CHAPTER 80: KATE'S DOUBTS
I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Carlos hanging in that cell, his face twisted in a way that didn't match suicide.
William breathed steady beside me, finally asleep after hours of checking security feeds and making calls. I slipped out of bed without waking him and padded downstairs.
The study felt safer than the bedroom somehow. Smaller. I curled up in the leather chair and pulled my knees to my chest, trying to make sense of everything.
Carlos was dead. We'd won. So why did it feel like we were still losing?
"The SE." I said it out loud to the empty room. "Oh my God, the Statue Executor."
How had we forgotten about him? Carlos and Donovan had been the faces of everything but behind them lurked someone bigger, someone we'd never actually caught.
My hands shook as I grabbed my phone and pulled up Mr Howard's number. Three in the morning but this couldn't wait.
He answered on the second ring, voice alert like he'd been expecting this call.
"Kate."
"It was the SE wasn't it? He killed Carlos."
Silence stretched between us. Then a heavy sigh.
"I've been thinking the same thing." Papers rustled in the background. "Carlos knew too much. With him in prison facing life, he might have made a deal, given up names. The SE couldn't risk that."
"So he had Carlos murdered and made it look like suicide." My stomach turned. "Which means he's still out there and we're next."
"Not if we find him first." Mr Howard's voice hardened. "I have files, documents I've been collecting for years. Things even Carlos didn't know I had. Meet me at my office tomorrow morning. Both you and William."
"What kind of files?"
"The kind that prove the SE isn't just some shadow figure. He's real, he's powerful, and he's been pulling strings in this city for decades." He paused. "And Kate? The recording I gave you, the one from my meeting with him? I think I know who that voice belongs to now."
Ice flooded through me. "Who?"
"Tomorrow. Come alone, make sure you're not followed." The line went dead.
I sat there staring at the phone. We were so close to ending this and now it felt like we were back at the beginning, chasing a ghost who could kill people inside maximum security prisons.
"Kate?"
I jumped. William stood in the doorway, hair messy from sleep, concern written across his face.
"Couldn't sleep." I tried for a smile. "Didn't mean to wake you."
"You didn't." He crossed to me and pulled me up from the chair. "What are you doing down here?"
"Thinking. About Carlos, about the SE, about how we almost forgot there was someone bigger behind all this."
William's jaw clenched. "I didn't forget. I've had people looking into the SE since Carlos's arrest. But every lead goes cold, every witness disappears."
"Mr Howard wants to meet tomorrow. Says he has files that prove who the SE is."
"Then we meet him." William's arms wrapped around me. "Together."
I leaned into him but something still felt off, like a splinter I couldn't quite remove.
"William, can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"Earlier when you said you loved me." I pulled back to see his face. "Did you mean it? Or was it just the adrenaline talking, the relief that we'd survived?"
His expression shuttered. "You think I'd lie about that?"
"I think we've been through hell together and sometimes intense situations make people feel things that aren't real." The words hurt coming out. "I just need to know this isn't just trauma bonding or obligation because of the baby."
William stepped back, running both hands through his hair. "Wow. Okay."
"I'm not trying to hurt you, I just—"
"No, I get it." His voice went flat. "You don't trust this. Don't trust us."
"That's not what I'm saying."
"Then what are you saying Kate?" He turned to face me. "Because it sounds like you think I'm either lying or delusional."
"I'm saying I'm scared." My voice cracked. "Everything in my life has been a lie. My uncle, my parents' deaths, even this marriage started as a contract. How do I know what's real anymore?"
The anger drained from his face. He crossed back to me and took my hands.
"You want to know how I know it's real? Because I've been in love before. Twice actually, and both times it felt like a performance. Like I was playing the part of the devoted boyfriend because that's what was expected." He squeezed my hands. "With you it's different. You infuriate me and challenge me and refuse to let me protect you even when I'm desperate to keep you safe. And somehow that makes me love you more."
Tears burned behind my eyes. "William—"
"I'm not done." His thumb traced circles on my palm. "When Carlos had that gun pointed at you, I wasn't thinking about the contract or the company or any of that. I was thinking that I couldn't lose you, that I'd give up everything I own if it meant you and our baby would be safe. That's not trauma Kate. That's love."
A tear slipped down my cheek. "I love you too. I'm just scared of losing something else."
"Then don't push me away." He pulled me close. "We're stronger together, remember?"
I nodded against his chest and for the first time since the officers showed up at our door, I felt like maybe we'd actually survive this.
A knock at the study door made us both turn. Tina stood there holding an envelope, her face pale.
"This just came for you Kate. Courier delivered it, said it was urgent."
My name was written across the front in handwriting I'd recognize anywhere. My mother's.
"How—" I took the envelope with shaking hands. "This isn't possible."
"There's a note attached." Tina pointed to a small card. "From a lawyer's office. Says your mother left instructions for this to be delivered if certain conditions were met."
William read over my shoulder. "If Carlos Jones is convicted or dies before trial, deliver this letter to my daughter."
"She knew." My voice barely worked. "Mom knew Carlos would come after them."
I tore open the envelope and pulled out two pages covered in my mother's neat handwriting. The date at the top made my breath catch. Three days before the crash.
"My darling Kate." I read aloud, needing William and Tina to hear this too. "If you're reading this then I'm gone and Carlos has shown his true face. I'm so sorry we couldn't protect you from him, that we trusted family over instinct."
My voice broke. William's hand found my back, steady.
"Your father and I discovered what Carlos was planning. The forge documents, the embezzlement, the deal he made with powerful people who want to destroy everything we built. We've been gathering evidence but we're running out of time."
I wiped my eyes and kept reading. "By now you've probably met William Dray. The contract marriage was real Katie, but it was also our way of protecting you. The Dray family has resources and connections that can keep you safe when we can't. Trust him. He's a good man even if he doesn't always show it."
William made a sound beside me. When I glanced at him his eyes were red.
"But Katie, my sweet girl, don't let fear stop you from being happy. Don't let what happened to us make you afraid to love. Your father and I had thirty beautiful years together and I wouldn't trade a single day even knowing how it ends. Follow your heart baby. It's stronger than you think. All my love, Mom."
The letter slipped from my hands. I couldn't see through the tears anymore.
Tina picked it up carefully and set it on the desk. "Kate, I'm so sorry."
"She wanted me to be happy." I looked at William. "Even knowing she was going to die, she wanted me to find love."
"She wanted you to live." William pulled me close. "Not just survive but actually live."
"Then that's what I'll do." I grabbed his face and kissed him hard. "No more doubts. No more questioning this. I love you William Dray and I'm choosing to trust that."
"Good." He kissed me back. "Because I'm not going anywhere."
Another knock interrupted us. Liam stood there this time with Jeremy and Emma behind him.
"Really sorry to crash whatever moment this is." Liam looked genuinely apologetic. "But we have a problem. A big one."
"What now?" William didn't let go of me.
"We finally cracked Donovan's seventh authentication layer." Jeremy held up a tablet. "Found files dating back twenty years. And guys, this is bad."
Emma stepped forward. "The SE isn't one person. It's three. A partnership that's been running Greensville from the shadows since before Kate was born."
My blood turned to ice. "Three people?"
"Three people with unlimited resources, political connections, and zero conscience." Jeremy swiped through documents. "And one of them has been in this house."
"Who?" William's voice dropped to something dangerous.
Jeremy turned the tablet around. On the screen was a photo from a security camera, timestamped from six months ago. A familiar face stared back at us.
The room tilted.
Because the person in that photo, the person who was part of the SE, was someone we'd trusted completely.
Someone who knew everything about our investigation.
Someone who'd been helping us this whole time.