elias did the same.
Gabriel made the most shocking decision.
He dismantled what remained of his criminal organization voluntarily.
He turned over records.
Returned property.
Testified.
His attorneys thought he had lost his mind.
Freya understood.
For the first time in his life, Gabriel wanted something fear could not purchase.
A future he did not have to hide.
His cooperation did not erase his past.
It reduced his sentence exposure, but consequences remained.
Freya respected him more for accepting that than she would have respected another clever escape.
She found work translating for an international legal-aid organization.
Her disability case was finally approved.
Not because Gabriel interfered.
She had specifically forbidden him.
Her back payments arrived on a Tuesday.
She paid rent.
Paid the clinic.
Bought groceries.
Then stood in the supermarket aisle and cried over the ridiculous luxury of buying strawberries without checking her bank balance first.
Gabriel found out and sent nothing.
No money.
No gifts.
Only a text.
Congratulations.
She stared at it.
Then smiled.
He really was learning.
Three months later, Freya attended Elias’s sentencing hearing.
He received a reduced sentence because of his cooperation.
Before marshals took him away, he looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“Will you visit?”
Freya thought carefully.
“Yes.”
Elias closed his eyes.
That single word nearly broke him.
Outside the courthouse, Gabriel waited.
“Coffee?”
“You hate coffee.”
“I’m trying ordinary-person activities.”
“You own a coffee machine worth more than my car.”
“I don’t own a car anymore.”
Freya stared.
“What happened?”
“Federal government.”
She laughed.
They walked.
Halfway down the courthouse steps, Gabriel’s phone rang.
He looked at the number.
His expression changed.
Freya stopped.
“What?”
Gabriel answered.
Listened.
Then handed her the phone.
A prison official spoke.
Victor Mercer had been attacked.
Before losing consciousness, he had repeatedly demanded to speak to Freya.
May you like
And he had given them a message.
“Tell her Patrick Sullivan is alive.”
