Chapter 15 - THE YEARS AFTER
Declan recognized the payment as soon as he saw the date. He had sent money to every business damaged in the explosion, including the garage. Sean had brought him the invoices and asked him to sign them.
Ruiz checked the records. The garage owner had reported no damage. The money had gone into an account Sean controlled. It was one more transfer he had hidden among Declan’s hurried signatures.
Declan gave Ruiz his files and access to every company account. He also answered her questions about the men killed during his campaign against the Morettis. Some answers were painful to give. He gave them anyway.
Aris lost his medical license and faced charges for the forged records, the payments, and Camille’s confinement. The guards who helped him and Sean were investigated. Sean faced charges tied to the bombing, the port deals, and the attempt to move Camille. Declan did not attend his first hearing.
Tessa took several weeks off to care for Ruth. Before she left, Declan paid the wages she was owed and the medical bills his staff had used to keep her afraid of losing the job.
“You don’t owe me for telling the truth,” she said.
“I owed you a workplace where you could tell it safely.”
She considered that, then took the check. Months later, she wrote to say Ruth was doing better. Tessa had found work at a small hotel, far from Mercer Island.
Declan closed the estate. He could not walk past the west wing without remembering Camille in the hospital bed or Tessa trembling in the hall.
Camille moved into her own apartment. Physical therapy had left her strong enough to walk, but she still tired easily. Declan visited when she invited him. At first they talked for an hour at a time. Often, they talked about things other than Sean.
One rainy evening, Camille opened her door and found Declan holding a paper bag from the takeout place they had liked before the bombing.
“I brought dinner,” he said. “I can leave it with you.”
“Come in.”
They ate at her kitchen table. Afterward, he told her he was selling his share of the port business and cooperating with the remaining investigation. She told him she had gone to the water that morning on her own. It was the first time she had wanted to see it again.
When he stood to leave, Camille walked him to the door.
“I heard you sometimes,” she said. “Before I could answer. You used to tell me about the rain.”
Declan remembered sitting by her bed, talking because silence had frightened him more.
“I wish you’d told me when you could,” he said.
“I know.”
May you like
He kissed her cheek. Camille held his hand for a moment, then let it go.
Declan stepped outside. Rain touched his face as he walked to his car. Behind him, Camille shut the door herself.
