Chapter 8 - The Cathedral TrapGarrett reached Blackthorn House forty minutes later.
The gates were open.
Two security vehicles had been disabled, and the front doors stood beneath flashing emergency lights.
Mave waited inside with Wesley.
Posie was gone.
“They came through the underground tunnel,” Mave said. “Someone had the original architectural plans.”
Garrett’s voice dropped.
“Where did they take her?”
Wesley held up a red envelope.
Inside was a card containing one sentence.
Finish the wedding where it began.
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Elias wanted Garrett to return to the place where the Hail-Ashford alliance collapsed.
This time, however, no guests waited inside.
Rain covered Fifth Avenue again as Garrett’s vehicles approached the cathedral.
Police had received a false report of a chemical threat and blocked nearby streets, leaving the area largely empty.
Garrett entered through the main doors alone.
Rows of candles illuminated the central aisle.
At the altar stood Elias.
Posie sat several feet away beside a woman wearing a white bridal veil.
For one terrible moment, Garrett believed it was Coraline.
Then the woman lifted the veil.
Lenora.
Garrett stopped.
His mother held Posie’s hand.
“Let her go.”
Lenora looked devastated.
“I tried to protect her.”
Elias emerged from behind the altar.
“You did exactly what I expected, sister-in-law.”
Garrett understood.
Elias had forced Lenora to bring Posie to the cathedral, perhaps by threatening Mave or exposing Lenora’s role in Augustus’s death.
“What does he have on you?” Garrett asked.
Lenora’s eyes filled with shame.
“Documents proving I allowed your father to die.”
“I already know.”
“He has a recording.”
“I don’t care.”
“The authorities might.”
“Then we face it.”
Elias smiled.
“This family’s sudden devotion to honesty is touching.”
He placed legal documents on the altar.
The papers transferred temporary control of the Hail trust to Elias and acknowledged Garrett as mentally unfit to manage the family’s affairs.
“Sign,” Elias said.
“No.”
“Then your mother goes to prison, your companies collapse, and Mave spends the next decade fighting accusations of fraud, kidnapping, and extortion.”
“You fabricated those accusations.”
“Truth is less influential than documentation.”
Garrett looked toward Posie.
She appeared frightened but unharmed.
He slowly approached the altar.
“You built all of this because Augustus treated you as inferior.”
“I built it because I was superior.”
“You hid behind him while he lived.”
“I learned patience.”
“You threatened a pregnant woman.”
“I preserved the bloodline.”
“You tried to steal a child.”
“I secured the future.”
Garrett stopped across from him.
“You sound exactly like my father.”
The comparison struck Elias harder than any insult.
For years, he had hated Augustus.
Yet he had become another version of him.
Garrett reached for the documents.
Elias watched with triumph.
Before Garrett could sign, the cathedral doors opened.
Coraline walked inside wearing her original wedding gown.
Behind her came Victor Ashford, Wesley, Mave, and several federal agents.
Elias stepped away from the altar.
“What is this?”
Coraline continued down the aisle.
“You told the city our wedding would unite two empires,” she said. “Instead, it brought every criminal agreement into one investigation.”
Garrett realized what she had done.
Coraline had turned over the Ashford records.
Victor’s face revealed how much the decision had cost her.
She had betrayed her own family to stop Elias.
“You destroyed us,” Victor whispered.
“No,” Coraline answered. “I stopped us from destroying everyone else.”
The federal agents surrounded the altar.
Elias reached toward Posie.
Lenora pulled the child away.
Mave ran forward and took her daughter into her arms.
Garrett stepped between them and Elias.
For the first time, his uncle had nowhere to escape.
Elias looked at the agents, the Ashfords, and the family he had manipulated.
Then he laughed.
“You think arresting me ends this? The Hail empire cannot survive without fear.”
Garrett removed the signet pin from his jacket.
The crowned wolf had represented his authority since Augustus died.
He placed it on the altar.
“Then the empire ends.”
Elias stared at him.
Garrett continued.
“The legal companies will remain. The criminal organization will be dissolved. Every record will be surrendered.”
Victor Ashford moved toward him.
“You cannot dismantle decades of agreements.”
“I can dismantle mine.”
“You will create chaos.”
“No. Men like us created chaos. Everyone else merely lived beneath it.”
The agents took Elias into custody.
As he passed Garrett, he leaned close.
“You will regret choosing weakness.”
Garrett looked toward Mave and Posie.
“No. I regret how long I confused them with weakness.”
Outside, reporters had already gathered behind the police barriers.
The story would dominate the country by morning.
Two powerful families had turned against themselves.
An alliance had collapsed.
A criminal dynasty was ending.
Coraline paused beside Garrett at the cathedral doors.
“I meant what I said in the street,” she told him.
“So did I.”
“I know.”
She looked at Posie.
“I will never ask her forgiveness. But I hope one day she learns that I helped end what threatened her.”
Coraline walked away beside the federal agents to give her statement.
Mave approached Garrett.
“You surrendered everything.”
“Not everything.”
Posie reached toward him.
Garrett lifted her into his arms.
She touched his face.
“You came back.”
“I promised.”
Mave looked toward the altar where their lives had almost been destroyed twice.
“This is not over.”
Garrett knew she was right.
The investigations would continue. Rivals would move against weakened businesses. The Hail board would fight for control.
And Mave still did not know whether she could trust the man Garrett had become.
But Posie rested her head against his shoulder.
For the first time since the rain on Fifth Avenue, Garrett allowed himself to believe they might survive.
Then Wesley’s phone rang.
He listened silently before turning toward them.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The Hail trust account is empty.”
May you like
Someone had transferred three billion dollars during the cathedral confrontation.
The authorization carried Posie’s digital signature.
