Chapter 14 - The Last Bargain
Z
Sterling requested a private meeting with Everett two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin.
His attorneys arranged it at a secure legal office, with prosecutors notified and the conversation recorded. Everett agreed to attend because Sterling had offered information about the highway crash.
I accompanied Everett to the building but waited outside the conference room with Leo.
When the door opened forty minutes later, Everett's face was pale with anger.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“He offered me the names of the men who helped arrange the crash.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because he wants a deal.”
Sterling had claimed that a rival group planned the collision, but he admitted that he had learned about it in advance. According to him, he had allowed the plan to proceed because he believed Everett would survive with serious injuries and be forced to surrender control of the company.
Instead, Everett's driver died, and Everett became trapped in a condition Sterling could exploit.
He had not expected Whitfield's drugs to keep Everett unresponsive for so long. But once he realized how much control he had gained, he chose to preserve it.
“Did he give them the names?” I asked.
“Some. Not all.”
“Can the information be verified?”
“The investigators will have to decide.”
Everett leaned against the wall, breathing carefully. His recovery had improved his strength, but stress still left him exhausted.
“He tried to bargain with my life,” he said. “And now he wants to sell me the truth as if it belongs to him.”
I stood beside him.
“You don't have to decide whether to forgive him.”
“I don't intend to.”
“Then what will you do?”
“Tell the prosecutors everything. If his information is useful, they can decide what it's worth. He doesn't get to negotiate with me.”
The decision was harder than revenge. It meant allowing the legal system to handle a man Everett had once controlled through fear. It meant accepting that some facts might remain unknown and that justice would not restore the months he had lost.
But it also meant Everett was no longer letting Sterling decide what kind of man he would become.
That night, Everett asked me to sit with him on the apartment balcony. The lake stretched beneath the moonlight, and the city lights trembled on the water.
“I've been thinking about the wedding,” he said.
“I try not to.”
“I remember the minister asking if you accepted me. Everyone was laughing.”
I looked down at my hands.
“I thought if I said no, Sterling would destroy my mother's care.”
“And then you leaned down and promised you wouldn't laugh at me.”
“I meant it.”
“I know.”
He was quiet for a while.
“I want to ask you something, and I need you to understand that you can say no.”
I turned toward him.
“I'm listening.”
“Would you consider staying married to me after the court resolves the coercion issue? Not because of the money. Not because of my name. Not because you feel responsible for what happened to me.”
He swallowed.
“Because you want to build a life with me.”
I stared at him.
There had been a time when I dreamed of marriage as a place where I would be safe. Then my fiancé abandoned me when my career collapsed, and I decided that safety was something I could never depend on another person to provide.
Everett had not magically erased that fear. He had given me reasons to examine it.
“I can't promise you a simple life,” I said.
“I can't offer one.”
“I won't live in a house where people are afraid to tell the truth.”
“Then we'll build one where they can.”
“I won't be treated like an employee.”
“You won't be.”
“And if you ever use my mother or my past to control me, I'll leave.”
He nodded slowly.
“You should.”
I watched him for a long moment.
“I don't know if I'm ready to answer today.”
He reached for my hand, then stopped and waited.
I placed my hand in his.
May you like
“That's all I wanted,” he said. “A real answer, whenever you're ready.”
For the first time, the possibility of loving him felt less like a trap and more like a door I could choose to open.
