Chapter 11 - I Refused to Be His Victim Again
Everyone told me not to go.
So I didn’t.
Not alone.
Gavin expected the same Evelyn he had studied for years.
The woman trained to avoid conflict.
The daughter protected by wealth.
The wife Damon believed he could gaslight into silence.
That woman no longer existed.
Detective Torres built the plan.
A tracker beneath my coat.
Police outside the facility.
Noah monitoring audio.
Dad protested until Torres threatened to remove him from the operation entirely.
The abandoned Northstar research center stood beside the Hudson, twenty miles north of the city.
Broken windows.
Rusting laboratory signs.
Grass pushing through asphalt.
I entered at 8:17 p.m.
“Gavin?”
My voice echoed.
A light turned on.
He stood behind a glass partition.
No gun visible.
That didn’t comfort me.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
He smiled.
“You’re more like Katherine every day.”
“I hope that keeps you awake.”
His smile faded.
He opened a door.
“Come upstairs.”
I remained where I was.
“No.”
“You think police will save you?”
“I think you’ve spent ten years mistaking patience for weakness.”
He stared at me.
Then laughed.
“That line sounds rehearsed.”
“It wasn’t.”
I saw movement behind him.
A second person.
Damon.
I froze.
He had been under house arrest.
Apparently, the ankle monitor meant less than everyone hoped.
His face was bruised.
Desperate.
“Evelyn.”
I looked at the man I once loved.
“Don’t say my name.”
Damon swallowed.
“Gavin made me come.”
“Of course he did.”
“I’m trying to fix this.”
“You drugged me.”
“I know.”
“You locked me in a cage.”
His face twisted.
“I know.”
“You discussed my death as if you were scheduling dinner.”
“I was angry.”
I laughed.
Even Gavin looked disgusted by that excuse.
Then Gavin placed a folder on the table.
“Enough.”
“What is that?”
“The truth your mother never wanted you to see.”
Inside were corporate documents.
Transfers.
Signatures.
One signature belonged to Dad.
Gavin claimed my father knew more about Northstar than he admitted.
“Liar.”
“Read it.”
I did.
Dad had signed an authorization moving funds to a Northstar subsidiary after safety concerns surfaced.
My stomach tightened.
“Charles approved the payments.”
“He says he didn’t know what they were.”
“Charles says many things.”
Gavin stepped closer.
“You think your father chose you because blood didn’t matter?”
I stared at him.
“He chose you because Katherine threatened to leave him.”
“No.”
“He protected you because he believed keeping you meant keeping her.”
That hurt.
Which was exactly why Gavin said it.
Then Dad’s voice sounded through the hidden earpiece.
“Don’t believe him.”
I kept my face still.
Gavin continued.
“Your mother loved Thomas Vale. Charles knew it.”
“I already know.”
That surprised him.
“DNA too.”
His confidence faltered.
Good.
“Anything else?”
“You think you understand everything now?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“But I understand you.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You find people’s shame and tell them hiding it is survival.”
Silence.
“You did it to Dad.”
Another step.
“You did it to Lacey.”
Damon looked at Gavin.
“You did it to him.”
Damon’s jaw tightened.
“And when they finally understand what you are, you threaten them.”
Gavin reached inside his jacket.
Police moved outside.
I heard Torres through the earpiece.
Hold.
Gavin pulled out a phone.
Not a gun.
On the screen was live video.
My daughter’s hospital room.
Empty now, because Katherine had already been moved secretly to another facility.
Gavin didn’t know.
“You will give me the Northstar drive.”
“You don’t have my daughter.”
His face changed.
“You’re bluffing.”
“You studied me for ten years.”
I smiled.
“And you still didn’t learn anything.”
That was the signal.
Police crashed through three entrances.
Gavin ran.
Damon grabbed him.
For half a second, I thought Damon was helping us.
Then he shouted, “You promised me!”
Gavin punched him.
They struggled.
A gun slid from Gavin’s waistband.
I backed away.
Damon reached for it.
So did Gavin.
Torres shouted.
“DON’T MOVE!”
Gavin grabbed the gun.
Damon froze.
And then something extraordinary happened.
Damon stepped between me and Gavin.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe instinct.
Maybe one final attempt to prove he was not entirely the monster he had become.
Gavin raised the weapon.
Police fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside him.
Gavin dropped the gun.
Officers tackled him.
Damon fell to his knees.
Nobody had been shot.
I stood shaking.
Gavin shouted as police dragged him away.
“You think this ends because you arrested me?”
I looked at him.
“No.”
I thought of Mom.
Thomas.
Twenty-three dead patients.
Nora.
My daughter.
May you like
“This ends because people finally stopped believing you.”
For the first time, Gavin Shaw had nothing to say.
