Chapter 6 - THE LAST THING LUCAS EXPECTED HER TO DO
“Where is Serena?”
Mara’s voice was calm.
Nathan was already signaling Detective Ramirez from another phone.
Lucas laughed.
“You sound different.”
“Where is she?”
“Maybe losing the company finally woke you up.”
“Lucas.”
A muffled sound came through the phone.
Serena crying.
Mara gripped the armrest.
“If you hurt her…”
“What?”
“You’ll be exactly what everybody thinks you are.”
“I stopped caring what everybody thinks three days ago.”
Mara closed her eyes.
That frightened her more than anger.
People who still cared about appearances could be predicted.
Lucas had spent his entire adult life protecting his image.
Now he believed the image was already gone.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
Nathan shook his head.
Mara ignored him.
“For what?”
“A conversation.”
“We’re having one.”
“In person.”
“No.”
Lucas sighed.
“Then Serena and I may take a drive.”
Mara’s skin went cold.
The crash.
He chose the words deliberately.
Nathan wrote on a piece of paper.
KEEP HIM TALKING.
“Where?” Mara asked.
“You remember the Mulholland house?”
Of course.
A half-finished Whitlock property above the canyon.
Construction had stopped after financing changed.
Only Lucas, Mara, and senior project managers knew the gate codes.
“I remember.”
“Come alone.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“You tried to have me declared incompetent, not stupid.”
His breathing changed.
“If police arrive, I leave.”
“With Serena?”
“That depends on you.”
The call ended.
Nathan immediately said, “Absolutely not.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“He wants me.”
“He tried to sabotage your car.”
“I know.”
“He is threatening a pregnant woman.”
“I know.”
“You can barely walk fifty feet.”
Mara’s eyes hardened.
“You think I don’t know what my body can do?”
Nathan stopped.
She continued.
“Don’t become another man deciding what I’m capable of because I’m injured.”
The words landed.
Nathan nodded once.
“You’re right.”
Mara exhaled.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
He looked toward Ramirez.
“But you are still not going alone.”
They built the plan in twenty minutes.
Mara would arrive in a company SUV.
No visible police.
Ramirez’s team would position farther down the canyon road.
Mara would wear a wire.
Nathan would remain with investigators.
Mara hated the last part.
Nathan hated it more.
Before she left, he crouched beside her wheelchair.
“If anything feels wrong, leave.”
“Everything feels wrong.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
He hesitated.
“Mara.”
“What?”
For a second she thought he might say something larger.
Instead, he squeezed her hand.
“Come back.”
She looked at him.
“I plan to.”
The unfinished house looked skeletal against the evening sky.
Concrete.
Glass.
Exposed steel.
No furniture except construction equipment.
Mara drove through the gate.
Her wheelchair was in the rear.
She transferred carefully.
Every movement hurt.
She did not care.
Lucas appeared beneath the open entryway.
He looked nothing like the man who had fed Serena strawberries four days earlier.
Unshaven.
No jacket.
Eyes hollow.
“Come inside.”
“Where is she?”
“Inside.”
Mara rolled forward.
Serena sat on a folding chair near the unfinished kitchen.
Her wrists were not tied.
Lucas did not have a gun.
That relieved Mara slightly.
Then she saw Serena’s phone smashed on the floor.
“You okay?” Mara asked.
Serena nodded shakily.
“I’m sorry.”
Lucas laughed.
“She says that a lot now.”
Mara looked at him.
“What do you want?”
“My money unfrozen.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
“You control the company.”
“The government froze the accounts.”
“Call Nathan.”
“So he can do what?”
“Fix it.”
“He isn’t a magician.”
Lucas paced.
Mara watched him.
He looked desperate.
Not powerful.
Not clever.
Desperate.
And suddenly she saw what her father had seen years ago.
Lucas had never been strong.
He had simply been very good at standing next to powerful people and borrowing their shadow.
“Why did you do it?” Mara asked.
“Do what?”
“All of it.”
Lucas laughed.
“Do you really want a therapy session?”
“I want to understand why my husband paid someone to cut my brakes.”
His jaw tightened.
“You weren’t supposed to get hurt that badly.”
The words were so casual that Serena covered her mouth.
Mara’s heart hammered.
“You admit it.”
“I wanted you out of the Meridian vote.”
“Why?”
“Because you were going to kill the deal.”
“It was a bad deal.”
“It made me twelve million dollars.”
“There it is.”
Lucas stared at her.
“You never understood what it was like.”
“What?”
“To be your husband.”
Mara almost laughed.
“Please enlighten me.”
“You walked into every room already owning it.”
“Because I worked there.”
“Because your father gave it to you.”
“My father gave me shares. I built twenty-eight projects.”
“People still saw Henry Whitlock’s daughter.”
“And that justified trying to cripple me?”
“I wanted something that was mine.”
“Then you should have built something.”
His face twisted.
“You sound just like him.”
“My father?”
“He looked at me like I was nothing.”
“No.”
Mara’s voice became quiet.
“He looked at you like he could see you.”
That struck him.
Lucas stepped closer.
Serena stood.
“Lucas, stop.”
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Serena.”
She placed a hand over her stomach.
“I said no.”
For the first time, Serena sounded like the woman Mara remembered from college.
Lucas looked between them.
Then laughed.
“This is unbelievable.”
“What?” Serena asked.
“You two.”
Mara frowned.
“You destroyed each other over me, and now suddenly you’re allies?”
“No,” Mara said.
Serena looked at her.
Mara continued.
“We are not allies.”
Serena lowered her eyes.
“But I don’t need to forgive her to refuse to let you hurt her.”
Lucas stared.
Mara looked directly at him.
“That’s the difference between us.”
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Lucas’s head snapped toward the windows.
“You brought police.”
Mara said nothing.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
He kicked a construction bucket across the floor.
Serena flinched.
Lucas rushed toward the side door.
Detectives appeared outside.
“Lucas Vane! Stop!”
He turned.
For one second, his eyes landed on Mara.
Hatred.
Panic.
Then he ran toward the unfinished rear deck.
Mara shouted.
“Lucas!”
He ignored her.
The deck ended before the next section of flooring.
Beyond it was a steep drop into the canyon.
Officers moved from both sides.
Lucas stopped near the edge.
“Stay back!”
Nobody moved.
Mara rolled closer.
Ramirez tried to stop her.
She shook her head.
Lucas looked down.
Then at the officers.
Then at Mara.
“You did this.”
“No.”
“You destroyed everything.”
“No, Lucas.”
Mara’s voice carried across the empty structure.
“You did.”
His eyes filled with something she had never seen before.
Fear.
Real fear.
“You could have protected me.”
“I did.”
He stared.
“For years.”
Silence.
“I protected you from my father. The board. Auditors. Questions I should have asked.”
Mara swallowed.
“I loved you enough to ignore things that frightened me.”
Lucas looked away.
“That was my mistake.”
He turned toward the drop again.
Mara’s voice sharpened.
“Don’t.”
Lucas laughed bitterly.
“You care now?”
“I’m not letting you make me carry this too.”
He looked at her.
“If you jump, everyone you hurt has to live with another thing you chose.”
The officers waited.
Mara continued.
“You wanted something that belonged to you?”
Her voice softened.
“Then own what you did.”
For several seconds, nothing moved.
Then Lucas stepped backward.
Ramirez reached him first.
The handcuffs closed around his wrists.
Lucas did not resist.
As officers led him away, he looked at Mara.
“Did you ever love me?”
The question shocked her.
She answered honestly.
“Yes.”
He flinched.
“Then how can you do this?”
Mara stared at him.
“Because loving you was never permission to let you destroy me.”
Lucas was taken away.
The moment the police vehicles disappeared, Mara’s body began shaking.
Adrenaline emptied from her.
Nathan ran into the building.
He crossed the room and dropped beside her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I know.”
“You scared ten years off my life.”
“That seems dramatic.”
He stared at her.
Then laughed.
A strange, relieved laugh.
Mara started laughing too.
Serena suddenly gasped.
Both turned.
She gripped the edge of the chair.
Water spread across the concrete beneath her.
Her face went white.
“No.”
Mara immediately understood.
“Your water broke?”
Serena nodded.
“I’m only thirty weeks.”
Nathan called for paramedics.
Serena doubled over.
“I can’t do this.”
Mara rolled toward her.
Serena looked at her in disbelief.
“Why are you helping me?”
Mara took her hand.
“Because your daughter didn’t betray me.”
The ambulance arrived six minutes later.
Mara rode with Serena to the hospital.
Not as a friend.
Not as a sister.
Just as the only familiar person Serena had left.
The baby was delivered by emergency cesarean section shortly after midnight.
Three pounds, six ounces.
A girl.
Tiny.
Fierce.
Breathing.
Serena cried when the doctor told her the baby was stable.
Mara stood outside the neonatal intensive care unit watching through the glass.
Nathan came beside her.
“Lucas has been formally arrested.”
She nodded.
“Dawson signed a cooperation agreement.”
Another nod.
“Palmer too.”
Mara looked at him.
“That was quick.”
“He prefers losing his license to losing twenty years.”
Mara almost smiled.
Nathan looked through the glass.
“Why did you stay?”
“With Serena?”
“Yes.”
Mara watched the tiny baby.
“Because there has already been enough punishment in that child’s life.”
Nathan was silent.
Then he said quietly, “Henry would be proud of you.”
Mara’s eyes filled.
“You don’t have to say that.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“Thank you for coming back.”
Nathan smiled.
“You pressed the button.”
“I meant before that.”
His expression softened.
“I never really left.”
Mara looked away before he could see what those words did to her.
Behind the glass, Serena reached one hand into the incubator and touched her daughter’s tiny fingers.
Mara watched.
For the first time, revenge seemed very small compared with survival.
Lucas would face the consequences of what he had done.
Serena would face hers too.
But that little girl had done nothing.
And Mara suddenly knew exactly what she wanted to build when all of this was over.
Not another luxury tower.
May you like
Not another hotel.
Something her father might actually have called worthwhile.
