Chapter 10 - The Final Meeting
The call came at midnight.
It was the one I had been expecting.
"He’s at the old pier,"
my security lead told me.
"The one where you had your first date.
He’s alone."
I drove myself there.
The city was quiet,
the lights reflecting off the dark water of the harbor.
I saw his silhouette standing at the edge of the wooden dock.
He looked small against the vastness of the ocean.
I stepped out of the car,
the wind whipping my coat around my legs.
As I approached,
he didn't turn around.
"I remember this place,"
he said,
his voice hollow.
"I told you I would build you a castle.
I told you we would rule the world together."
"You lied,"
I said,
stopping a few feet away from him.
"You didn't want to build a castle for us.
You wanted to build a monument to yourself."
He finally turned to face me.
His eyes were sunken,
and he looked like he had aged twenty years in a week.
"The SEC called me today,
Samantha.
They have everything.
The 'Ghost' logs.
The embezzlement records.
They told me I’m looking at twenty years."
"You should have read the fine print,
Carter,"
I said,
my voice devoid of emotion.
"I told you that on our wedding day.
Everything I give,
I can take back."
He stepped toward me,
his hands shaking.
"Why?
Why go this far?
You could have just divorced me.
You could have taken half and left.
Why destroy everything?"
"Because you didn't just break a heart,
Carter,"
I said,
my voice rising for the first time.
"You tried to erase a person.
You took my father’s work,
my family’s money,
and my dignity,
and you treated them like they were yours by right.
You let that girl sit in my seat on that plane because you wanted to see if I would still bow to you."
I took a step closer,
staring him down.
"I didn't destroy 'everything.'
I destroyed a lie.
The only thing that was real in your life was me.
And I’m the one thing you can never have back."
He looked at the water,
then back at me.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
"That’s the beauty of it,
Carter,"
I said,
turning back toward my car.
"I don't care.
For the first time in four years,
what you do is none of my business."
"Samantha!"
he called out as I opened the car door.
"Did you ever really love me?
Or was I just a project for you?"
I paused,
my hand on the steering wheel.
"I loved the man I thought you were,"
I said.
"But it turns out,
that man was just another line of code I wrote.
And tonight,
I finally hit 'Delete'."
I drove away,
leaving him standing on the pier.
In the distance,
I could hear the sirens.
They weren't coming for me.
They were coming for the man who thought he could fly on stolen wings.
I looked at the sunrise in the mirror.
May you like
The Sterling era was over.
The Vance era had just begun.
