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Chapter Forty-four

Author: Frankincense Akpesiri
last update publish date: 2026-07-20 18:32:32

At Edna Calloway — the woman who had sat in the third row at my wedding in a steel blue dress and applauded for exactly four seconds. Who had assessed me in her dining room and in my mother’s garden and had arrived, somewhere in the last three weeks, at something that wasn’t quite warm but was considerably more honest than what she’d started with.

Who had provided Julian Reyes with intelligence.

Who had sat across from her son at a breakfast table and told him things she should have said years
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  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Ninety-two

    “We buy time,” he said. “We go tomorrow. We listen to whatever Pascal has to say. But we don’t agree to anything immediately. We tell him we need time to think. We tell him we need to consult with people. We tell him we need space to process what he’s asking.”“And in that time,” Vivian said, “we figure out what Kim is actually doing. We figure out if Kim is a leverage point. We figure out if there’s something Pascal hasn’t accounted for.”“My mother is on the ground in Atherton,” Sebastian said. “My mother is watching what’s happening. My mother might have more information by tomorrow. If we can buy time—if we can stall Pascal—then we have a chance to understand the actual situation instead of just reacting to what Pascal is telling us.”“But Pascal has David,” Vivian said. “Pascal has threat leverage. If we stall too long, Pascal releases everything.”“Pascal won’t release everything immediately,” I said. Understanding it. “Pascal needs us. Pascal needs us to testify. Pascal needs u

  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Ninety-one

    Chapter 63: The GapThat same day, we were sitting in a 24-hour diner on the outskirts of Los Angeles when Sebastian’s phone rang.Edna.He stared at the phone like it was something dangerous, then he answered.“Hi, Mom,” he said. His voice was very careful.We couldn’t hear what she was saying on the other end, but we could see the shift in Sebastian’s face. The specific shift of a man hearing something that didn’t make sense.“When did this start,” he said quietly.There was a pause.“And the investigator hasn’t reported back.”Another Pause.“No. No, don’t push him. Don’t do anything that makes it obvious you’re looking,” Sebastian said.He listened for another minute. Then: “I know, Mom. I know he’s been loyal. That’s what makes this—” He stopped. “I have to go. Be careful. Don’t tell anyone you called me.”He hung up.Vivian and I were both staring at him.“What happened,” I said.“My mother has noticed something,” Sebastian said slowly. “About Kim.”He set the phone down on the

  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Ninety

    “Which means once we do it,” Vivian said, “we can’t take it back. Once we tell Nolan that we’re working with Pascal, once we deliver that message—we’re in Pascal’s organization. We’re not witnesses. We’re participants.”Sebastian turned to look at me.“Is that what you want,” he said. His voice was very quiet.“No,” I said. “But I don’t know if what I want matters anymore.”“It matters,” Sebastian said. “What you want still matters. What I want still matters. What Vivian wants still matters. We’re not powerless yet.”“Aren’t we,” Vivian said from beside us. “Pascal has leverage. Pascal has threats. Pascal has made it clear that if we don’t cooperate, people get hurt. How is that not powerlessness?”The ocean continued its rhythm against the rocks.“Because we still have a choice,” Sebastian said. His voice had changed—it was harder now, more certain. “Pascal is offering us a choice. It’s a terrible choice. It’s a choice between two things we don’t want. But it’s still a choice.”“What

  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Eighty- nine

    Chapter 62: The ChoiceWe drove in silence for a long time.No destination. Just moving through Los Angeles while the evening turned to night and the city lights began to replace the sunset. Vivian hadn’t said a word since we got in the car. I was staring at the text on my phone, reading it over and over, as if the words might rearrange themselves into something that made sense.“Don’t call anyone. Don’t warn anyone. Just come back to the building tomorrow. Room 2304. We have more to discuss. And bring whatever evidence you have against Nolan. All of it. Or David starts talking tonight”.“We don’t have evidence,” Vivian said finally. Her voice cut through the silence like something sharp. “We don’t have anything that would hold up. We have conversations. We have things Nolan said. We have—” She stopped. “We have nothing.”“Pascal knows that,” Sebastian said. His hands were very tight on the steering wheel. “Pascal wouldn’t ask for it unless he was testing us. Unless he was seeing if w

  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Eighty eight

    Chapter 61: The Weight of It.We didn’t speak until we were in the car.We didn’t speak as we walked through the hallway. Didn’t speak as we waited for the elevator. Didn’t speak as we drove down into the parking garage and found our car and got in. The silence was the kind that had weight to it—the specific, heavy quiet of people who had just heard something they couldn’t unhear and were trying to understand what it meant.Sebastian’s hands were very tight on the steering wheel.Vivian was in the back seat with her face turned toward the window, looking at nothing in particular.I was trying to breathe normally and failing.“He’s working for him,” Vivian said finally. Her voice was very quiet. “David took the federal money and gave it to Pascal Morse. He’s been working for him the entire time.”“Not the entire time,” I said. “David was trying to run. He was trying to disappear to Mexico. But then Kim—” I stopped. Started again. “Kim found him. Kim told him that Nolan would hunt him.

  • Left at the alter, married the enemy    Chapter Eighty seven (corrected)

    Chapter 60: The Mall Immediately after Sebastian told Chris to run, we also moved to another city.We’d been in Los Angeles for two days.We were staying at a small hotel on the outskirts of the city. Nothing fancy. The kind of place where nobody asked questions and nobody cared who was checking in.Vivian had gone to the shopping mall to get clothes. Fresh things. Things that didn’t smell like fear and running.She’d been gone for an hour.She came back looking like she’d seen a ghost.“What’s wrong,” I asked.She didn’t answer right away. Just sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall like it was very interesting.“I saw David,” she said finally.“What.”“At the mall. Coming out of a store. I saw David.”I set down the coffee I’d been holding.“David’s in Mexico. David and his mother got on a plane and they disappeared.”“That’s what we thought,” Vivian said. “But I’m telling you I saw him. He was wearing different clothes. Different hair. He had glasses on. But it was

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