Chapter 10 - The Price of Revenge
Police issued alerts for both men, though they could not decide whether Roger was a victim, accomplice, or fugitive.
Valerie knew only that Gabriel had spent decades preparing for this moment. He would not improvise now.
The tablet contained coordinates hidden inside accounting files. One set led to the abandoned Whitmore factory where the fire occurred. Detectives surrounded the site before midnight.
Valerie insisted on going.
Naomi objected. “You are not law enforcement.”
“He left the coordinates for me.”
“That could be bait.”
“It is still for me.”
At the factory, rain fell through holes in the roof. Rusted machinery cast long shadows across the concrete floor. Police found Roger tied to a chair in the former supervisor’s office. He was bruised but conscious. A camera faced him. On a table lay documents confessing responsibility for the fire and the later financial fraud.
Gabriel was gone.
Roger refused medical care until he saw Valerie.
“He wants you to finish it,” Roger said.
“Finish what?”
“Take the company. Publish the confession. Leave me with nothing.”
“You forged my name and tried to steal my embryos. You did that without Gabriel.”
Roger laughed bitterly. “You think the embryo plan was mine? Gabriel delivered the clinic to Sebastian. Gabriel arranged Marissa. He knew exactly how greedy my son was.”
“He says he was protecting them.”
“He says whatever makes his revenge look noble.”
Valerie picked up the confession. Roger had signed it, but several paragraphs were false. They claimed sole responsibility for decisions made before he had authority. Gabriel did not want truth. He wanted a clean story with Roger as the only villain.
“Why did you sign?” she asked.
Roger looked toward the dark factory floor. “He showed me a live feed from the hospital. Marissa asleep in her room. He said if I did not sign, a nurse would inject something into her line.”
Police immediately contacted St. Anne’s. Marissa was safe, and no suspicious nurse was found. The feed had likely been prerecorded.
Roger began to shake.
“For one minute,” he whispered, “I thought my grandchild would die because of me.”
Valerie’s voice hardened. “You planned to take that child from me.”
“I planned to keep the company in the family.”
“You still cannot say the word child without meaning asset.”
Outside, officers found tire tracks leading toward the river. They also found a sealed cooler beneath the office floor. Inside were two cryogenic transport canisters, empty but labeled with Valerie’s patient number.
Gabriel wanted her to know he still controlled the remaining embryos.
The next morning, news of the Whitmore collapse broke. Halcyon withdrew. Regulators froze company accounts. Employees gathered outside factories demanding answers. Valerie, as senior creditor, had the power to force liquidation or offer debtor-in-possession financing.
Roger assumed she would destroy everything.
Instead, Valerie met union leaders and plant managers. She learned which divisions remained viable and which contracts could survive without the Whitmore family. She authorized emergency payroll from the trust in exchange for court-supervised control.
Sebastian watched the announcement from a conference room under attorney supervision.
“You saved the company,” he said afterward.
“I saved the workers.”
“And our family name?”
“No.”
She served him divorce papers.
He read the first page, then looked at her with red-rimmed eyes. “Marissa’s baby might be yours. Does that mean nothing about us matters?”
“It means the child matters. It does not make your betrayal a marriage.”
He signed nothing.
As Valerie left, he said, “Gabriel contacted me.”
She stopped.
“He offered a trade. My testimony against Dad for the location of the embryos.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I needed proof.”
Sebastian slid a photograph across the table.
It showed a cryogenic tank beside that day’s newspaper.
In the background stood a woman in a hospital gown.
May you like
Valerie recognized her face from childhood pictures.
It was Elena Reyes.
