Chapter 82 The Aftermath
An hour later, they sat in the back of an FBI van, wrapped in shock blankets, drinking terrible coffee while the agents processed the scene.
Marcus appeared. Not Marcus the lawyer this time but Marcus the federal agent. Different posture, Different energy, But the same eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said simply. “For the deception. For putting you through hell. For…”
“You saved our daughter,” Aiden interrupted. “You saved our lives. That’s all that matters.”
“Your father…” Marcus hesitated. “He wasn’t perfect. But he loved you. When he realized what Victoria was doing, he tried to stop her. That’s why he built the case against Winters, he thought if he could take down one part of the network, he could protect you from the rest.”
“But he couldn’t,” Ariella said.
“No. Victoria was too powerful, too connected. So he did the next best thing by leaving you evidence, Breadcrumbs. Hoping someday you’d be strong enough to finish what he started.”
“The letter,” Aiden exclaimed, eyes wide with realization. “His final letter, The one about buried truths. He was telling us to dig deeper. To find Victoria.”
“Yes. He knew he was dying, and Victoria would move against you after he was gone. So he prepared you. The contract marriage was his idea too. Bringing you and Ariella together and Creating a team strong enough to fight back.”
“He manipulated us,” Ariella said.
“He saved you. In the only way he knew how.”
Elena fussed. Ariella rocked her, trying to process everything.
“What happens now?” Aiden asked.
“Now? Victoria goes to trial. Along with her network. We’re talking dozens of arrests. Decades of crimes. This is going to be the biggest financial corruption case in U.S. history.” Marcus smiled slightly. “And you’re both going to testify.”
“Joy,” Ariella muttered.
“After that? You rebuild. You take back Frost Industries. You raise your daughter. You…” He paused. “You get the life Richard wanted for you. The one Catherine died trying to give you.”
“What about Winters?” Aiden asked. “James Winters. Is he part of this?”
“He worked with Victoria for years. But he wasn’t the mastermind, She was. We’re reviewing his case now. Might reduce his sentence based on cooperation. Depends what else we can find.”
“And if we find out he killed Ethan?” Ariella’s voice was ice.
“Then he’ll pay for that too, But honestly? Based on what we’re uncovering, most of the direct violence came from Victoria’s orders. Winters embezzled, Lied, Manipulated, But the murders? That was Victoria cleaning up loose ends.”
It should have made Ariella feel better but it didn’t.
They returned to the brownstone at 2 AM, with FBI protection outside, Agents inside.they had No privacy, but at least they were safe.
Ariella put Elena down in her makeshift bassinet. The baby fell asleep instantly, exhausted from being kidnapped and rescued all in one day.
“She won’t remember this,” Aiden said quietly. “She’s too young, This won’t traumatize her.”
“But it’ll traumatize us.” Ariella sat on the covered couch. “We’re going to remember this forever, the fear, the helplessness, Watching a gun pointed at our daughter’s head.”
“Yeah.” Aiden sat beside her. “We are.”
“How do we live with that?”
“Same way we’ve lived with everything else. Together, one day at a time, Therapy. Lots of therapy.”
She laughed but it came out like a sob.
He pulled her close. “We survived, Ari. We actually survived.”
“Did we? Or did we just trade one nightmare for another? Trials, Testimony, Media circus, Raising Elena with all this hanging over us…”
“We survived,” he repeated firmly. “And we’re going to keep surviving because we’re stronger than them, Stronger than Victoria,stronger than my father’s mistakes, Stronger than everything that tried to destroy us.”
Ariella wanted to believe him.
In the bassinet, Elena slept peacefully, unaware that her family had just burned down an empire to save her.
Aiden’s phone buzzed, a Text from Jessica Reeves: Story goes live in the morning. You’re going to be famous. Sorry in advance.
He showed it to Ariella, She groaned.
“Too late to run away to witness protection?”
“Way too late.”
They sat in the dark brownstone, the safe house Catherine Frost had built for escape but never got to use and held each other while their daughter breathed softly and the world outside prepared to learn the truth about the Frost family.
Tomorrow would bring reporters, Lawyers, Trials, and Chaos.
But tonight, they were together. They were safe.
And for now, that was enough.
The story broke at 6 AM.
FROST EMPIRE BUILT ON BLOOD: Billionaire Heiress Arrested for Murder, and Racketeering.
By the time Ariella woke up, her phone had 347 missed calls. News vans were already parked outside the brownstone. Helicopters circled overhead.
“Don’t look,” Aiden said, closing the curtains. But his phone was buzzing too. Constantly.
Elena was the only one unbothered, happily eating mashed banana while her parents’ lives imploded on every screen in America.
“Your aunt just confessed to murdering your mother on live television,” Ariella read from her phone. “The internet has decided you’re either a hero or complicit. There’s no in-between.”
“What are they saying about you?”
“That I’m a gold-digger who married into the mob. Or a victim who needs saving. Or…” She scrolled. “…a ‘badass queen who took down a criminal empire while raising a baby.’ That one’s from Twitter. It has forty thousand likes.”
“Could be worse.”
“Could it though?”