Chapter 12 - Damon Asked Me for One Last Thing
Damon returned to jail.
This time, no bail.
Gavin faced a list of charges long enough to turn every news broadcast into a legal seminar.
Fraud.
Conspiracy.
Witness intimidation.
Evidence tampering.
Financial crimes.
Charges related to the Northstar cover-up.
Investigators also reopened Thomas Vale’s death.
Adrian negotiated cooperation.
Dr. Voss pleaded not guilty.
Lacey entered witness protection pending trial.
I went home with my daughter.
Not to Damon’s house.
I never entered that bedroom again.
Dad purchased nothing new.
He simply had my childhood room converted into a nursery beside mine.
Katherine Rose spent nine days in neonatal care.
Then Hannah finally said the words I had been waiting to hear.
“You can take her home.”
I cried harder than the day she was born.
At home, my life became smaller.
Bottles.
Diapers.
Two-hour stretches of sleep.
Tiny fingers closing around mine.
And strangely, that small life made the enormous corporate war feel less powerful.
Then Damon requested to see me.
I refused.
He requested again.
I refused.
The third request came through Noah.
“He says he has information only you will understand.”
“Manipulation.”
“Probably.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
“Because he used a phrase from your mother’s letter.”
I looked up.
“What phrase?”
“The last witness.”
Mom had never written those exact words in the letter I found.
But she had used the phrase in an old journal.
One entry:
Thomas thinks the last witness may still have the originals.
I agreed to meet Damon behind glass.
He looked thinner.
Older.
I sat down.
“What do you know?”
No greeting.
No emotion.
He deserved neither.
Damon picked up the telephone.
“Gavin kept one person away from everyone.”
“Who?”
“A lab technician.”
“Name.”
“Rachel Bell.”
I frowned.
“I don’t know her.”
“She worked with Thomas.”
“Where is she?”
“Vermont.”
“Why tell me?”
He looked down.
“Because Gavin tried to have her killed twice.”
I said nothing.
Damon’s fingers tightened around the receiver.
“I thought everything was about money.”
“You’re still doing it.”
“What?”
“Making yourself less guilty because someone else was worse.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“No, Damon. You knew exactly what you did.”
“I loved you.”
I almost stood.
He spoke quickly.
“I know you don’t believe that.”
“You studied me.”
“Yes.”
“You lied from our first conversation.”
“Yes.”
“You married me for a trust.”
“Yes.”
“Where exactly was the love?”
He looked at me.
“It happened after.”
I hated that answer because some part of me believed it might be true.
Not enough to matter.
Damon continued.
“Gavin told me never to have children with you.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He said pregnancy complicated control.”
“Then why?”
His eyes filled.
“Because I wanted something with you that he hadn’t ordered.”
I looked at him for a long time.
“You don’t get to turn Katherine into proof you loved me.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
He gave me Rachel Bell’s address.
Then he asked one last thing.
“What?”
“Don’t let my daughter grow up believing I was a good man.”
I stared at him.
That was not what I expected.
“She deserves the truth.”
I put down the phone.
Before leaving, I turned back.
“Katherine is my daughter.”
His face crumpled.
I walked away.
Rachel Bell was seventy-one.
Federal investigators found her living in a small farmhouse under another name.
She had kept laboratory notebooks.
Original test results.
And a recording of Thomas confronting Gavin.
It proved Northstar executives knowingly distributed contaminated medication.
It also revealed the final truth about Thomas’s death.
Gavin had ordered the sabotage.
Adrian had helped arrange it.
He had been twenty-three.
Young enough to be manipulated.
Old enough to be responsible.
The conspiracy that began before my marriage was finally visible from beginning to end.
One question remained.
Why had Gavin risked everything for Northstar?
The answer was embarrassingly simple.
Money.
He secretly owned shares through offshore accounts.
When Mercer acquired Northstar, Gavin made nearly eighty million dollars.
Twenty-three people died.
My biological father died.
My mother spent her final weeks fighting him.
My marriage became a trap.
All because one man wanted eighty million dollars and then spent ten years protecting the lie.
May you like
Sometimes evil is not complicated.
Sometimes it is greed with excellent tailoring.
