Chapter 4 - The Debt is Paid
The morning after the attack on the estate, the sun rose over Providence in a clear, pale sky, completely washing away the remnants of the night’s storm.
By eight in the morning, the main hall of the Mercer estate showed no trace of the violence that had occurred hours earlier. The marble floor had been scrubbed clean, the shattered glass doors replaced with reinforced steel-core panes, and the dark bloodstains vanished as if they had never existed.
Audrey sat on the edge of her bed in the west wing, her bags packed.
Two battered suitcases lay near the door. Brinley sat on the duvet, holding her bear—now clean, fresh, and smelling of lavender soap thanks to Dolores—watching her mother with wide, curious eyes.
"Mommy, are we going on a bus?" Brinley asked.
"Yes, sweetie," Audrey whispered, her eyes red from a night spent weeping without sleep. "We're going far away."
She knew how this worked. She wasn't stupid. They had brought violence into Jude Mercer’s house. A rival gang had tried to kidnap her daughter from his living room. A man like Jude couldn't afford liability. He had saved them last night, yes, but now he would cast them out—or worse—to ensure his perimeter remained secure.
A knock sounded on the bedroom door.
Audrey flinched, then stood up, smoothing down her coat. "Come in."
The door opened, and Reggie stepped inside. He was dressed in his usual dark suit, but his eyes were tired, carrying dark circles from a night spent hunting Victor Rossi’s men across the state lines.
He looked at the two suitcases near the wall.
"What are those for?" Reggie asked, his voice neutral.
"I... I assumed Mr. Mercer wants us gone," Audrey said, holding her breath. "Because of what happened last night. I'm sorry for bringing that danger into his home. I'll take Brinley and leave Providence. I won't ever come back."
Reggie stared at her for a long moment. Then, he reached into his inner suit pocket and pulled out a thick, ivory envelope.
He held it out to her.
Audrey hesitated, her hands trembling as she took the heavy paper. She opened the flap.
Inside was a single sheet of official legal parchment stamped with the seal of the Rhode Island State Court, accompanied by a cashier's check made out to her name for fifty thousand dollars.
She looked down at the parchment. It was a formal Deed of Release.
Tristan Wells’s debt of $187,000: Paid in Full.
Audrey stared at the paper, the letters blurring as fresh tears filled her eyes. "I... I don't understand. How? I've only worked here two months. I haven't even paid off five thousand dollars..."
"The boss doesn't keep debts," Reggie said flatly. "Tristan Wells was found in a gambling den in Atlantic City three weeks ago. Mr. Mercer’s people liquidated his assets last night. The debt is settled."
"And... and the fifty thousand?" Audrey gasped, clutching the check against her chest.
"Relocation money," Reggie said. "There’s a car waiting outside. It will take you to the train station. You have tickets to Vermont. A house has been rented in your name for two years. It's clean, safe, and far away from anyone who ever knew your husband."
Audrey collapsed back onto the edge of the bed, burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with violent, uncontrollable sobs of relief. After three years of terror, running, hiding, and living in constant fear of a knock on the door, she was free. Her daughter was safe.
"Why?" Audrey sobbed, looking up at Reggie through her tears. "Why would he do this for us? We're nobody to him."
Reggie looked past Audrey, his eyes resting on three-year-old Brinley, who was sitting on the bed, happily trying to tie a bright red ribbon around her bear's neck.
"Twenty-five years ago," Reggie said softly, his voice dropping into a tone Audrey had never heard him use before, "Jude Mercer was ten years old. His father was a brutal man. When his mother tried to leave with Jude, his father shot her in the hallway of the east wing."
Audrey gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
"Jude hid in a closet for twelve hours holding a broken toy," Reggie continued, his eyes cold and distant. "Nobody came for him. Nobody helped him. He grew up in this house learning that the only way to survive was to become harder, colder, and more ruthless than the man who killed his mother."
Reggie looked back at Audrey.
"Last night, when those men put a gun to your daughter... Jude didn't see a maid's child. He saw himself."
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Reggie stepped back into the hallway, holding the door open.
"The car leaves in ten minutes, Mrs. Wells," Reggie said quietly. "Don't keep the driver waiting."
