I Buried Him for Five Years, Then He Came Back with Another Woman Chapter 13

I Buried Him for Five Years, Then He Came Back with Another Woman Chapter 13

Every year, he donated to the Hale Foundation.

Each payment carried the same note.

[Restitution.]

As for Adrian.

His case took a year to reach trial.

Charges of insurance fraud, fraudulent asset transfers, unlawful confinement, and corporate fraud

accumulated against him.

Heavy rain fell over Port Sterling on the day of his hearing.

Adrian entered the courtroom in a jail uniform.

He searched the gallery.

Maren was not there.

Only Caleb sat at counsel’s table for the plaintiffs and victims.

Before sentencing, the judge allowed Adrian to make a final statement.

Adrian rose.

He remained silent for a long time before speaking in a ragged voice.

“I want to apologize to Maren.”

The courtroom went quiet.

Caleb raised his eyes.

Adrian continued.

“If she’s still alive…”

He stopped.

Then he smiled bitterly.

“Forget it.”

“She wouldn’t want to hear it.”

Adrian was sentenced to prison.

The longtime Caldwell employees scattered.

Mr. Whitcomb received probation for helping conceal the staged death and move financial records.

On the day he left the Caldwell house, he stood at the gate holding an old wooden box.

Hale Group had repossessed the property.

The Caldwell nameplate had been removed.

Workers were filling in the swimming pool.

Mr. Whitcomb walked over with his cane and asked,

“Why are you filling it?”

A worker replied,

“The new owner said it was filthy.”

Mr. Whitcomb moved his lips but said nothing.

He remembered Maren’s first visit to the Caldwell house years earlier.

She had arrived smelling of sea air and rolled up her sleeves to carry sacks of flour into the kitchen.

He had teased her.

“A Hale heiress knows how to do that?”

She had answered,

“We’ll be family soon.”

Afterward, she truly treated the Caldwells as family.

They had never treated her the same way.

Three years later.

On a small South Pacific island.

At sunset, the sea glowed like scattered gold.

A white rehabilitation center stood beside the water.

Blue plumbago flowers covered the grounds.

A young man sat in a wheelchair with a nautical chart open across his knees.

He looked up at the woman nearby.

“Is the wind right for sailing today?”

The woman wore a pale shirt, and her long hair was tied with a silver compass ornament.

She stood beside the dock checking a line.

The wind lifted the edge of her shirt.

She looked back and smiled.

“It is.”

Wesley rolled his chair toward her.

His color had improved, though he remained thin.

“Caleb said someone was released in Port Sterling today.”

The woman’s hands paused.

“Okay.”

Wesley watched her.

“You aren’t going to ask who?”

She tightened the knot.

“It has nothing to do with me.”

Wesley smiled to himself.

“Are you really never going back to Port Sterling?”

She gazed at the sea.

“I already went back.”

“I reclaimed what was mine and returned what wasn’t.”

“Nothing else there was worth keeping.”

At the end of the dock, a child ran toward them carrying a cat.

“Ms. Hale, the boat is fixed!”

The woman bent down and stroked the child’s hair.

“Then I’ll teach all of you to read a star chart tomorrow.”

The child cheered and ran away.

Wesley watched her, his eyes turning moist.

“When that boat exploded, I thought you really…”

Maren looked back at him.

“I promised I would bring you home.”

The boat that left Port Sterling had truly exploded.

But ten minutes earlier, I had slipped through a hidden cargo hatch and boarded a Hale rescue craft.

The black duffel did not simply contain cash.

It held Adrian’s hush money and a tracked incendiary device.

From a distance, I watched the boat erupt.

Fire spread across the water.

It looked like a funeral long overdue.