Chapter 7 - The Price of Telling the Truth
For the first time since the cathedral, Paige slept somewhere other than Gabriel’s estate.
She checked into a hotel under her own name, paid with her own money, and asked the desk clerk not to announce visitors. She did not disappear. She simply needed a door that belonged to her.
Gabriel called once. Paige let it ring.
He sent one message: I should have told you earlier. I will answer every question when you are ready.
She stared at it for a long time.
Part of her wanted to forgive him immediately. Another part remembered Arthur saying he had no choice, Colin claiming his cruelty was love, and every powerful man who had asked her to accept the version of the truth most convenient to him.
The next morning, Paige met Detective Mercer and a federal prosecutor named Allison Reed. She surrendered copies of the recordings and requested an independent investigation into Gabriel’s financing documents.
Reed studied her. “You understand this could implicate Mr. Rossy?”
“Yes.”
“Even if he didn’t know the purpose of the transaction?”
“Yes.”
Paige’s voice trembled, but she did not look away. “I’m not here to protect a man. I’m here because my mother died trying to tell the truth.”
Reed promised nothing except a careful review.
Meanwhile, Gabriel convened his senior staff and opened every Meridian-related account to outside forensic auditors. Dominic objected that the scrutiny would expose unrelated criminal activity.
“Then it gets exposed,” Gabriel said.
Leo stared at him. “You know what that means.”
Gabriel did. For years he had justified compromises by telling himself they protected the organization. Now he understood how easily that reasoning could become the excuse that had destroyed Paige’s family.
“I won’t build a future with her on another lie,” he said.
Dominic left the meeting before it ended.
By evening, Anthony’s photograph appeared in an encrypted message sent to Gabriel’s phone. The sender demanded ten million dollars and a signed transfer of Meridian’s remaining property assets. Otherwise Anthony would die.
Gabriel forwarded the message to Reed rather than arranging a private exchange. Federal agents traced the transfer instructions to an investment office in Providence.
The office belonged to Samuel Weller, Mercer’s former police captain.
Weller had been collecting payments from Richard’s network for almost twenty years. After Richard’s arrest, he had attempted to seize the remaining assets by threatening everyone who knew where the second book was hidden. He had also recruited a handful of compromised contractors to penetrate Gabriel’s estate.
But Weller did not know that Paige had already recovered Margaret’s recordings.
At the hotel, Paige received a call from a number she did not recognize.
“Your mother made the same mistake,” a man said. “She thought evidence could protect her.”
Paige kept her voice steady. “Samuel Weller?”
A pause.
“You should have taken the plane.”
The line went dead.
Paige immediately called Reed. Within minutes, two federal agents arrived at the hotel. One stayed in the lobby while the other checked the corridor.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Paige’s body reacted before her mind. She remembered the library, the shattered glass, Evelyn falling against the table. She moved toward the emergency exit, then stopped. Weller had used the same trick before.
Instead she called the front desk and asked whether there was an actual fire. There was not. Someone had pulled the alarm on the floor below.
Paige stayed in the room and locked the door.
A moment later, someone knocked.
“Federal security,” a man called. “We need you to evacuate.”
Paige looked through the peephole. The man wore a dark jacket but no visible badge. His shoes were wet though the corridor was dry.
She did not open the door.
“Show me your credentials under the door,” she said.
The man swore and stepped away. Seconds later, the corridor erupted in shouts. The genuine agents had intercepted him near the stairwell.
Paige sank onto the bed, shaking.
Her phone rang. Gabriel.
“I heard about the hotel,” he said.
“I’m safe.”
“Can I come?”
Paige closed her eyes. “Not tonight.”
“Okay.”
She had expected an argument. Instead she heard him exhale.
“Paige, I’m going to cooperate with Reed. All of it. I should have done that years ago.”
“Are you doing this for me?”
“No,” he said after a pause. “You made me look at what I was willing not to see. But the decision is mine.”
That answer stayed with her.
The next day, Gabriel gave a recorded statement about the clinic financing and Meridian’s contracts. He admitted that he had ignored warning signs because the investments were profitable. His attorneys warned that his cooperation could lead to charges. Gabriel proceeded anyway.
When Paige learned what he had done, she asked to see him.
They met in a quiet public garden. Gabriel looked exhausted. His usually perfect composure had frayed around the edges.
“I don’t know whether I can trust you again,” Paige said.
“I know.”
“I care about you. That doesn’t erase what happened.”
“It shouldn’t.”
She studied him. “What happens if the investigation takes everything?”
“Then I learn how to live without it.”
A faint, sad smile crossed her face. “That would be a first.”
He almost smiled back.
They sat together without touching. For once, the silence did not demand an immediate answer.
Then Leo called.
Federal agents had raided Weller’s office. They found Meridian records, forged death certificates, and evidence that Anthony was being held at a property on the Rhode Island coast.
They also found a sealed folder labeled PAIGE ARTHUR — FINAL DISPOSITION.
Inside was a contract signed three months before the wedding.
May you like
Arthur had not merely agreed to surrender his daughter to Colin.
He had agreed that if Paige escaped again, she would be delivered to Weller.
