Chapter 13 - Selina Calls Me Herself
I had imagined what I would say if Selina ever spoke to me again.
I imagined anger.
Accusations.
Questions about the twins.
When her voice actually came through the phone, I felt something colder than rage.
Control.
Detective Alvarez pointed toward the recorder and motioned for me to keep Selina talking.
I looked at the darkened window.
"You sound disappointed."
Selina laughed softly.
"You always were better at sarcasm than Flynn noticed."
"He noticed very little."
"That is not true."
"You would know."
A pause.
Then Selina spoke more sharply.
"Do you have my terms?"
"I have a threat from a fugitive."
"You have a choice."
"No, Selina."
I sat straighter despite the pain.
"You had choices."
"Do not become philosophical with me."
"You chose to follow me to a clinic."
Silence.
"You chose to fake messages."
"Careful."
"You chose to plant a knife."
"You do not know what you are talking about."
"Daniel recorded you."
The line went silent.
Alvarez's eyes sharpened.
I continued.
"He recorded everything."
Selina breathed once.
"Daniel is a coward."
"He is also alive."
"For now."
Alvarez wrote something quickly and showed me the note.
ASK WHERE RUSK IS.
"Is Evan with you?"
Selina laughed.
"You really do have the detective sitting beside you."
I did not answer.
"Tell Lena Alvarez she is three steps behind."
Alvarez's face did not change.
"You sound like someone who needs to believe that."
Selina's tone hardened.
"Listen carefully."
"I am listening."
"Flynn is going to lose Vance Global."
"That is his problem."
"No."
"It became yours the second those shares converted."
I looked at Camille.
She was writing notes.
"I can vote however I want."
"And that is why you will put them in escrow."
"Why would I?"
"Because if you do not, the Gray Book goes public."
"You think I care if Flynn's secrets become public?"
Selina paused.
Then her voice softened.
"Not Flynn's."
A chill moved through me.
"Yours."
Nathan stepped closer.
I kept my voice steady.
"I do not have a Gray Book file."
"Everyone has a file."
"What is in mine?"
"Geneva."
I thought of Victor Salas.
"I did not threaten anyone."
"No."
Selina sounded almost amused.
"You just signed the financing after someone else did."
I felt sick.
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying your old fund knew exactly why Salas changed his mind."
"That is a lie."
"Is it?"
I remembered my managing partner, Thomas Bell, telling me not to ask why the final signature came in.
I remembered joking that private equity rewarded incuriosity.
At twenty-two, I had thought that sounded sophisticated.
Now it sounded like cowardice.
"If you have evidence, release it."
Selina went quiet.
Camille looked at me sharply.
I continued.
"I am not giving you my shares."
"You might change your mind when you see the file."
"Send it."
"Mabel."
"Send it."
Her voice became cold.
"You always thought you were better than me."
"No."
I surprised myself with the truth.
"I thought I could outlast you."
"You could not."
"I am still here."
The silence on the line deepened.
For the first time, I knew I had hurt her.
Not by insulting her.
By surviving.
"Your babies are not," Selina said.
Nathan moved so fast Alvarez had to catch his arm.
My chest constricted.
The room blurred for one second.
Then I breathed through it.
"You knew about them."
Selina said nothing.
"You watched me leave the clinic."
"You should have told Flynn sooner."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Why?"
"Maybe he would have chosen differently."
"You mean maybe he would not have stabbed me."
"I mean maybe he would finally have chosen you."
There it was.
Not money.
Not shares.
Not the Gray Book.
Underneath all of it was the same obsession.
Selina had needed Flynn to choose her when the choice cost something.
"He did choose you."
My voice was quiet.
"He chose you over me every day he lied."
Selina breathed softly.
"Then why does it not feel like enough?"
The question was so naked that for a second I almost forgot who she was.
Then I remembered the knife.
"Because possession is not love."
She laughed once.
"You sound like a woman trying to convince herself she won."
"There was no winner."
I looked at the notebook where I had written Iris and James.
"You made sure of that."
Selina's voice changed.
"No. Flynn did."
My heart tightened.
"I put a knife in a room."
She spoke each word slowly.
"He picked it up."
No one in the apartment moved.
Selina continued.
"Do not forget that when he comes begging."
For the first time, I had nothing to say.
Because she was right about that one thing.
Then Alvarez motioned for me to steer the conversation back.
"Where are you, Selina?"
She laughed.
"Not Milwaukee."
"I know."
"Not Lake Geneva either."
"I know."
"Then perhaps Detective Alvarez is not completely useless."
Alvarez rolled her eyes.
I almost smiled.
"You need medical care."
"The cut is fine."
"You are running with a man wanted by police."
"Evan is useful."
There.
Confirmation.
Alvarez wrote quickly.
"Useful men usually become dangerous when cornered."
Selina paused.
"Is that what you think Flynn became?"
I looked down at the scar area beneath my sweater.
"Flynn was dangerous long before he was cornered."
"You finally learned something."
Then she ended the call.
Alvarez immediately contacted the trace team.
The call had bounced through multiple internet relays, but a brief routing failure exposed a regional data center in northern Illinois.
Not enough for an address.
Enough to narrow the search.
Selina was closer than she wanted us to believe.
Then an email arrived.
From Selina.
Attached was a PDF titled MABEL_VANCE_GRAY.
Camille told me not to open it on the phone.
Forensics isolated it first.
The file was real.
My file.
My past.
The Gray Book contained notes from the Halberd deal.
An investigator hired by Flynn's father had recorded conversations among Vance executives.
One conversation included my old managing partner, Thomas Bell.
He had been told that Victor Salas's daughter would lose a visa sponsorship if Salas refused to sell.
Bell responded that he did not want details, but he wanted the signature by Friday.
Two days later, Salas signed.
My name appeared below the closing checklist.
Not as a participant in the threat.
As the investment associate who certified that closing conditions were satisfied.
Legally, I might have done nothing criminal.
Morally, I had been close enough to smell the smoke and chosen not to ask what was burning.
I felt ashamed.
Nathan read the file beside me.
"You did not know."
"I knew something was wrong."
"That is different."
"Is it?"
He looked at me.
I thought of Flynn.
The warnings he ignored.
The questions he never asked.
The truth he avoided because it was inconvenient.
Maybe the difference between ignorance and guilt was not always a bright line.
Sometimes it was a hallway full of closed doors you chose not to open.
"I signed the closing."
"You were twenty-two."
"I was old enough to read a frightened man's face."
Camille sat across from me.
"What do you want to do?"
I knew what she meant.
We could fight Selina's extortion quietly.
We could hope the file stayed buried.
We could let the fear of reputational damage influence my decisions.
Or I could remove the leverage.
"Send the file to federal investigators."
Camille raised an eyebrow.
"All of it?"
"All of it."
"That may expose you to questioning."
"Good."
Nathan looked at me.
"Mabel."
"I am done being controlled by things I am afraid people will know."
I thought of Flynn hiding his affair.
Daniel hiding payments.
Selina collecting secrets.
The Vance family building a culture around leverage.
"Send it."
Camille nodded.
Within an hour, the Gray Book file was in federal hands.
Then I authorized Camille to release a short statement.
I had received material concerning the Halberd transaction and voluntarily provided it to investigators.
I would cooperate fully.
No excuses.
No denial.
No attempt to attack Selina's credibility in public.
The statement hit the news at 4:05 p.m.
At 4:22, Selina called again.
This time she did not sound amused.
"What did you do?"
"I took away your leverage."
"You exposed yourself."
"Yes."
"You could lose everything."
"Maybe."
"You are insane."
"No."
I looked at Alvarez.
"I am finally not afraid of you."
Selina screamed for the first time.
"You think this ends because you confess first?"
"I did not confess to your version."
"I can still destroy Flynn."
"Do it."
"You do not mean that."
"Try me."
There was silence.
Then Selina spoke very softly.
"Fine."
The line went dead.
At 5:01 p.m., every major newsroom in Chicago received the first fifty pages of the Gray Book.
At 5:04, Vance Global trading was halted.
At 5:10, three board members resigned.
At 5:17, federal agents entered the tower again.
And at 5:23, Flynn Vance called an emergency board meeting for the next morning.
One agenda item appeared on the notice.
May you like
Removal of the Chief Executive Officer.
