Chapter 18 - The Last Bargain
Richard called Jenna at 6:12 P.M.
“Bring the ledger.”
Jenna’s voice shook with rage. “You have my mother?”
“She’s fine.”
Ruth’s voice came faintly through the phone. “Jenna, don’t—”
The line went quiet.
Richard gave an address: an unfinished marina property outside Gloucester that his investment company had acquired through foreclosure.
He wanted the original ledger and the copied flash drives.
Ortiz listened from across the room.
“We are not giving him originals,” she said after the call.
They prepared decoys.
Ethan insisted on going.
Jenna did too.
“No,” Ethan said.
“That’s my mother.”
“And Lily needs you.”
Jenna looked toward Margaret, who was holding the sleeping toddler.
“She also needs a family that stops letting fear make every decision.”
Ethan had no answer to that.
At the marina, wind pushed hard off the Atlantic. Half-built luxury units stood dark against the water.
Richard waited inside a concrete shell with Ruth seated behind him.
He looked exhausted, not powerful.
“Put the bag down,” he said.
Ethan did.
Richard laughed bitterly. “Your grandfather stole from Samuel Morgan, and somehow I’m the villain.”
“You ordered Daniel’s car sabotaged.”
“I protected a deal worth billions.”
“You killed my brother.”
Richard’s jaw tightened. “Victor handled the details.”
That was enough for the police microphone hidden on Ethan.
But Richard suddenly looked toward a dark window.
He saw movement outside.
“Police.”
He grabbed Ruth and dragged her toward a side door.
Jenna moved before Ethan could stop her.
“Mom!”
Richard shoved Ruth away and ran.
Jenna caught her mother.
Ethan chased Richard down the unfinished dock.
At the end, Richard had nowhere left to go.
Sirens closed in behind them.
Ethan stopped ten feet away.
“Daniel is dead because of you.”
Richard stared at the black water.
Then back at Ethan.
“No,” he said. “Daniel is dead because your grandfather built an empire on theft, and every one of us spent our lives trying to protect it.”
Ethan’s voice was low.
“I’m not protecting it anymore.”
Richard raised his hands.
Officers moved in behind Ethan. Ruth was already wrapped in a blanket, Jenna kneeling beside her. Richard looked past Ethan toward them and seemed to understand that the old method—fear, silence, leverage—had finally stopped working.
“You think telling the truth makes you clean?” Richard asked.
“No,” Ethan said. “It makes me responsible for what I do after I know it.”
May you like
Richard lowered his eyes. The cuffs closed around his wrists.
And for the first time in three years, Ethan knew exactly what he had to do next.
