Chapter 10 - BLAIR'S LAST DEBT
Blair had gone to Maine.
Charles Sutton owned an abandoned summer estate there under a trust name.
Grant and Lily found her in the basement.
She was burning files.
“Stop!” Grant shouted.
Blair turned.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“What are you destroying?”
“My father's insurance.”
Lily saw photographs.
Politicians.
Judges.
Business leaders.
Children.
Her stomach turned.
Charles had documented every person he controlled.
Then Lily saw Grace's picture.
Taken at daycare.
Another outside the mansion.
Another through a bedroom window.
Grant became terrifyingly still.
Blair handed him a file.
“My father planned contingencies. If he was convicted, certain people were supposed to use Grace to force you to withdraw evidence.”
“Who?”
“I don't know all of them.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Blair looked toward the ceiling.
“They found me.”
Armed men entered the house.
Grant pushed Lily behind the furnace.
Blair fired first.
For the first time, she was fighting against the world her father created.
The basement filled with smoke.
Lily grabbed Grace's file.
Grant was struck in the shoulder.
Blair helped him stand.
“You really do have terrible taste in fiancées,” she said.
Grant almost laughed.
They escaped through an old coal tunnel.
Federal agents arrested three men outside.
The fourth ran toward the cliff.
Blair followed.
Lily shouted for her to stop.
The man turned and fired.
Blair fell.
Grant caught the gunman before he escaped.
Lily reached Blair.
Blood spread across her coat.
“Don't,” Blair whispered.
“Don't what?”
“Pretend you like me now.”
Lily cried.
“I still don't.”
Blair smiled.
“Good.”
She survived surgery.
Again.
Her testimony uncovered the final Sutton network.
Charles lost every remaining source of influence.
Blair received a reduced sentence.
Before she returned to custody, Grant visited her.
Lily waited outside.
“What did you say?” she asked afterward.
“Thank you.”
“And?”
“Goodbye.”
Some stories did not end with forgiveness.
Sometimes accountability was the kindest ending available.
May you like
Grant took Lily's hand.
“Let's go home.”
