Dictator s Daughter
Page 25
“Of course she is. She’s tough.”
“Yes, she is. Ryan, it looks like we will be staying here for a little while. Eliwese needs to do one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“See her father behind bars. She turned him in and he’s been arrested.”
Sean had to pull the phone away from his ear as Ryan joyfully announced to his mother and sister the news.
“Oh, tell him about Riley,” Eliwese said.
Ryan heard her voice. “What about Riley?”
“He’s dead.”
“No shit. How?”
“I’ll tell you later, alright?”
“Should we come back there?”
“Well, I guess you could come back here,”
“No,” Eliwese interjected, “tell him your father is waiting at the General Hospital in Densfield. Dr. Randall made arrangements for your father when we were here making the other preparations. We will be along after a little while and, in fact, we will arrive at the hospital before they do because we’re taking the helicopter—my father’s personal helicopter. I know the pilot. I had him fly over from Rendier yesterday as part of my back-up plan.”
Sean relayed the news to Ryan and bid him farewell and a safe drive. Then they departed for the jail.
The media spectacle that had gathered in front of the station house was incredible. Dr. Tindel had arranged for Sean and Eliwese to enter through the back and as expected an officer stood waiting for them.
Once inside, Eliwese and Sean were checked for weapons and led to the visiting booth where they waited for nearly an hour.
Rawlings was ushered in and Sean looked him over. The confident man who’d sat across the table in the mall surrounded by his goons was gone and replaced with a scared guy in an orange jumpsuit surrounded by police. The once feared leader was now a defeated man, and no more powerful than his attire was stunning.
Eliwese stared at her father for several long minutes before she picked up her receiver. He picked up his end and she took a deep slow breath and said, “Father, you have only enemies and no friends. Many of your enemies live in Baylend now, thanks to Riley. Too bad this is where you’ll stand trial. Your life is empty of accomplishments, save one: you taught me how to destroy you. You will only be remembered as a ruthless, heartless dictator and you will die a lonely man. If there is an afterlife, I hope the many people you ordered killed will be waiting for you on your way to hell. I don’t envy you father, and I don’t love you. I will stand and testify against you in court, and I will rejoice, like millions of others in this world, the day I hear of your death.”
She hung up the phone and stared at him through the glass. His voice was muffled to an almost inaudible level as he yelled at his daughter. The arteries in his neck jutted out in protest to his sudden rise in blood pressure. His words were unrecognizable but the desperation behind them connected with Sean.
They exited the jail house through the way they had entered. The media circus was none the wiser. They drove to the airport in silence. Sean was so proud of her and her courage.
Sean came to the conclusion courage is not something you’re born with and you don’t simply acquire it along the way. You have to build courage, slice by slice, bit by bit, until you have a solid wall of it; and Eliwese was the epitome of courage. Her life had demanded she build her wall or perish. Through this whole ordeal, he had built on his own stack of courage within himself. Even Ryan had begun building his courage; yes, there was hope for him after all.
They arrived at the airport and were escorted to the waiting helicopter. The pilot greeted her and helped her inside. He shook Sean’s hand and gave him a nod of approval.
Eliwese sat in the plush seat and the emotional storm began to rage. Sean sat down beside her and pulled her into an embrace, careful not to squeeze her ribs. She tried to fight off the emotion that wanted out, but it was useless to bother. She wrapped her arms around Sean and let it out.
They took off and headed to Densfield to meet up with the rest of the family.
It was all over and she cried. Riley would never hurt her again. Her father would get what he deserved. He wouldn’t be able to control her life any longer nor was he a threat to Baylend.
She had found Sean through it all. He helped her, protected her, and stood up for her. He never criticized her. He cared for her after she was shot and never took advantage of her; Sean was never anything but a perfect gentleman in her mind. He would have given up all the money in the world to get her back and he risked his own life to save her; for that, she’d never let him go.
Eliwese didn’t know what lay ahead for her and Sean, but she did know that soon he would be rejoined with his whole family; the family she considered herself to be a part of. Four generations of his family had risked their lives helping the people of her country. None of this would have been possible without their help and their tradition of defiance.
Sean and Eliwese arrived at the Densfield hospital many hours ahead of Ryan, Lyndee and Sara. Paul, along with his parents and brother, Sam, and Lyndee’s boyfriend, Brock, waited anxiously for the reunion and celebration. Many hugs and tears later, the group relaxed and watched the news broadcasts.
Sean sat on a couch next to Eliwese with his arm around her, protecting her, even though it wasn’t necessary any longer; but he still felt the need to keep her safe. He doubted the urge would ever leave.
The breaking news of Victor Rawlings’ arrest aired all evening. The murder of Dr. John Randall had caught the attention of the nation as being the reason Victor Rawlings was apprehended. The hope was the charges of accessory to murder would be enough to keep him in prison. The threat of nuclear weapons had many worldwide agencies scrambling to contain it, and the accused Senators had been arrested; foiling the hostile takeover plot.
Once the media caught wind that Eliwese was at the Densfield hospital, the decision was made to relocate to a hotel. Several former defectors the Cutlers had housed called to offer congratulations, and Brock, the former leader of the insurgents, began phoning his contacts across the border in an attempt to organize the leadership again. However, when the final family members arrived, visitors and phone calls halted.
The joyous melee of tears and tender hugs seemed to go on forever. Lyndee and Brock worked their way to a corner where he could comfort her and tend to her injuries.
Eliwese followed them with her eyes and Sean whispered in her ear. “They can get married now. They’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. It’s too bad she’s injured.”
“She’ll heal, we all do.” Eliwese added softly.
The debate had only begun on what to do with the eighty-million dollars. Several ideas floated around but Sean’s caught everyone’s attention.
“Eliwese and I are going to the Caribbean, anyone else care to join us?”
The response was unanimous and excitement hummed through the room. Eliwese didn’t feel the same way, though. She leaned closer to his ear and said, “I can’t go and relax until I know my mother and sister are safe.”
“Ok, we’ll get your mother and sister, and then we go to the Caribbean.”
Sara watched her son and Victor’s daughter. The two of them had grown close through the recent events, not unlike her and Paul all those years ago. They spoke of returning to Rendier to extract Eliwese’s family. Sara thought how nice it would be to visit her own parents’ graves, but the grave next to theirs was hers, and her headstone referred to her royal blood; just one of her proverbial skeletons in the closet—that, and Lyndee.
###
Discover other titles by Lorena Angell at Smashwords.com:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lorenaangell
Blog: http://lorenaangell.blogspot.com