Chapter 13 - Bellefleur Chapel
Bellefleur Chapel stood behind the manor in a grove of cypress trees, built for private weddings, private funerals, and private sins.
At night, its stained-glass windows looked black.
I arrived at ten minutes before midnight wearing a wire beneath my sweater and my mother’s necklace around my throat.
Marcus hated the plan.
Gabriel hated it louder.
Thomas hated it silently, which somehow felt worse.
Agent Cole approved only because every alternative gave Evelyn too much time.
Three federal vehicles waited beyond the tree line with lights off. Detective Harris and his officers covered the old service road. Rosa, against everyone’s advice, insisted on staying in the communications van.
“She threatened my rent, my job, and my life,” Rosa said. “I want headphones.”
So she got headphones.
I walked into the chapel alone.
Not truly alone.
But alone enough for fear to feel real.
Candles burned at the altar.
Evelyn Blackwood sat in the front pew as if waiting for Sunday service.
Chloe knelt on the floor beside her.
My sister’s cheek was bruised.
My breath caught despite everything.
Evelyn saw it and smiled.
“There she is. Still soft in the wrong places.”
“Let her go.”
Chloe looked up at me. Tears streaked her face.
“Elena, I’m sorry.”
I wanted to believe her.
That was the problem with love. Even betrayed, it still searched for a door back in.
Evelyn stood.
“Take off the necklace.”
“No.”
She sighed. “You think courage is stubbornness. Your mother made the same mistake.”
“My mother made sure her children outlived you.”
Evelyn’s smile thinned.
“Both of them?” she asked.
There it was.
Confirmation.
“You knew Gabriel was alive.”
“Of course.”
“Did you order him taken?”
“I ordered a nuisance managed.”
Chloe flinched.
The wire beneath my sweater felt suddenly hot.
Keep talking, I thought.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“You have no idea what Anna cost us. She was a secretary with delusions of morality. She found numbers she didn’t understand and threatened families built over generations.”
“She found theft.”
“She found power and mistook it for evil.”
“That’s usually what evil says.”
Evelyn’s hand twitched.
She wanted to slap me.
I almost wished she would.
A visible bruise would be simpler than old wounds.
Chloe whispered, “Elena, I didn’t know about the wine.”
I looked at her.
“But you knew about the pump.”
She began crying again.
“I thought they would just embarrass you enough to make you leave Grant. Evelyn said you were using him. She said you’d ruin everything.”
“You believed her?”
Chloe’s face crumpled.
“I wanted to.”
That was the first honest thing she had said.
It hurt more than the lies.
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “Spare me the sisterly theater.”
I turned back to her. “Why did Grant pretend to love me?”
“Pretend?” Evelyn smiled. “Grant likes broken things. They make him feel noble.”
My stomach turned.
“He touched the vial.”
“He lacked discipline.”
“So he knew.”
“He knew enough.”
Behind the altar, a floorboard creaked.
Not mine.
Not Chloe’s.
Evelyn’s smile returned fully.
“You shouldn’t have come wired, Elena.”
My blood chilled.
She knew.
The side door opened.
Alistair Blackwood entered with a gun in one hand and my brother in front of him.
Gabriel’s hands were bound. Blood marked his temple.
My breath stopped.
“Sorry,” Gabriel said. “They cheated.”
Evelyn stepped forward and ripped the wire from beneath my sweater.
Feedback shrieked faintly from the tiny speaker.
She crushed it under one heel.
Outside, hidden in the trees, our team would hear the signal die.
Would they move?
Could they see Gabriel?
Alistair pressed the gun against my brother’s ribs.
“Necklace,” he said.
I unclasped it slowly.
Chloe sobbed. “Please don’t hurt him.”
Evelyn looked down at her. “You really are tiring.”
That was when Chloe moved.
Not toward me.
Toward Evelyn.
She grabbed Evelyn’s arm with both hands and bit down hard.
Evelyn screamed.
Alistair turned instinctively.
Gabriel drove his elbow back into Alistair’s stomach.
I threw the necklace—not to Evelyn, but toward the center aisle.
The chapel doors burst open.
Lights flooded the room.
“Federal agents!” Agent Cole shouted. “Drop the weapon!”
Alistair fired once.
The sound shattered the chapel.
I saw Gabriel fall.
I screamed his name.
Marcus tackled Alistair before he could fire again. Officers swarmed the aisle. Evelyn tried to run toward the side door, but Rosa appeared there holding a heavy brass candle snuffer like a sword.
“Try me,” Rosa said.
Evelyn stopped.
Chloe crawled toward Gabriel, sobbing.
I reached him first.
Blood spread across his side.
His eyes found mine.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Don’t you dare.”
He tried to smile.
“Bossy. Must be genetic.”
Paramedics rushed in.
Marcus knelt across from me, pressing both hands to Gabriel’s wound.
“Stay with us,” he ordered.
Gabriel looked at him weakly.
“You always did give terrible instructions.”
Then his eyes closed.
The chapel filled with shouts, radios, footsteps, and Chloe’s broken crying.
But all I heard was my mother’s voice from the tape.
If they find the boy, they will erase him.
May you like
“No,” I said through my teeth.
Not this time.
