Chapter 24 - The Return of the Pawn: Everett’s Final Deal
While I was defying the masters of the world in the Alps,
Everett Hart was reaching the end of his five-thousand-dollar rope.
The hardware store in Pennsylvania had fired him after three days—he couldn't figure out the inventory system,
and he kept insulting the customers who didn't recognize his "genius."
He sat on the floor of his one-room apartment,
eating a cold can of beans,
when a shadow blocked the light from his doorway.
He looked up,
hoping it was me,
hoping it was a lawyer with a second chance.
It was a man in a gray suit,
carrying a leather briefcase.
"Everett Hart?"
the man asked.
Everett nodded,
wiping the sauce from his chin with the back of his hand.
"I work for a group of people who are very disappointed in you,
Everett."
Everett’s heart hammered against his ribs.
"I... I can fix it!"
"Evelyn... she took everything!"
"She’s the one who betrayed the company!"
The man sat down on the only chair in the room,
looking around with an expression of profound disgust.
"We don't care about your excuses."
"We care about the master keys."
"Evelyn hasn't given them up."
"But we know she has a weakness."
Everett leaned forward,
his eyes lighting up with a desperate,
vicious hope.
"What?"
"What’s her weakness?"
"Her sentimentality,"
the man said.
"She still carries the guilt of her father’s death."
"And she still has a small,
lingering sense of responsibility for the man she spent ten years protecting."
"You."
Everett laughed,
a harsh,
dry sound.
"She hates me."
"She sent me dead roses and put me in a Jersey motel."
"Hate is a form of passion,
Everett,"
the man said.
"And we’re going to use that passion to get what we want."
He opened the briefcase,
revealing a stack of documents and a small,
black vial.
"Inside these documents is a confession."
"It says that Evelyn murdered her father to take control of Blackstone."
"It says that she used you as a front for her crimes."
"And the vial?"
Everett asked,
his voice a whisper.
"The vial is a slow-acting neurotoxin."
"If you can get close enough to her to put this in her drink,"
"we will make sure the 'confession' is found in her desk."
"You will be the hero who uncovered her crimes."
"You will be the one who saves Blackstone from the 'Ice Queen'."
"And in return?"
"In return,"
"you get your life back."
"The Greenwich estate,"
"the cars,"
"the accounts."
"Everything will be returned to you."
Everett looked at the vial,
the liquid shimmering like a dark promise.
He thought about the way I had looked at the gala.
He thought about the way the security guards had dragged him out.
He thought about the cold beans and the small room.
"How do I get close to her?"
he asked.
"She won't even see me."
"Oh,
she’ll see you,"
the man said,
a cold smile spreading across his face.
"Because tomorrow is the anniversary of her father’s death."
"And she always visits his grave alone."
Everett reached for the vial,
his fingers closing around it with a strength he hadn't felt in months.
He wasn't a CEO anymore.
He wasn't a husband.
May you like
He was a weapon.
And he was finally going to take back the life he thought belonged to him.
