Chapter 16 - Midnight at the Floodgate
The flood-control station stood beside the river like a concrete fortress. Rain streamed down its walls. Rosalind arrived alone, at least to anyone watching the road. Tobias and Sam had taken a maintenance path along the embankment.
Penelope waited under the same black umbrella. Her blonde hair blew across her face, and her pregnant belly strained against her dark coat. She looked almost exactly as she had on the night Garrett tried to kill Rosalind.
“Where's Mom?” Rosalind asked.
“Always straight to the point.” Penelope glanced at the river. “You were always her favorite.”
“We both know that's not why you came.”
Penelope's smile thinned. “Your mother married into money and called it love. My mother cleaned her house. When Dad recognized me, Evelyn made sure I never forgot I was the extra child.”
“Evelyn took you in. She paid for your school.”
“She made charity look like love.”
Rosalind wanted to scream. Instead she spoke quietly. “None of that made you push my husband into the driver's seat.”
“I didn't push him. Garrett came to me. He was drowning in debt. He wanted your money. I wanted the company. We made a deal.”
“And the baby?”
Penelope rested a protective palm over her stomach. “Daniel's child. The only innocent person in this mess.”
“Then stop using that child as a reason to hurt everyone else.”
For a moment, something flickered across Penelope's face. Then headlights flashed across the yard. Garrett stepped from a vehicle, holding Evelyn by the arm.
Rosalind's knees almost gave way. Her mother was alive, thin, shaking, but alive.
“Rosebud,” Evelyn whispered.
Garrett raised a gun. “Give me the drive.”
Rosalind held up an empty hand. “You should've checked who I sent it to.”
May you like
From above them came a metallic clang. The river gate began to open.
Someone had started the flood sequence.
