Chapter 14 - THE SECOND BETRAYAL
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Anton fired.
Caleb moved first.
The bullet struck him beneath the shoulder.
Aliyah screamed.
Victor threw the knife.
It hit Anton’s gun hand.
The weapon dropped.
Chaos exploded.
Victor tackled Anton.
Aliyah dragged Caleb behind the hospital bed while gunfire from the hallway shattered glass.
Federal agents stormed the building thirty seconds later.
By then Victor had Anton pinned against the floor.
“Why?”
Anton laughed breathlessly.
“Because somebody had to inherit the network.”
Victor stared.
“You?”
“You think Gabriel built everything?”
Anton’s face twisted.
“I spent twelve years pretending to be the guilty survivor. You never looked twice.”
Aliyah pressed cloth against Caleb’s wound.
Caleb grimaced.
Anton continued.
“Elena discovered my accounts first. Gabriel helped hide them.”
Victor’s face went cold.
“You arranged the shooting.”
“Yes.”
“You lied in the Red Lion.”
“I told you enough truth to make the lies believable.”
Victor’s fist tightened.
Anton smiled.
“Go ahead.”
Victor knew what he wanted.
Kill him.
Become the old Victor.
Prove nothing had changed.
Aliyah called across the room.
“Victor.”
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
Not for Anton.
For him.
Victor released Anton.
Federal agents dragged him away.
Anton shouted over his shoulder.
“She changed you!”
Victor stood.
“Yes.”
Anton stopped struggling.
Victor looked almost peaceful.
“That is why you lost.”
Caleb survived the shooting.
The bullet missed major arteries.
Aliyah rode in the ambulance because apparently that had become a disturbing family tradition.
She sat beside him.
Caleb looked at her.
“You don’t have to be here.”
“I’m a nurse.”
“Not yet.”
“I graduate in two weeks.”
He smiled faintly.
“Denise would be proud.”
Aliyah looked at him sharply.
“You don’t get to use her like that.”
The smile disappeared.
“Fair.”
For several minutes, the ambulance moved through Boston.
Then Caleb whispered, “I loved her.”
Aliyah stared straight ahead.
“I know that means nothing.”
“No.”
“She was the only person who ever left me before I could leave her.”
“That tells me more about you than her.”
“I suppose.”
Aliyah finally looked at him.
“Why didn’t you warn her?”
Caleb’s eyes closed.
“Because I thought Gabriel was bluffing.”
“You chose your business.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother died.”
“Yes.”
Aliyah nodded.
There was no apology big enough.
No deathbed explanation.
No dramatic reunion capable of returning Denise Brooks.
At the hospital, Victor waited outside surgery.
When Aliyah emerged, he stood.
“You stayed with him.”
“He was bleeding.”
Victor nodded.
No jealousy.
No judgment.
Aliyah walked into his arms.
He held her.
“I hate him.”
“I know.”
“I also don’t want him to die.”
“I know.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does.”
She pressed her face against his chest.
“Anton fooled us.”
“Yes.”
“You trusted him.”
Victor exhaled.
“I did.”
“That must hurt.”
“Yes.”
Aliyah leaned back.
“Are you going to turn it into an excuse never to trust anyone again?”
Victor almost smiled.
“No.”
“Look at you.”
“Do not become smug.”
“Too late.”
The investigation that followed dismantled what remained of Gabriel and Anton’s network.
The eight million dollars returned to the foundation.
Aliyah’s name was cleared publicly.
The news stations that had called her suspicious now described her as a “key witness.”
Aliyah hated those headlines too.
Three weeks later, she graduated.
Victor sat in the front row.
No charcoal suit.
Aliyah had forced him into navy.
“It makes you look less like organized crime.”
“I am unsure clothing accomplishes that.”
“It helps.”
When her name was announced, Victor stood before anyone else.
He applauded.
Loudly.
Nikolai looked horrified.
Jasmine recorded the entire thing.
Afterward, Aliyah found Victor outside holding flowers.
Not eighty roses.
Six sunflowers.
“Why six?”
“You once said your mother bought six every Sunday.”
Aliyah stared at him.
“You remember everything.”
“I told you.”
She kissed him.
Then noticed another person standing farther away.
Caleb.
Thin.
Pale.
Leaning on a cane.
Aliyah went still.
Victor followed her gaze.
“I can ask him to leave.”
“No.”
“You are sure?”
“No.”
Aliyah approached Caleb.
He held no flowers.
No gift.
Smart man.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“I won’t stay.”
“Okay.”
He looked at her graduation gown.
“Your mother wanted to be a doctor.”
Aliyah had not known that.
“What?”
“She couldn’t afford medical school.”
Aliyah’s throat tightened.
“She never told me.”
“She probably didn’t want her unfinished dreams becoming your obligations.”
That sounded exactly like Denise.
Caleb looked toward Victor.
“He came.”
“Of course he came.”
“Good.”
Aliyah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“No. You don’t get to speak in cryptic villain sentences anymore.”
Caleb laughed.
For the first time, Aliyah noticed the resemblance.
Not to herself.
To her temper, maybe.
Or perhaps she was imagining it.
Caleb became serious.
“I spent most of my life measuring people by what they would sacrifice to win.”
He looked at Victor.
“You married a man who finally learned there are things more important than winning.”
Aliyah glanced toward her husband.
Victor stood several yards away, deliberately giving her space.
Caleb continued.
“I wish I had learned that earlier.”
Aliyah looked back.
“Do you want me to forgive you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I want you to know I am sorry.”
She studied him.
“For watching me?”
“Yes.”
“For manipulating me?”
“Yes.”
“For Mom?”
His voice nearly broke.
“Every day.”
Aliyah nodded.
“I believe you’re sorry.”
Caleb looked surprised.
“That is not forgiveness.”
“I understand.”
“But it’s something.”
“Yes.”
He left before the celebration began.
Four months later, Caleb Vance died.
Aliyah attended the funeral.
Victor stood beside her.
There were only nine other people.
Afterward, the attorney handed Aliyah an envelope.
Inside was no money.
No property.
Caleb had left his fortune to the Malenkov Foundation.
The letter contained one sentence.
Your mother taught me too late that money is only useful when it stops hurting people.
Aliyah folded the paper.
Victor took her hand.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Me neither.”
She looked at him.
“You barely knew him.”
“I know.”
Victor squeezed her hand.
“But I know what it is to mourn someone you also have reasons to hate.”
May you like
Aliyah rested her head against his shoulder.
And together, they left the cemetery.
