Chapter 14 - The Wedding Trap
The estate chapel had not hosted a wedding in twenty years.
By Saturday morning, white roses filled the aisles.
Samuel chose them because Elena hated them.
I wore the black suit from her funeral.
It still fit, though I felt like a different man inside it.
Marcus’s security team occupied hidden positions throughout the chapel and gardens. Federal agents waited beyond the gates.
Patricia had not been released.
Instead, Rosa wore a bridal veil and sat inside a covered vehicle near the entrance. From a distance, Samuel would believe she was Patricia.
Elena remained in the surveillance room with Daniela, Martina, Isabella, and Sofia.
She wanted to be inside the chapel.
I refused.
“I lost you once,” I told her. “I will not place you in his reach.”
“You cannot make decisions for me because you are afraid.”
“You’re right.”
She seemed surprised.
“But I can ask you not to go.”
Elena looked at our daughters.
Then she agreed.
At eleven fifty-two, the chapel bell rang.
No one had touched it.
Marcus’s voice came through my earpiece.
“Movement near the north garden.”
A man in a priest’s robe entered through the side door.
He walked slowly toward the altar.
Samuel had shaved his beard and covered the burns along his neck with makeup, but I recognized his posture.
He stopped ten feet away.
“You wore the correct suit.”
“You brought the key?”
He lifted a small metal device.
“Where is Patricia?”
The chapel doors opened.
Rosa entered beneath the veil.
Mateo walked beside her, disguised in formal clothes as part of the ceremony.
Samuel smiled.
“You always were ambitious, Patricia.”
Rosa said nothing.
She approached the altar.
Samuel held out his hand.
“Remove the veil.”
Before she could move, a shot broke the chapel window.
Mateo pushed Rosa down.
The bullet struck the wall.
Samuel had brought a second shooter.
Agents moved outside.
Gunfire erupted in the garden.
Samuel grabbed me and pressed a blade against my throat.
“You never learned,” he whispered.
“I learned enough to let you walk into a building surrounded by federal agents.”
“You think I care about leaving?”
He displayed a trigger in his other hand.
“Meridian activates at noon unless this remains pressed.”
Dead-man switch.
The clock above the chapel entrance showed 11:57.
“Give Marcus the key.”
“First, Patricia kills Rosa.”
Rosa removed the veil.
Samuel stared.
His expression changed from surprise to fury.
“Where is she?”
“In custody.”
“You lied.”
“You taught me.”
He tightened the blade.
“Then Rosa dies for her.”
Rosa stood.
“No.”
Samuel looked at her.
“No?”
“You have spent your life deciding who should pay for other people’s choices. Claire paid for Elena. Isabella paid for Sofia. The girls paid for Patricia.”
She stepped closer.
“I will not pay for you.”
Samuel aimed his pistol at her.
Mateo moved in front of his mother.
Samuel laughed.
“Just like Elena.”
The chapel clock changed to 11:58.
Marcus’s voice came through my earpiece.
“We need the key.”
I looked at Samuel.
“You wanted my father’s empire.”
“I wanted what he denied me.”
“What?”
“Respect.”
“You murdered people because one cruel man made you feel small?”
Samuel’s face twisted.
“He treated me like a servant.”
“And you became worse than him.”
His grip shifted.
That was what I needed.
I drove my elbow into his ribs.
The blade cut my neck but missed the artery.
Rosa pulled Mateo behind a pew.
Samuel fired.
The bullet struck the altar.
I tackled him.
The trigger fell from his hand.
The Meridian countdown immediately accelerated.
Marcus shouted, “Ninety seconds!”
Samuel crawled toward the device.
I reached it first.
The screen required a six-digit code.
“What is it?”
Samuel smiled through blood.
“Ask your dead father.”
I struck him.
“The code.”
“Let it burn.”
The chapel clock showed 11:59.
Elena’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Gabriel, the fire.”
“What?”
“The first fire. Isabella’s age.”
Isabella had been eleven.
The summer-house fire occurred on August 14.
I entered the code.
Access denied.
“Wrong,” Marcus said. “Forty seconds.”
Samuel laughed.
Elena spoke again.
“Not the date. The time.”
Sofia had told us the explosion occurred just after midnight.
The old police report listed 12:07 a.m.
I entered it.
The trigger unlocked.
A compartment opened, revealing the third physical key.
Marcus’s technician ran from the sacristy, seized it, and connected all three keys to a secure terminal.
“Twenty seconds.”
Samuel lunged toward him.
Rosa picked up the fallen candlestick and struck Samuel’s injured leg.
He collapsed.
The technician entered commands.
Ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Samuel looked toward the chapel doors.
“No.”
Five.
Four.
Three.
The terminal flashed green.
MERIDIAN DISABLED.
Samuel went still.
Agents entered and surrounded him.
Evelyn Cross placed him in handcuffs.
For the first time since I had known him, Samuel looked small.
Not powerful.
Not brilliant.
Just old, wounded, and empty.
As agents led him away, he turned toward me.
“You think this makes you better than your father?”
“No.”
I touched the cut on my neck.
“What makes me better is that my children will never have to fear me.”
Outside, the second shooter was arrested after being wounded by Marcus’s team.
The threat was over.
Or so we believed.
Then one of the surveillance screens activated.
Patricia appeared in the estate medical wing.
She was no longer in federal custody.
A corrupt transport officer had helped her escape.
She stood behind Elena with a gun pressed against her back.
Daniela and Martina were beside them.
Patricia looked directly into the camera.
May you like
“You prepared for Samuel,” she said.
“But you forgot the bride.”
