Chapter 8 - THE SECOND WEDDING
Chloe agreed to help.
Mave hadn't forgiven her.
Those were different things.
The original wedding venue announced a private rescheduled ceremony.
The story leaked exactly as intended.
Chloe Collins and Gideon Blake would marry after all.
Except Gideon wasn't invited.
He was bait.
Chloe wore the original dress.
Mave wore maroon.
No white robe this time.
Before the ceremony, Chloe found her in the bridal suite.
For a moment, they were back at the beginning.
Same mirrors.
Same lilies.
Different women.
Chloe whispered:
“I don't expect you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I was jealous of you.”
Mave stared.
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“Dad chose me.”
“Yes.”
“Exactly.”
Chloe's eyes filled.
“I spent my whole life knowing his love depended on being useful.”
Mave said nothing.
“You were allowed to disappoint him.”
“He sent me into a burning house.”
“I know.”
Chloe wiped her face.
“That sounded terrible.”
“It was terrible.”
“I mean before that. Mom loved you differently.”
Mave's anger softened only slightly.
Their mother had died young.
Chloe had always believed Evelyn preferred Mave.
Maybe both sisters had spent their lives counting love like money.
Who got more.
Who cost more.
Who mattered.
“I should've told you.”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I know.”
It wasn't forgiveness.
But it was the beginning of something that might someday become it.
At 6:42 p.m., Gideon entered through the service corridor.
Exactly as Mave predicted.
He didn't want Chloe.
He wanted the ledger supposedly locked in the bridal suite safe.
Mave waited inside.
Gideon opened the door.
Saw her.
Stopped.
“You.”
“Wrong sister again.”
His gun lifted.
Mave's heart hammered.
“Where's Chloe?”
“Somewhere you can't use her.”
“The ledger.”
“Somewhere you can't use that either.”
His face changed.
“You think Hayes will save you?”
“No.”
That answer confused him.
Mave smiled.
“I think the microphone in your jacket is going to save prosecutors a lot of time.”
Gideon looked down.
Too late.
The button he'd grabbed in the corridor had transferred trace evidence and activated a transmitter hidden in the decorative pin.
His face twisted.
He lunged.
Mave moved.
Not fast enough.
He caught her shoulder.
Pain shot through the old scars.
For one second, she was seventeen again.
Smoke.
Heat.
Someone stronger deciding whether she lived.
Then she drove her knee upward.
Gideon folded.
Mave ran.
Declan and federal agents entered from opposite doors.
Gideon reached for his weapon.
Declan got there first.
He could have killed him.
Mave saw it.
Everyone did.
Gideon saw it too.
Declan's finger tightened.
Then Sean's voice seemed to live between them.
Eleven years.
Eleven years of grief.
Declan lowered the gun.
“Take him.”
Agents did.
Gideon screamed after him.
“Coward!”
Declan didn't turn.
Mave approached.
“You okay?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
He nodded.
That was enough.
Later, as Gideon was placed into a federal vehicle, Mave stood beside Declan.
“You could have killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
Declan looked toward her.
“Because you were right.”
“About?”
“Surviving someone doesn't mean they get to decide what you become afterward.”
For the first time since the kidnapping, Mave reached for his hand.
May you like
He didn't close his fingers around hers until she did first.
---
