Chapter 11 - Derek survived.Barely.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
The hospital was compromised within an hour.
Nathan discovered an unauthorized person had accessed Derek's medical file.
We moved him again.
This time to a military hospital outside the city.
There, he finally told me everything.
Gideon had a private island.
Not officially.
A trust-owned property in the northern lake district.
My husband had once investigated it.
“He keeps records there,” Derek said.
“About what?”
“Everyone.”
Police.
Judges.
Doctors.
Politicians.
Business owners.
Anyone he controls.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
I stared at him.
“Blackmail.”
Derek nodded.
“He has been building leverage for decades.”
“And my husband found it.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't he expose him?”
“Because Gideon threatened you.”
I looked away.
Derek's voice broke.
“I watched my father die.”
He swallowed.
“And I did nothing.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
I stared at him.
“You were a grown man.”
“I know.”
He looked at me.
“I was weak.”
There it was.
The word I had used for myself.
Weak.
Confused.
Helpless.
Except neither of us had truly been those things.
I had been hiding strength.
He had been hiding fear.
“Why did you push me?”
He closed his eyes.
“Gideon told me if I didn't, he would kill Amanda.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he sent me photographs.”
“Of what?”
Derek looked at Nathan.
Nathan handed me a folder.
Inside were photographs of Amanda's sister.
Alive.
Living under another name.
And photographs of her children.
Gideon had them all monitored.
“He controls everything,” Derek said.
“You could have come to me.”
“I was ashamed.”
I stared at him.
“That almost killed me.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then he said:
“There was another reason.”
I looked at him.
“Gideon told me something about you.”
“What?”
“He said your illness was staged before it happened.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“He claimed the diagnosis wasn't natural.”
Nathan stiffened.
Derek continued.
“He said someone poisoned you.”
I thought of the first symptoms.
The weakness.
The tremors.
The confusion that started before my diagnosis.
Doctors had called it neurological degeneration.
Could it have been something else?
Nathan immediately ordered testing.
The results came back the next day.
Heavy metals.
Low levels.
Chronic exposure.
Not enough to kill quickly.
Enough to make a person weak.
Confused.
Unstable.
The illness I had been pretending to have…
Had been partially caused.
My hands trembled.
“Who?”
The answer was in the toxicology report.
The contamination came from medication.
A prescription I had taken for years.
The prescription had been filled at one pharmacy.
The pharmacy was owned by a company connected to…
Amanda.
I closed my eyes.
Everything became clear.
She hadn't simply taken advantage of my illness.
She had helped create it.
Derek looked horrified.
“I didn't know.”
I believed him.
Because he had tears in his eyes.
Real tears.
But forgiveness would have to wait.
Nathan received a call.
He listened.
Then said:
“They found the island.”
I stood.
“Let's go.”
We took a helicopter north.
The island appeared through the fog.
One house.
One dock.
A communications tower.
And dozens of vehicles.
Nathan looked at me.
“We're going in with federal agents.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He stared.
“You're not going alone.”
“I won't be.”
I looked at Derek.
He was still injured.
“But he comes with us.”
Derek frowned.
“Mom…”
“You helped build this.”
I put on a life vest.
“Now you're helping me tear it down.”
The helicopter descended.
As we approached the dock, every light on the island turned on.
One by one.
Then the speakers crackled.
Gideon's voice filled the air.
“Welcome home, Evelyn.”
A pause.
Then:
“You've brought Derek.”
I looked at my son.
Gideon laughed.
“Good.”
The gate opened.
Behind it stood twenty men.
Then Gideon added:
“Because I saved something special for him.”
The warehouse doors opened.
Inside was a wall of photographs.
Every photograph was of Derek.
As a child.
A teenager.
A husband.
A son.
And in the center was one final photograph.
Derek standing beside his father the night he died.
I stared.
There was something in his hand.
A glass.
Gideon had been right about one thing.
Derek had been there.
But my son had never told me what happened after the poison was poured.
Gideon's voice came through the speakers.
“Ask your son what he did that night.”
Derek went pale.
I turned toward him.
“Derek?”
He looked at me.
May you like
And whispered:
“I switched the glasses.”
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