Chapter 8 - The Choice Flynn Finally Made

The patrol aircraft circled overhead.

A loudspeaker from above ordered the Aurelia to maintain course and prepare for law-enforcement boarding.

Aidan stared at me.

“You transmitted.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“My father hid one thing from Flynn that actually helped me.”

Flynn closed his eyes.

Aidan turned on him.

“You missed a transmitter?”

“I didn’t know it existed.”

“You were supposed to control the vessel.”

“I controlled the systems I was given.”

Aidan’s face twisted.

“All those years.”

Flynn looked up.

“What?”

“All those years teaching you to anticipate.”

“Teaching?”

“You still think you were raised?”

Fiona stepped forward.

“Aidan.”

“Stay out of this.”

“No.”

He looked at her.

Something old and ugly passed between them.

Fiona said, “You trained him to hate Charles before he was old enough to understand why.”

“I told him the truth.”

“You told him your version.”

“Charles ruined us.”

“You ruined us before Charles ever helped hide it.”

Aidan moved toward her.

Eli raised the gun uncertainly.

“Boss?”

Flynn said, “Eli, put it down.”

Aidan spun.

“You don’t command him.”

Flynn slowly got to his feet.

“I hired him.”

“With my money.”

“With Evelyn’s money, apparently.”

The sentence stunned even him.

He looked at me.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not now.”

“No.”

He shook his head.

“I need to say it while I still can.”

Aidan laughed.

“You think confession makes you brave?”

Flynn ignored him.

He looked at me.

“I knew about the trust plan.”

“I know.”

“I knew about the drugs.”

“I know.”

“I knew they planned to move you to the charter boat.”

“I know.”

His voice broke.

“I did not know Dad changed it to killing you until yesterday.”

I stared at him.

“Does that matter to you?”

“Yes.”

“It matters legally.”

He flinched.

“It matters to me.”

“That is your problem.”

He nodded.

“You’re right.”

Aidan shouted, “Enough.”

Flynn turned.

“No.”

It was a small word.

Aidan looked almost confused.

Flynn continued.

“No more.”

“You’re choosing her?”

“No.”

He glanced at me.

“She already stopped choosing me.”

Then back to his father.

“I’m choosing not to become you.”

Aidan’s face hardened.

“You became me years ago.”

Flynn swallowed.

“Then I’m late.”

The outer stern alarm sounded.

Mateo’s voice came through my earpiece.

Declan and Maeve are boarding with Coast Guard authorization pending intercept team.

Aidan heard movement below.

“What is that?”

I said nothing.

The two hired men near the windows exchanged looks.

One whispered, “I’m done.”

Aidan turned.

“What?”

“We were told this was a private extraction.”

“It is.”

“There’s a patrol plane.”

“You were paid.”

“Not enough for this.”

He raised his hands.

The other man did the same.

Aidan looked at Eli.

“You.”

Eli hesitated.

Flynn spoke quietly.

“Eli.”

The young man looked at him.

“Put it down.”

Aidan said, “Don’t.”

Flynn continued.

“You think he protects you after tonight?”

Eli’s hand trembled.

“You were going to get me out.”

Aidan said, “I will.”

Flynn laughed bitterly.

“He told me the same thing.”

Eli looked between them.

Then lowered the weapon.

Aidan lunged.

He grabbed Eli’s wrist.

The gun fired into the ceiling.

Everyone dropped.

Flynn hit his father from the side.

They crashed into a table.

The gun slid across the floor.

I kicked it toward the bar.

Fiona screamed.

Nora burst through the service door with Mateo behind her.

“Hands!”

Aidan drove his elbow into Flynn and reached for the gun.

I moved first.

Not toward Aidan.

Toward the gun.

I kicked it under the bar.

Aidan grabbed my ankle.

I fell.

Flynn threw himself between us.

Aidan struck him.

Flynn held on.

Mateo and Nora reached them together.

Mateo forced Aidan’s arm behind his back.

Nora pinned his other wrist.

“Don’t move.”

Aidan shouted.

“Get off me!”

The salon doors opened.

Declan entered.

Behind him stood Maeve Mercer.

Aidan stopped struggling.

For one impossible second, every person in the room seemed to forget the storm.

Maeve had the same red hair from the old photograph, now streaked with silver.

Her left cheek carried a pale scar.

Aidan stared.

“No.”

Maeve stepped forward.

“Hello, brother.”

Fiona began crying.

Aidan whispered, “You died.”

“You arranged a convincing funeral.”

“You left me.”

“You tried to have me killed.”

“That is a lie.”

Declan stood beside her.

Aidan looked at him.

His face drained.

“Declan.”

“Uncle.”

Flynn stared.

“You’re real.”

Declan looked at him.

“I wondered what he told you.”

“That you died in an accident.”

“He was half right.”

Aidan struggled again.

Mateo tightened his hold.

Maeve said, “Stop.”

Aidan froze.

Not because she commanded him.

Because some part of him still remembered obeying his older sister.

Maeve looked at Nora.

“You’re Daniel’s daughter.”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

Nora’s jaw tightened.

“Everybody is sorry tonight.”

Maeve nodded.

“Then let me give you something better.”

She pulled a sealed waterproof envelope from inside her jacket.

“Original Harbor Seventeen instructions.”

Nora stared.

“Where did you get those?”

“I drafted the entity structure.”

“You?”

“I was general counsel.”

“Then you knew.”

“I knew Aidan wanted a reserve vehicle. I did not know he intended to steal through it until Daniel showed me the second ledger.”

Aidan laughed from the floor.

“You signed the papers.”

“Yes.”

“You’re as guilty as Charles.”

Maeve looked at him.

“I spent seventeen years living under another name because of my guilt.”

“That doesn’t make you innocent.”

“No.”

She glanced at Nora.

“It makes me a witness who should have returned sooner.”

Nora took the envelope.

Her hands shook.

“Does this clear my father?”

“It proves he objected to the transfer before it occurred.”

Nora closed her eyes.

Maeve continued.

“It also proves Simon did.”

Declan looked away.

Aidan shouted, “They still executed it!”

Maeve turned on him.

“Because you threatened their families.”

Silence.

Nora opened her eyes.

“What?”

Maeve said, “Aidan told Daniel he would expose fabricated tax evidence against his wife. He told Simon he would have Declan placed in state custody after my disappearance.”

Declan’s face tightened.

Aidan laughed.

“Old stories.”

Maeve reached into the envelope.

“Old recordings.”

A small memory card.

Aidan went white.

Maeve looked at me.

“Your father was a coward.”

“I know.”

“He helped bury the scandal.”

“I know.”

“But he did not steal the money.”

“I know.”

“And Daniel Bell did not either.”

Nora covered her mouth.

For the first time, she let herself cry.

Not quietly.

Not carefully.

Years came out at once.

Declan took a step toward her.

She held up a hand.

“Not yet.”

He stopped.

Outside, the patrol aircraft announced that a boarding team was minutes away.

Aidan looked around.

At Maeve.

Declan.

Flynn.

Fiona.

Me.

The kingdom he had tried to build from grievance had become a room full of witnesses.

He laughed.

It sounded exhausted.

“You think this ends with me?”

I looked at him.

“No.”

That surprised him.

“It ends with everyone who helped.”

Flynn closed his eyes.

I continued.

“Including Flynn.”

Fiona flinched.

Flynn nodded.

“Yes.”

I looked at him.

He met my eyes.

“I won’t fight that.”

“You may later.”

“No.”

“You’ve lied before.”

“I know.”

He looked toward his father.

“But I’m done lying for him.”

Aidan spat, “Weak.”

Flynn’s voice was quiet.

“No.”

He looked at me again.

“I was weak when I needed his approval more than I cared what happened to my wife.”

The words landed hard.

Not because they repaired anything.

Because they finally named it.

The boarding team arrived eleven minutes later.

Aidan was handcuffed first.

Eli and the two hired men surrendered.

Flynn held out his wrists before anyone asked.

Fiona was detained for questioning but not immediately arrested.

Mateo handed over the yacht’s security logs.

Nora handed over the recordings.

Maeve surrendered the Harbor Seventeen evidence.

Declan gave his identity documents and agreed to remain available.

I sat in the salon while officers moved around me.

Lydia dropped into the chair beside me.

“Are you alive?”

I looked at her.

“I think so.”

“Good.”

“You?”

“Ask me next week.”

I laughed.

It was the first real laugh I had made since the staircase.

Then my father called.

I answered.

“Evelyn.”

“Yes.”

“Your mother and I are safe.”

I closed my eyes.

“The Aspen trip?”

“Canceled. Authorities detained two men near the cabin road after Nora’s team passed the threat.”

“Good.”

“Evelyn.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

I looked through the rain-streaked window.

Dawn was beginning at the edge of the sea.

“Dad.”

“Yes?”

“You’re going to tell the truth publicly.”

Silence.

“All of it.”

“Yes.”

“Not a lawyer’s version.”

“No.”

“Not a settlement.”

“No.”

“You will say Daniel Bell and Simon Vale were blamed for something you knew Aidan ordered.”

“Yes.”

“You will accept whatever follows.”

A long pause.

“Yes.”

I believed him.

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Not because he was my father.

Because fear had finally cost him more than truth.