Chapter 14 - His Last Apology
Landon found me in the library after the investigators finished their first interviews.
Outside, workers quietly dismantled the wedding arch.
Inside, my grandmother’s portrait watched from above the fireplace.
Landon closed the door behind him.
“Maya.”
“No.”
“Please listen.”
“I listened for seven years.”
His face tightened.
“I made terrible choices.”
“You committed fraud.”
“Sienna pushed everything further than I agreed.”
“You gave her my documents.”
“I thought the trust would become ours.”
“It was never yours.”
“I was your husband.”
“You were supposed to protect me.”
He looked away.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that there was no sentence he could offer that would transform greed into confusion.
“I did love you,” he said.
“You loved being married to me.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Fair?”
My voice remained quiet.
“You used my grief to create a psychiatric file. You helped prepare a glass meant to drug me. You planned to take my legal rights for seventy-two hours because you thought seventy-two hours of my life belonged to you.”
His eyes filled.
“I never would have let them keep you there.”
“You already decided my freedom was negotiable.”
He sank into a chair.
“What happens now?”
It was the first honest question he had asked.
“The emergency order freezes your accounts connected to the scheme. The foundation will pursue restitution. My attorney is filing for divorce.”
He covered his face.
“And the criminal case?”
“That depends on the prosecutor and your cooperation.”
“I’ll testify against Sienna.”
“You will tell the truth because it is the truth, not because it purchases forgiveness.”
He lowered his hands.
“Is there any chance for us?”
“No.”
The answer did not hurt to say.
That surprised me.
Perhaps the marriage had ended long before the wedding.
Perhaps I had simply arrived in time to witness its funeral.
Landon stood.
At the door, he looked back.
“I’m sorry.”
“I believe you’re sorry now.”
His face softened with hope.
Then I finished.
“But you were not sorry when you believed you would win.”
He left without another word.
Later that evening, Margaret gave a complete statement about the sedative. She claimed Sienna had manipulated her, but the recording showed she had willingly checked the glass and discussed forcing me to drink.
She was charged alongside them.
Dr. Cole surrendered his license and agreed to cooperate.
And Sienna, still wearing her wedding gown, was taken from the estate through the same gates she had once planned to use to keep me out.
May you like
But before she entered the vehicle, she asked to speak to me.
👉 Sienna had one final truth to confess—not about the money, but about the moment she first decided to take Maya’s husband.
