Chapter 12 - Serena’s Final Bargain
Serena asked for Elena.
Not Julian.
Not a lawyer.
Elena.
The meeting took place in a federal interview room.
Serena looked different without diamonds.
No designer dress.
No makeup.
Just county-issued beige clothing and a tired face.
Elena sat opposite her.
“Why me?”
Serena smiled faintly.
“Because Julian still loves me enough to make stupid decisions.”
“And I don’t?”
“You never liked me.”
“That may be the first accurate thing you’ve said.”
Serena almost smiled.
Then her expression changed.
“They’re going to kill me.”
“Northstar?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I failed.”
“At what?”
“To recover Victor’s register.”
Elena leaned forward.
“You knew Claire?”
“No.”
“Daniel?”
“Only from photographs.”
“So you knew there was a replacement for your husband.”
Serena’s eyes filled with shame.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Four years.”
Elena sat back.
“You married Julian seven years ago.”
“I didn’t know at first.”
“When did you find out?”
“When Northstar offered me two million dollars.”
“For what?”
“To help create the conditions for Julian’s removal.”
Elena felt anger rise.
“What conditions?”
“Debt. Substance abuse documentation. Marital instability. Public violence.”
Elena touched her healing lip.
Serena looked at it.
“I didn’t tell him to hit you.”
“No. You only spent years helping people build the story that he was unstable.”
Serena looked down.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
The answer was brutally ordinary.
Elena hated it more than any complicated excuse.
“You had money.”
“I wanted more.”
“At least you’re finally telling the truth.”
Serena’s face crumpled slightly.
“I thought they were going to fake his death.”
Elena stared.
“They told me Daniel would assume Julian’s financial obligations and legal identity after an accident.”
“And Julian?”
“They said he’d be relocated.”
“You believed that?”
“No.”
The word came quietly.
“But I pretended I did.”
Elena’s disgust showed.
Serena wiped her face.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you to keep Julian alive.”
Elena said nothing.
Serena reached beneath the table.
The guard immediately stepped forward.
“It’s okay,” Serena said. “It’s paper.”
She produced a folded note from inside her sleeve.
“I wrote this before they searched my cell.”
Elena opened it.
An address.
An abandoned railway maintenance facility outside Bellweather.
“What is this?”
“Where Northstar told me to take Julian Friday night.”
Elena stared.
“Tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“For his replacement?”
“I think so.”
“Why would he go with you?”
“I was supposed to tell him I had money hidden there.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“He probably would have.”
Serena gave a sad smile.
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Serena hesitated.
“There’s another reason Victor died when he did.”
Elena went still.
“The cancer?”
“Was real.”
“Then what?”
“He had been responding to treatment.”
Samuel had mentioned Victor’s decline accelerated unexpectedly.
Elena leaned closer.
“Did someone poison him?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“Northstar paid a private nurse.”
Elena’s blood ran cold.
“Name.”
“Melissa Crane.”
Elena remembered the nurse.
Blonde.
Quiet.
Always smiling.
Victor had liked her.
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
“Of course.”
Serena shook her head.
“No. I know where she went.”
She wrote another location.
A marina.
“Why tell me now?”
Serena looked toward the observation glass.
“Because Julian visited yesterday.”
Elena had not known.
“What did he say?”
“He said he was cooperating.”
“That surprises you?”
“He told me Dad left him a path back.”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“And then he said he wouldn’t spend another day becoming the man Northstar designed him to be.”
Elena felt something tighten in her throat.
Serena looked directly at her.
“You don’t have to forgive your brother.”
“I know.”
“But if you can save him, do it.”
Elena stood.
As she reached the door, Serena spoke again.
“Elena.”
She turned.
“The register isn’t inside Victor’s safe.”
“Where is it?”
Serena swallowed.
“Victor hid it in the only place Raymond would never search.”
“Where?”
May you like
Serena looked afraid.
“Inside your mother’s grave.”
