Chapter 9 - Kendrick's Choice
The bullet entered Caleb's shoulder.
Not his heart.
Willa didn't know that until Kendrick reached them.
"Pressure!"
He dropped beside Caleb.
Willa pressed both hands over the wound.
Blood soaked through her fingers.
Caleb gasped.
"Barrett..."
"I know," Willa cried.
"Don't talk."
Kendrick's guards chased the shooter.
No capture.
Whoever fired had planned an escape.
Caleb was moved to a private clinic.
Three hours of surgery followed.
Willa never left the hallway.
Kendrick remained beside her.
At dawn, the doctor emerged.
"He'll live."
Willa folded forward.
Kendrick caught her before her knees touched the floor.
"He's alive."
She nodded against his chest.
"He came back."
"Yes."
She started crying.
"I don't know him anymore."
"You don't have to know all of him today."
Willa looked up.
"What if he's done terrible things?"
Kendrick's expression held no judgment.
"Then he'll answer for them."
"And if Barrett forced him?"
"Then we'll learn the difference."
Willa laughed weakly.
"You make everything sound simple."
"It isn't."
His thumb wiped a tear from her cheek.
"I just know punishment and responsibility aren't the same thing."
Willa studied him.
"Are you talking about Caleb?"
"No."
He looked away.
"Not only Caleb."
She understood.
The Bennett order.
His signature.
The organization he inherited.
Kendrick had not killed her family.
But he had benefited from the empire that buried them.
"You can't change what your name did," Willa whispered.
"I know."
"But you can decide what it does next."
His eyes returned to hers.
That was the moment something between them changed permanently.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
Something harder.
Trust.
By afternoon, Kendrick summoned every major East Coast family to Ashford Tower.
Willa thought he had lost his mind.
"Barrett wants a war."
"Exactly."
"And you're putting every potential army in one room?"
"Yes."
"That's insane."
"Probably."
"What are you going to tell them?"
Kendrick adjusted his cuff links.
"The truth."
Willa stared.
"Crime bosses don't survive on truth."
"Maybe that's why we keep having these problems."
She almost smiled.
Then saw the black dress waiting on the bed.
"No."
Kendrick looked innocent.
"No what?"
"I'm not wearing that."
"Why?"
"Because it costs more than my annual rent."
"It's already paid for."
"That's worse."
"It's a dress, Willa."
"It's a declaration."
He stopped.
"Yes."
Her eyes narrowed.
"What are you planning?"
Kendrick walked toward her.
"The first ceremony was designed to force me into a marriage alliance."
"I remember."
"Barrett organized it."
"Yes."
"He needed the families competing."
"Why?"
"Because competition makes them suspicious of one another."
Willa understood.
"And now?"
"Now I remove the competition."
"How?"
Kendrick looked at the dress.
"No."
"Willa."
"No."
"You haven't heard me."
"You're going to publicly choose me."
He said nothing.
She pointed at him.
"Absolutely not."
"It's strategic."
"It's ridiculous."
"It protects you."
"It paints a target on my back."
"You already have one."
"I liked pretending I didn't."
Kendrick stepped closer.
"If you're publicly under Ashford protection, attacking you becomes an attack on me."
"Can't you announce I'm your accountant?"
His mouth twitched.
"You hate spreadsheets."
"You don't know that."
"I saw your employee tax form."
"That feels invasive."
"Willa."
She folded her arms.
"This isn't a marriage."
"No."
"Not an engagement."
"No."
"Not anything."
His gaze held hers.
"Not unless you want it to be."
Her heartbeat betrayed her.
"You're impossible."
"I've been told."
"By murdered rivals?"
"Mostly lawyers."
She laughed despite herself.
Then Kendrick became serious.
"You can say no."
Willa looked at the dress.
At him.
At the city beyond the windows.
For six years, she had survived by disappearing.
Maybe it was time to survive by being seen.
"Fine."
Kendrick blinked.
"Fine?"
"I'll stand beside you."
Something warm entered his expression.
"But if you tell anybody we're engaged, I'll throw you off your own eighty-eighth floor."
"Romantic."
"Be afraid."
"I am."
The ballroom looked almost identical to the night everything began.
Chandeliers.
Champagne.
Powerful families.
But the fifteen women were gone.
Penny stood beside Willa.
Titan lay at their feet.
Kendrick entered last.
The room became silent.
Barrett's empty position near the front did not go unnoticed.
Kendrick took the stage.
"Three nights ago, many of you came here expecting me to choose a wife."
Several men shifted.
"That ceremony was arranged by a traitor."
Murmurs.
"Barrett Cole murdered my wife."
Shock exploded across the room.
"He attempted to murder my daughter."
Louder whispers.
"And six years ago, he framed Adrian Bennett for betraying this organization."
Willa stepped forward.
People recognized the surname immediately.
An elderly man near the front stood.
"The Bennetts are dead."
Willa looked directly at him.
"Not all of us."
The ballroom erupted.
Kendrick raised one hand.
Silence returned.
"Willow Bennett survived."
One man shouted.
"Why is she standing beside you?"
Kendrick's answer came calmly.
"Because tonight, nobody chooses a woman for me."
He looked at Willa.
"I choose who stands beside me."
Her breath caught.
It wasn't part of the planned wording.
Neither was the way he looked at her.
Every person in the room understood the message.
Willa was under his protection.
More dangerously, she mattered.
Penny reached for Willa's hand.
Titan rose.
Then every screen in the ballroom turned black.
Celeste appeared.
Gasps filled the room.
Her recorded testimony began.
Barrett's crimes.
The Bennett framing.
The altered order.
The murdered witnesses.
Faces changed as the truth unfolded.
Some angry.
Some frightened.
Some guilty.
Willa noticed.
Especially three men seated together near the front.
Their fear looked different.
Recognition.
They had known.
Kendrick noticed too.
Then the ballroom doors opened.
Barrett walked inside.
Alone.
Applause began slowly.
One clap.
Then another.
Barrett smiled as every gun in the room turned toward him.
"Beautiful performance."
Kendrick stepped forward.
"You're finished."
"No."
Barrett looked around.
"I'm finally beginning."
He held up a small remote.
Every screen changed.
Bank records appeared.
Payments.
Bribes.
Murders.
Transactions connected to almost every family inside the ballroom.
Men stood.
Voices rose.
Barrett laughed.
"You thought Celeste only investigated me?"
His gaze moved to Kendrick.
"She investigated all of you."
Panic spread.
Kendrick understood the trap.
Expose enough secrets and everyone would turn on everyone else.
Barrett raised the remote.
"Adrian Bennett discovered the same thing six years ago."
Willa stepped forward.
"My father discovered you were a thief."
"He discovered something much larger."
Barrett smiled.
"Your father discovered there has never been an innocent family in this room."
Then he looked directly at Kendrick.
"Including yours."
Kendrick's expression didn't change.
Barrett pressed another button.
A video appeared.
Silas Ashford.
Kendrick's father.
Recorded six years earlier.
Silas looked directly into the camera.
"Adrian Bennett has become a liability."
Willa stopped breathing.
Silas continued.
"Barrett, handle it."
Kendrick went pale.
Barrett smiled.
"Tell me again, Kendrick."
May you like
His voice echoed across the ballroom.
"Who murdered the Bennetts?"
