Chapter 24: The Current Takes Us All
Grant drove back to the industrial district, the sky bruising with the colors of a violent storm. He parked near the crumbling textile mill and walked out to the edge of the riverbank, the dark water rushing past his feet. He held the brass key and the copied documents in his hand.
"I know you're out here," Grant called into the howling wind. "I know everything."
From the shadows of the rusted pillars, a figure emerged. It wasn't Lydia. It was the private investigator Grant had hired—the man who had supposedly "discovered" Lydia's past. The investigator smiled coldly, pulling a suppressed pistol from his jacket.
"She paid me well to make sure you found out just enough to confront her, but not enough to see the whole board," the investigator said, stepping closer. "She was supposed to fake her death, take the key, and ruin your family. But you chased her too hard. The railing broke. That wasn't part of the plan."
"So she is dead," Grant whispered, a hollow void opening in his chest.
May you like
"Yes. But her contingency plan is still in effect," the man said, raising the gun. "Your grandmother's crimes go to the press tomorrow. The authorities already received an anonymous tip that you pushed your bride off that roof to cover up the family secrets. It's a tragic story, really. A murder-suicide."
Grant didn't run. He looked down at the swirling, freezing black water, the same water that had consumed the woman he had both loved and destroyed. He realized there was no escape from the sins of the past; they were a current that eventually pulled everyone under. He closed his eyes as the first crack of thunder rolled across the sky, echoing the deafening sound of a gunshot, the brass key slipping from his fingers to be lost in the abyss forever.
