Chapter 8 - The Railway Station
The station had been abandoned for twenty years.
Cross stood beneath the broken clock.
Beside him was Maribel.
She looked older.
Tired.
But alive.
Adrian stopped.
"Mother."
She looked at him.
"I am sorry."
"That's not enough."
"I know."
Cross laughed.
"Family reunions are touching."
He raised his gun.
Then something unexpected happened.
Maribel stepped in front of him.
"You're done."
Cross looked at her.
"You betrayed me."
"I should have done it twenty years ago."
He shot her.
Adrian caught her.
"Mother!"
She whispered,
"I'm sorry."
Then she pushed a small drive into his hand.
"Destroy it."
He looked at her.
"What's on it?"
"Everything."
Bank accounts.
Names.
Videos.
Recordings.
Enough to destroy Cross.
Cross ran.
We chased him through the station.
He reached the old platform.
I stood in front of him.
"Why?"
He pointed the gun.
"Because your mother chose your father."
"And that was worth all of this?"
"She made me feel like nothing."
"You were nothing."
He flinched.
Adrian arrived behind me.
Cross raised his weapon.
I moved.
The gunshot went off.
Adrian dropped.
"Adrian!"
Cross ran.
I knelt beside him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
He grabbed my hand.
"Don't cry."
"You've been shot."
"That's usually how this works."
I laughed through tears.
He smiled.
"Still here."
Police arrived minutes later.
Cross was arrested trying to escape through the rail yard.
The evidence on Maribel's drive ended the organization.
The network collapsed.
Adrian survived.
The bullet missed his heart by inches.
For the first time in years, nobody was hunting us.
Nobody was hiding.
Nobody was pretending to be dead.
But peace did not come immediately.
It had to be learned.
Adrian sold the criminal side of his company.
He closed the illegal operations.
He testified.
He surrendered money.
Some people called him a traitor.
Others called him brave.
He didn't care.
He only wanted one thing.
A life where I didn't look at every door.
A life where Lily could grow up without knowing what guns sounded like.
A life where Clara, now finally living under her real name, could sleep without nightmares.
One year later, Adrian brought me back to table 17.
The restaurant had changed.
Brighter walls.
New chairs.
Flowers by the windows.
But the table remained.
I smiled.
"You kept it."
"Of course."
"Why?"
He reached across the table.
"Because that's where I first saw you."
I looked at him.
"And?"
"And I knew immediately that you were lying."
I laughed.
"You were terrifying."
"You were shaking."
"Because you were staring."
"I was trying to understand you."
"And now?"
He smiled.
"Now I don't need to."
He took my hand.
"I love you."
May you like
My eyes filled.
"I love you too."
