Chapter 5 - DEREK CAME TO THE GATE
Derek arrived at the Ashford mansion at 2:14 a.m.
In uniform.
Alone.
The gate camera caught him standing in the snow.
Hands visible.
Face calm.
Gabriel watched from the security room.
Harper stood beside Rachel.
Noah remained upstairs with Mrs. Morrison.
Derek pressed the intercom.
“I want to speak to Harper.”
Gabriel reached for the microphone.
Rachel stopped him.
“Her decision.”
He looked at Harper.
She hated that everyone was watching.
Then realized they were waiting.
Not deciding.
She pressed the button.
“Derek.”
His face changed instantly.
Soft.
“Baby.”
Her skin crawled.
“I’m not coming out.”
“I just want to talk.”
“We are talking.”
“You’re scared.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised him.
“Of me?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
Then softened again.
“I never wanted that.”
Harper almost laughed.
“You broke my ribs.”
Silence.
Then Derek whispered:
“You pushed me.”
There.
The rewriting.
“You embarrassed me.”
“You made me feel like some piece of trash while you worked for him.”
Harper’s hands trembled.
But her voice stayed steady.
“You hit me because you chose to hit me.”
Derek looked toward the mansion.
“Ashford told you to say that?”
“No.”
“He’s using you.”
“No.”
“Men like him don’t love women like you.”
Gabriel’s face became unreadable.
Harper looked at him.
Then back at Derek.
“This isn’t about Gabriel.”
Derek laughed.
“It’s always about him.”
“No.”
She took a breath.
“It’s about the fact that I don’t want you in my life.”
Derek’s expression changed.
There.
The sentence he could not tolerate.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“You need me.”
“No.”
“For Noah.”
“No.”
“I can ruin that guardianship.”
“Try.”
Rachel almost smiled.
Derek stepped closer to the camera.
“You think paperwork protects you?”
Harper’s pulse spiked.
Then she remembered.
Document.
Witnesses.
System.
Not one man.
“Yes.”
She said it.
“I think evidence helps.”
His face went cold.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
“You tell Ashford I know what his cousin did.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Derek continued:
“And I know what he did too.”
Gabriel pressed the microphone.
“What did I do, Officer?”
Derek smiled.
“There he is.”
Gabriel stayed still.
Derek said:
“Ask him about Pier 9, Harper.”
Harper looked at Gabriel.
“What?”
Derek smiled wider.
“Ask your protector what happened to Victor Salazar.”
Then he walked away.
The gate camera followed him into the dark.
Harper turned.
“Who is Victor Salazar?”
Gabriel did not answer immediately.
Bad sign.
“Gabriel.”
First time she used his first name.
He noticed.
So did she.
Finally:
“He worked for me.”
“What happened?”
“He disappeared six years ago.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
Gabriel looked at Marco.
Then back at Harper.
“No.”
“But?”
“He stole from us.”
“And?”
“I told Marco to find him.”
Marco’s face tightened.
Gabriel continued:
“Victor vanished before we did.”
Harper stared.
“Do you know if someone else killed him?”
“No.”
“Did you care?”
That question hurt more.
Gabriel said nothing.
Harper understood.
At the time, a missing thief was convenient.
Gabriel did not ask.
That was the moral rot beneath everything.
Not always direct violence.
Sometimes deliberate not-knowing.
Harper stepped backward.
“I need space.”
Gabriel nodded.
No argument.
She left.
Marco said:
“She thinks you’re a monster.”
Gabriel stared at the empty doorway.
“Maybe she should.”
Then Rachel’s phone rang.
Federal investigators had found Victor Salazar.
Alive.
Living under another name in New Mexico.
And he was willing to testify about the same corruption network connecting Derek, Rourke and Michael Ashford.
May you like
For once—
the ghost Gabriel had refused to investigate returned alive enough to tell the truth.
