I hate what my indulgence allowed them to become.”
Samantha sank into the nearest pew.
Her confidence had vanished.
She looked down at her hands as Victor addressed her directly.
He described the shell companies she had used and the employees she had pressured into approving false invoices.
He also acknowledged that she had not planned the hospital scheme.
“Samantha,” he said, “you still have a choice.
Cooperate with the audit, return what you took, and tell the truth.
Or follow your brother until there is nothing left beneath your feet.”
She looked at Garrett.
He gave her a warning stare.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Samantha stood and walked toward Eleanor.
“I want my own attorney.”
Garrett’s face twisted.
“Sit down.”
She did not.
“You told me Audrey signed the transfer papers,” she said.
“You told me the hospital was worried about her.”
“Do not do this here.”
Samantha glanced at the cameras.
“You chose here.”
That was the moment Garrett understood he had lost the room.
Not the inheritance.
Not the company.
The room.
The relatives who had ignored my pain were now moving away from him.
Executives avoided his eyes.
The governor’s security detail quietly escorted the governor through a side door.
Reporters crowded the aisles, broadcasting every second.
Garrett made one last attempt to regain control.
He turned to me and softened his voice.
“Audrey, you just had major surgery.
You’re exhausted and medicated.
Give me Maya, and we’ll discuss this privately.”
The tactic was so familiar that it almost worked.
For one dangerous second, I felt the old instinct to keep the peace.
Then Maya stirred against me.
I looked down at her face and remembered Samantha telling me to put her on the floor.
“No,” I said.
Garrett took another step.
The security officers blocked him.
Eleanor handed me a court order granting temporary protective control over the trust assets and authorizing independent security for Maya and me.
She also gave me a phone.
“Your surgeon is waiting in a private medical suite across the street,” she said.
“An ambulance team is outside.”
Only then did I allow myself to admit how badly I was hurt.
The cathedral blurred at the edges.
I heard Victor’s final words through the speakers as the medical team approached.
“Audrey, I am sorry I saw the truth too late.
Do not preserve this family’s image at the cost of your life.
Take Maya and build something better than what I leave behind.”
I woke several hours later in a quiet hospital room.
My incision had partially opened, but the surgeon repaired it before more serious complications developed.
Maya slept in a clear bassinet beside me.
