“Because I was a coward,” Phoebe confessed, making no excuses. “My father controlled my trust, my house, my employment. I knew if I blew the whistle, I’d be cast out on the street. Every year I told myself it was too late to fix it.”
Mabel looked at her with cold clarity. “For you, it was four years of quiet comfort. For my daughter and me, it was four years of hell.”
Phoebe nodded miserably. “I know. That’s why I’m here now. I will testify under oath to everything.”
The additional evidence completely transformed the legal case.
It was no longer merely a corporate embezzlement investigation targeting Flynn. Federal prosecutors opened a formal investigation into obstruction of justice, evidence tampering, and conspiracy involving Arthur Vance and Flynn Vance.
The Vance family responded in furious panic. Arthur Vance attempted to order Phoebe to retract her statements, but she refused to meet with him. Flynn tried offering enormous financial settlements through intermediaries, but Mabel rejected every proposal.
When money failed, rumors began spreading. Desperate whispers circulated throughout town claiming Mabel had seduced a visiting billionaire in order to attack the Vance family out of spite.
Except this time, Mabel wasn’t standing alone in the darkness.
People who had remained silent for years started stepping forward. A former junior accountant testified that Flynn had instructed him to alter digital entry memos. A former executive assistant remembered Arthur Vance meeting with criminal defense attorneys days before Mabel was publicly identified.
The truth that had seemed impossible to establish four years earlier finally burst open like a dam.
Meanwhile, Damian devoted himself to a much more delicate responsibility: learning how to become a father.
He never pressured Lily to call him “Dad.” He never demanded immediate affection. To the three-year-old girl, he was simply Damian—the tall man who built elaborate cardboard fortresses, used ridiculous voices while reading bedtime stories, and never became tired of hearing her explain her drawings.
One afternoon, while they sat together on the porch, Lily looked up from her coloring book. “Why do you stay here so much?”
Damian froze and glanced toward Mabel, who was watching from the doorway.
