Chapter 11 - KENNETH’S LAST BARGAIN
Kenneth offered investigators the name of the anonymous messenger.
In exchange, he wanted reduced charges and my agreement not to pursue certain marital assets.
Even from custody, he tried to sell information already purchased with my life.
I agreed to hear the offer through attorneys.
Not from him.
His lawyer delivered a recorded statement.
“The person contacting Sabrina is Eleanor Rollins.”
Hearing my mother’s name in Kenneth’s voice made my skin crawl.
He claimed Harrison had known she survived the plane crash. The crash itself had been arranged after Eleanor threatened to expose the genetic-succession project.
But the sabotage went wrong.
My father died.
My mother survived with severe injuries.
A private security contractor employed by Celeste Varga removed her from the crash site before local authorities arrived.
“Why would Celeste save her?” Chen asked.
Kenneth’s statement continued.
Because Eleanor had already copied the project records.
Celeste wanted them.
Harrison wanted them destroyed.
Eleanor bargained for Justin’s and my safety.
In return, she disappeared and allowed both sides to believe she could release the archive if either harmed us directly.
“Then why did Harrison recruit you?” my attorney asked through the recording.
Kenneth smiled.
Even behind institutional glass, he still possessed the expression that once made strangers trust him.
“Harrison couldn’t harm Sabrina directly. So he arranged for her to become dependent on someone he controlled.”
That someone was Kenneth.
My marriage had been a loophole in my mother’s bargain.
Harrison could claim he never touched me.
He simply selected the man who would.
The statement ended with Kenneth addressing me.
“Sabrina, your mother watched us for years. She knew who I was. Ask yourself why she didn’t warn you.”
The screen went dark.
He had saved the cruelest fact for last because cruelty was the only leverage he still understood.
Justin stood abruptly.
“I want to see her.”
“So do I.”
“No. I want to ask why she let him marry you.”
The question had already entered me.
My mother knew Harrison’s methods.
She knew Kenneth had been selected.
Had she known before the wedding?
Before the fertility treatments?
Before I sat alone in clinic rooms believing my body had failed?
Chen cautioned us that Kenneth’s story could contain deliberate distortions.
But several details matched sealed evidence.
“He may be telling the truth strategically,” she said.
“That does not make it less true,” I replied.
Kenneth expected his information to break me.
Instead, it clarified something.
I no longer wanted reunion with my mother.
Not yet.
I wanted testimony.
Love might come later.
Or not.
The dead are easy to forgive because they cannot make new choices.
May you like
My mother was alive.
That meant she would have to answer for hers.
