Chapter 6 - What the Dead Women Left Behind
Richard’s arrest didn't fix anything overnight.
Penny had nightmares.
Kendrick barely slept.
I couldn't close my eyes without hearing Richard say daughter.
DNA eventually confirmed it.
He was my biological father.
I hated the word biological.
It sounded too intimate.
Like cells could rewrite twenty-eight years.
They couldn't.
Anna remained my mother.
Noah remained my brother.
Richard remained the man who murdered people because they refused to belong to him.
The final recording from Isabelle gave us what we needed.
She explained exactly what happened the night she died.
Richard ordered Barrett to frighten her into silence.
Barrett tampered with her brakes.
When the crash failed to kill her immediately, Anna reached her first.
Isabelle gave Anna the locket and begged her to protect Penny.
Anna escaped with the evidence.
Three days later, Kendrick’s men spotted her leaving Richard’s warehouse.
They pursued her under Kendrick’s order to bring her in.
But the crash wasn't accidental.
One of Richard’s men had been driving the vehicle that struck Anna.
Kendrick hadn't ordered her death.
Still, his decision had placed her on that road.
He didn't ask me to forgive him.
That helped.
“I was responsible for part of what happened,” he said.
We stood outside the farmhouse at sunrise.
“I can't change it.”
“No.”
“If you never forgive me, I understand.”
I looked at him.
“Stop deciding what I'm going to feel.”
He almost smiled.
“Bad habit.”
“Terrible habit.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I don't forgive what happened,” I said.
His expression tightened.
“But I believe you didn't know.”
He looked at me.
“And I know what you're doing now matters too.”
Kendrick stepped closer.
Not touching me.
Waiting.
For once, the choice was mine.
I took his hand.
That was enough.
For now.
Richard's network collapsed quickly.
The archive exposed judges, officers, executives and shell corporations.
Barrett testified.
Richard was indicted for multiple murders, conspiracy, corruption and racketeering.
My mother's death was officially reopened.
Isabelle's too.
Five years after both women died, their names finally had the truth attached to them.
We visited my mother's grave.
Penny placed lavender beside the stone.
Titan sat quietly.
Kendrick stood beside me.
“You did it, Mom,” I whispered.
Penny took my hand.
Then Kendrick’s.
We stood together.
Not quite a family.
Not yet.
But close.
That evening, Kendrick drove me home.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“I don't want you to stay because Titan chose you.”
My heart accelerated.
“I don't want you to stay because Penny loves you.”
He reached for my hand.
“I want you to stay because I do.”
There was no orchestra.
No diamonds.
No dramatic Mafia declaration.
Just Kendrick.
The man.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“So am I.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
I laughed softly.
“That might be the most shocking thing you've ever told me.”
“I've lost everyone I thought I could keep.”
“So have I.”
He lifted my fingers to his lips.
“Then maybe we stop leaving.”
I kissed him.
Titan barked from the car.
Penny immediately shouted through the window:
“FINALLY!”
I pulled away laughing.
Kendrick closed his eyes.
“She’s five.”
“She’s observant.”
“She’s impossible.”
“She learned from you.”
That could have been our ending.
It wasn't.
Because three months later, Kendrick asked me something that terrified me more than Richard’s gun.
He asked whether I wanted to become Penny’s mother.
May you like
And Penny was standing behind him.
Holding a ring.
