Chapter 14 - The Man Who Chose to Walk Away
Freya did not believe Victor.
That was her first instinct.
Her second was to verify everything.
Patrick Sullivan had supposedly died beside her mother.
But the remains from the crash had been badly burned.
Modern DNA testing revealed the truth.
The male body was not Patrick.
Victor had lied for decades.
Patrick had survived.
Why had he never returned?
Because Victor threatened Freya.
Patrick disappeared to keep his daughter alive.
Elias located him.
A small town in Oregon.
Freya flew there alone.
Gabriel wanted to accompany her.
She said no.
He respected it.
Patrick lived in a modest house near the coast.
Freya stood at the door for almost five minutes.
Then knocked.
An older man opened it.
He looked at her.
The years disappeared from his face.
“Freya.”
She began crying before she could stop herself.
Patrick did too.
He did not ask for forgiveness immediately.
He explained.
Then he listened.
Freya told him what his absence had cost her.
He accepted every word.
“I thought leaving would save you.”
“It did.”
She swallowed.
“And it hurt me.”
“I know.”
Both truths were allowed to exist.
Freya stayed three days.
When she returned to Chicago, Gabriel met her at the airport.
No bodyguards.
No black sedan.
Just Gabriel.
“How was it?”
“Complicated.”
“Good complicated?”
“Ask me in ten years.”
He nodded.
They walked toward the train.
Freya stopped.
“You’re taking public transportation?”
“I’ve done research.”
“You researched the train?”
“There are maps.”
She laughed so loudly people turned.
Gabriel looked offended.
That made it worse.
Over the following months, Victor was convicted.
Reed was convicted.
The network collapsed across several states and overseas jurisdictions.
The Gilded Oak reopened under new ownership.
Daniel offered Freya her job back.
She declined.
Toby accepted a management trainee position instead.
Arthur, after completing his cooperation agreement and facing sentencing, began the long process of separating himself from the life he had served.
Nothing was magically erased.
Nobody became innocent because they regretted the past.
But people changed what they did next.
Gabriel sold the last legitimate company inherited from Victor.
He used much of the money to establish a restitution fund administered independently for victims of his former organization.
Freya learned about it from the newspaper.
“You didn’t tell me,” she said.
“You told me good deeds become suspicious when performed for applause.”
“I said that?”
“Repeatedly.”
“Smart woman.”
“Extremely irritating woman.”
They were sitting in Freya’s apartment.
Her radiator worked now.
Her refrigerator was full.
Her knee still hurt when rain approached, but therapy had helped.
Gabriel looked around.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re doing that stare.”
“What stare?”
“The one where you’re thinking something expensive.”
He smiled.
Then became serious.
“Freya.”
She waited.
“I don’t know what I am without the organization.”
“That sounds like something you should discover.”
“And if you don’t like what I discover?”
“That sounds like my decision.”
He nodded.
Then he kissed her.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Not like a man taking something.
Like a man asking.
Freya kissed him back.
His phone vibrated.
Neither moved.
It vibrated again.
Gabriel sighed.
Freya laughed.
“Ordinary life.”
He looked at the screen.
The smile disappeared.
A message had arrived from Arthur.
COME TO THE GILDED OAK.
Gabriel stood.
May you like
Freya read the second line.
COME ALONE. SHE CAN’T KNOW YET.
