Chapter 17 - No More Pretending
Louis didn’t ask Corrine to come back.
She chose to.
Not as his fake wife.
Not yet as anything else.
As his partner in ending Victor Sloane.
The evidence from Louis’s mother was enough to involve federal investigators.
Victor’s accounts were frozen.
His allies disappeared.
His businesses collapsed.
But Victor himself remained free.
Then Corrine received one final message.
Come to where this began. Alone.
The company garage.
Louis wanted to stop her.
He didn’t.
Instead, he asked, “What do you want?”
Corrine smiled faintly.
“I want you nearby.”
Exactly as she had the first time.
So they repeated the night that had changed everything.
Corrine stood beside the same pillar.
Louis waited in the shadows.
Security remained farther back.
Victor arrived.
“You destroyed everything.”
“No,” Corrine said. “You did.”
He laughed.
“You think Butler saved you?”
“I saved myself.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“That’s what he taught you to say?”
“No.”
Corrine stepped closer.
“That’s what Dawson taught me by trying to take it away.”
Victor reached inside his coat.
Louis stepped out.
“Don’t.”
Victor froze.
Police surrounded the garage.
There was nowhere to run.
Victor looked at Louis.
“You destroyed your father’s legacy for her.”
Louis shook his head.
“My father’s legacy destroyed itself.”
Victor was arrested.
No gunfight.
No execution.
No disappearance.
Just handcuffs.
Consequences.
As Victor was taken away, Corrine stood beside Louis.
“It’s over.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“So what happens to us?”
Louis’s expression softened.
“That’s your choice.”
Corrine smiled.
“Wrong answer.”
He frowned.
“Our choice.”
Louis smiled.
“Better.”
Then Corrine kissed him.
Not because she needed protection.
Not because he had saved her.
May you like
Because she wanted to.
And for the first time, Louis Butler understood what it felt like to be chosen instead of feared.
