Chương 11
“You’re behaving like a child.”
Something crashed.
Glass, maybe.
Fiona shouted.
Aidan swore.
Flynn said, “You told me this fixed everything.”
Fiona’s voice rose.
“It was supposed to.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if you had followed the plan and stopped improvising, we would not be having this conversation.”
“She woke up because you kept increasing the dose.”
“I did not increase anything.”
“You put it in her soup.”
“That was your father.”
Aidan said, “Don’t start.”
Flynn laughed again.
The sound had become almost breathless.
“Oh, this is good.”
“Flynn,” Fiona warned.
“No, really.”
“You need to calm down.”
“Who changed the trust?”
“I told you.”
“Why?”
Silence.
“Why?”
Fiona answered at last.
“Because I did not trust you.”
The words hung there.
Aidan said her name softly.
She ignored him.
“You were reckless from the beginning.”
Flynn’s voice became quieter.
“You asked me to marry her.”
“We encouraged the relationship.”
“You introduced us.”
“We gave you an opportunity.”
“You gave me instructions.”
“You still made your own choices.”
“So now we’re doing that?”
Fiona’s reply came coldly.
“Yes.”
I understood something then.
They had rehearsed blame before they ever rehearsed murder.
Every task had been distributed in a way that could later become accusation.
Flynn gave me the pills.
Aidan handled the crew.
Fiona handled documents.
Marcus disabled cameras.
Kara requested staffing.
Each person had touched only part of the machine.
If it collapsed, they could point inward.
Flynn said, “Where was the money actually going?”
Fiona replied, “Into controlled accounts.”
“Controlled by who?”
“You don’t need that answer right now.”
“By you?”
No response.
“By Dad?”
Aidan said, “This is ridiculous.”
Flynn ignored him.
“Was I ever supposed to get anything?”
Fiona said, “You would have been taken care of.”
That sentence did it.
Even I knew it.
Taken care of.
The language wealthy families used when they wanted gratitude without surrendering power.
Flynn went completely silent.
Then he said, “Open the bedroom door.”
Aidan said, “What?”
“Leave.”
“We are not leaving.”
“I said leave.”
Fiona lowered her voice.
“Think about what you’re doing.”
“I am.”
“No, you’re emotional.”
“Get out.”
“Flynn.”
“Get out.”
Aidan moved first.
I heard footsteps.
Then a dull thud.
Fiona gasped.
Something heavy hit the wall.
I stepped away from the bathroom door.
The struggle outside was brief and ugly.
Aidan cursed.
Flynn grunted.
Fiona shouted, “Stop it.”
Then someone hit the floor.
Aidan groaned.
Flynn breathed heavily.
Fiona said, “What have you done?”
Flynn answered, “He’s fine.”
“He’s bleeding.”
“Good.”
My stomach twisted.
Fiona’s voice shook for the first time.
“You ungrateful little bastard.”
Flynn laughed.
“You were going to frame me.”
“We were going to protect the family.”
“What family?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“You planned the whole thing so I’d take the fall if it went wrong.”
“No.”
“Every document has my name.”
Fiona did not answer.
“Every order.”
Still nothing.
“The staffing request.”
Silence.
“The medication.”
Silence.
“The route change.”
Fiona said, “That used Evelyn’s fingerprint.”
Flynn went quiet.
Then he said, “Who did that?”
I stopped breathing.
Fiona replied, “You know who.”
“No.”
“You were there.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Aidan groaned from the floor.
“Stop talking.”
Flynn’s voice sharpened.
“I never touched the bridge terminal.”
Fiona said, “Then who did?”
No one answered.
For several seconds, the only sound was the low hum of the bathroom fan.
Then a new voice came from the bedroom doorway.
Kara.
“I did.”
For one second, nobody in the bedroom moved.
Then Flynn said, “What are you doing here?”
Kara closed the door behind her.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“You were in Miami.”
“I was.”
Fiona’s voice sharpened.
“How did you get aboard?”
Kara ignored her.
I pressed my ear against the bathroom door.
There was something strange about hearing someone arrive who should have been hundreds of miles away.
Flynn said, “Answer me.”
“I took a seaplane to Saint Croix, then a tender from one of Sterling’s support vessels.”
Aidan laughed weakly from the floor.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Kara’s voice was calm.
“It was expensive.”
Flynn sounded almost offended.
“You knew where we were.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because unlike you, I read the documents I’m asked to file.”
The insult was small.
It landed harder than shouting.
Fiona said, “You had no authority to access those records.”
“I had every authority to review the staffing changes you asked me to process.”
“You were told they were private.”
“I was told they were a honeymoon security adjustment.”
Kara paused.
“Then one of the replacement crew submitted a tax form under a company that dissolved four years ago.”
Marcus.
I thought of him smoking beside the rail.
Bored.
Confused.
Bought cheaply enough to be useful and not carefully enough to be clean.
Flynn said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“No, you sent vague messages.”
“Because you stopped taking my calls.”
“You told me the paperwork looked wrong.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t say murder.”
“I didn’t know about murder.”
The room went still again.
Kara’s voice changed.
Not fear.
Disgust.
“I knew money was moving through places it shouldn’t.”
She drew a breath.
“I knew your father was using your office.”
Aidan said, “Watch yourself.”
Kara continued as though he had not spoken.
“I knew Fiona requested trust amendments under urgent review without telling Sterling Legal why.”
Fiona said, “That is none of your concern.”
“It became my concern when I saw Evelyn’s biometric authentication attached to a navigation order entered while she was logged nowhere near the bridge.”
Flynn’s voice dropped.
“You entered it.”
“Yes.”
I moved closer to the door.
Kara continued.
“But not because I wanted it approved.”
Flynn said, “That makes no sense.”
“I copied the authentication package into a sandbox terminal so I could see what it would do.”
“You changed our course.”
“No.”
“I saw the record.”
“You saw the forged record.”
Fiona interrupted.
“Enough.”
Kara finally raised her voice.
“No.”
May you like
The word cracked through the room.
“I have spent eighteen months cleaning up after your son because your family pays well enough to make humiliation look like a career.”
