Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO STARTED THE KISS
Catherine stared at the screen.
“Melissa?”
Diane remembered the gala.
Melissa had tried to stop Catherine from offering the money.
Don't do this.
She had seemed like the only decent person in Catherine's circle.
Now she was standing beside Victor.
Ravi reached for his coat.
“No one goes alone.”
Catherine looked shattered.
“She knew everything.”
“How?” Diane asked.
Catherine shook her head.
“She was my friend for fifteen years.”
Vincent spoke quietly.
“Melissa Dane.”
Everyone turned.
Catherine stared.
“What?”
“Her full name.”
Ravi looked at his father.
“You knew?”
“I knew Victor had a daughter.”
Catherine sank into a chair.
Melissa.
Victor's daughter.
The woman who had watched Catherine obsess over Ravi.
Who had known about the photograph of Sadi.
Who had stood beside Catherine when she selected Diane.
Diane suddenly understood.
“The kiss.”
Ravi looked at her.
“It wasn't Catherine's idea.”
Catherine went pale.
Diane remembered the sequence.
Catherine had wanted revenge.
But who had reminded her Ravi hated strangers touching him?
Who had warned her dramatically about what happened to people who crossed him?
Who had ensured Catherine believed the stunt would humiliate him?
Melissa.
“She pushed you toward it without looking like she was pushing.”
Catherine covered her mouth.
“She knew Diane would tell Ravi about Sadi.”
Ravi's face hardened.
“She needed us connected.”
Diane finally understood the last line of Chapter 1's nightmare.
Someone had been waiting for them to meet.
Melissa.
Not fate.
Not Catherine's impulsive cruelty.
A plan.
“Why?” Diane asked.
Vincent answered.
“Because Victor needed Laura's evidence.”
“And he thought I had it.”
“Yes.”
“But I didn't even know it existed.”
“He didn't know that.”
Ravi looked toward the hotel feed.
“Melissa put Diane in front of me because she knew I'd investigate once Sadi's name surfaced.”
“And we'd lead Victor to the evidence,” Diane said.
Exactly what they had done.
St. Agnes.
Evelyn.
The bracelet.
The locket.
Every discovery had created a trail.
Diane felt sick.
“We've been helping him.”
“Until now,” Ravi said.
They returned to the Grand Aurelia.
This time Diane didn't enter as a waitress.
She walked beside Ravi through the lobby while hotel executives moved out of their path.
Hours earlier, she had been invisible.
Now everyone looked.
Strangely, she preferred invisible.
The foundation office was on the sixth floor.
Ravi stopped before the elevator.
“Diane stays downstairs.”
“No.”
“Victor has killed people.”
“So have people around you.”
His face tightened.
She continued.
“My parents died because adults kept deciding what I didn't need to know. I'm done waiting in hallways.”
Ravi looked at her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
“That I can do.”
They found Melissa alone inside the office.
No Victor.
She stood beside an open safe.
Adrian's black watch rested on the desk.
Catherine entered last.
Melissa looked at her.
“You always did arrive after somebody else cleaned up your mess.”
Catherine flinched.
“Where's your father?”
“Gone.”
“Why did you do this?”
Melissa laughed softly.
“Which part?”
“Using me.”
“I didn't create your anger, Catherine.”
“No.”
Catherine swallowed.
“You just aimed it.”
Melissa's smile faded.
For the first time, Diane saw the motive beneath the manipulation.
“My father spent ten years hiding because of all of you.”
Ravi said, “Your father murdered two innocent people.”
“My father followed orders.”
“That doesn't absolve him.”
“No. But somehow men like Vincent get mansions while men like my father get called monsters for doing their dirty work.”
Vincent, standing in the doorway, didn't argue.
Melissa looked at him.
“You built him.”
Vincent answered quietly.
“Yes.”
That seemed to disturb her more than denial would have.
Melissa looked at Diane.
“I never wanted Sadi hurt.”
“You sent your father after her.”
“To frighten you.”
“My ten-year-old sister hid in a bathroom while a stranger hunted her.”
Melissa's composure cracked.
“He wasn't supposed to touch her.”
Diane's voice went cold.
“That's what rich people always say after they put somebody poorer in danger.”
Catherine looked down.
The words hit her too.
Good.
Melissa picked up several letters.
“Adrian knew this family was rotten.”
Ravi stepped closer.
“Then give me the letters.”
“Why? So another Greedy controls the truth?”
“No.”
Ravi removed his black watch.
He placed it beside Adrian's.
“I don't want the family protected anymore.”
Vincent stared at him.
Ravi continued.
“Every ledger goes to federal investigators. Every politician. Every company. Every payment.”
Marcus looked surprised.
“Boss—”
“Everything.”
That decision cost him.
Diane could see it.
Businesses.
Power.
Perhaps freedom.
Ravi looked at Vincent.
“Even his name.”
Vincent nodded once.
Melissa's confidence weakened.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Ravi looked at Diane.
“But she should.”
He handed Diane his phone.
On the screen was an email prepared for an investigative prosecutor.
Attached were copies of every record.
Scheduled to send in ten minutes.
Diane looked at him.
“You already decided.”
“Before we came upstairs.”
Laura's test.
Choose the child over the family name.
Ravi had.
A gunshot shattered the window.
Everyone dropped.
Victor stood in the adjoining conference room.
Gun raised.
Melissa screamed.
“Dad!”
He grabbed her.
Not affectionately.
As a shield.
Melissa's face changed.
“Dad?”
“Give me the film.”
Ravi stood slowly.
“You're finished.”
Victor laughed.
“Your brother said that too.”
Ravi's face went still.
Diane saw his hand curl.
Victor continued.
“Adrian thought collecting papers made him brave.”
“You shot him.”
“Yes.”
Melissa stared at her father.
“You told me Vincent ordered it.”
Victor's expression shifted.
“I did what was necessary.”
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
Melissa began crying.
The same words.
Different father.
Same poison.
Victor looked at Diane.
“Microfilm.”
“No.”
He pressed the gun against Melissa.
Diane froze.
Catherine whispered, “Give it to him.”
Ravi looked at Diane.
She understood.
The evidence had already been copied.
Diane removed the film container.
She placed it on the floor.
Kicked it forward.
Victor bent.
Melissa drove her heel down on his foot.
The gun swung.
Ravi moved.
Marcus tackled Victor into the wall.
The gun skidded beneath the desk.
Catherine pulled Melissa away.
Within seconds Victor was facedown on the carpet.
Ravi stood over the man who killed Adrian and helped kill Diane's parents.
For one frightening moment, Diane thought Ravi would execute him.
Victor smiled.
“Do it.”
Ravi's hands clenched.
“Give me what your father taught you.”
Ravi stared down.
Then stepped back.
“No.”
Sirens approached outside.
Ravi looked at Marcus.
“Turn him over alive.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
That was Ravi's victory.
Not killing him.
Refusing to become him.
Later, as officers took Victor away, Melissa sat crying beside Catherine.
Catherine didn't comfort her immediately.
Then she removed her red evening wrap and placed it around Melissa's shoulders.
Not forgiveness.
Humanity.
Diane watched.
Ravi approached.
“The records were sent.”
“All of them?”
“All.”
“What happens to you?”
“I don't know.”
It was the first future he couldn't control.
Then Sadi ran from the elevator with Evelyn behind her.
Diane hugged her.
Sadi noticed the two black watches on the desk.
“Is it over?”
Diane looked at Ravi.
“Almost.”
Sadi picked up Adrian's watch.
Something rattled inside.
Ravi frowned.
“The compartment is empty.”
Sadi shook it.
“There’s something else.”
Marcus opened the back carefully.
Beneath the microfilm compartment was another thin panel.
Inside lay a tiny folded note.
Ravi unfolded it.
His face changed.
“What?” Diane asked.
He handed it to her.
Adrian's handwriting.
One sentence.
If I don't make it, Ravi must never learn why Laura chose Diane.
Diane stared at the words.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn began crying behind them.
May you like
Diane turned.
Evelyn whispered, “Because Sadi wasn't the only child Laura was protecting.”
