“You betrayed him!” Sarah shouted passionately over the wind.
“I merely expedited his permanent retirement,” Leo corrected with a chillingly smooth tone. “He was panicking. He was absolutely going to talk to the authorities. He was going to give up all our names. I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“And your… fake mother. Susan. She shamelessly stole from me. That is a massive offense I absolutely cannot ever forgive.”
“She’s completely gone,” Sarah said firmly. “You can’t ever hurt her again.”
“No, but I can certainly take back exactly what is rightfully mine.” Leo held out a neatly gloved hand in expectation. “The bag, Sarah. Hand it over, and you can simply walk away. You can go right back to being an absolute nobody in this desolate, freezing wasteland.”
Sarah defiantly held the heavy leather bag directly over the slippery railing. The dark water roared hungrily far below them. “You truly think I’m stupid?” Sarah yelled back. “You’ll ensure I vanish the absolute second I hand it over to you.”
“I am a strict businessman,” Leo smiled coldly, a highly predatory baring of perfectly white teeth. “I don’t waste my valuable time or resources on simple civilians unless I absolutely have to. Just give me the diamonds, Sarah.”
“Caleb!” Sarah screamed loudly.
Caleb immediately stepped out from the deep shadows, standing tall. “It’s completely over, Leo. Back away to your car.”
Leo didn’t even flinch at the demand. He just laughed softly to himself. It was a very dry, deeply rattling sound.
“Caleb, Caleb. You always were such an immense disappointment. Did you honestly think I came here completely alone?”
Suddenly, several dark figures stepped silently out from the surrounding shadows of the dam’s upper ridge. Security personnel, completely surrounding their isolated position.
“Stand down, Caleb,” Leo said, sounding utterly bored by the standoff. “Or my men will ensure you don’t leave this bridge.”
Caleb froze completely. He looked desperately at Sarah. His tired eyes silently apologized for failing her. He slowly, reluctantly stepped back.
“Very good,” Leo said smoothly. He took a highly confident step towards Sarah. “Now, hand me the bag.”
Sarah looked up at the intimidating men positioned on the ridge. She looked deeply at the arrogant old man who had violently haunted her entire life before she even truly knew his real name. Then, she looked down at the heavy bag tightly clutched in her freezing hand.
She suddenly realized in that exact moment that Margaret hadn’t just left her a simple bag of stolen diamonds. She had intentionally left her a massive, life-altering choice. Sarah didn’t hand the bag safely to Leo. She smiled instead.
It was a cold, incredibly hard smile that truly belonged to Susan O’Neill.
“You really want them?” she asked loudly.
“Yes,” Leo hissed sharply, finally losing his cool composure for the very first time. “Give them to me.”
Sarah decisively unzipped the leather bag and violently turned it completely upside down directly over the roaring water. Time seemed to drastically slow down in that pivotal moment. Leo screamed out loud—a highly visceral sound of pure, agonized greed.
From the dark leather bag, a massive cascade of glittering stones tumbled freely out into the night air. They briefly caught the bright beam of the security floodlights, flashing with incredible brilliance—blue, crisp white, and fierce fire—before vanishing completely into the black, churning abyss of the raging spillway below. Millions of dollars, entirely gone in a single heartbeat.
Leo lunged forward incredibly hard, grabbing the wet metal railing, staring desperately down into the frothing water exactly as if he could somehow mentally will the diamonds back up to the surface. “No! No! You stupid little—”
He spun around furiously, his aged face violently twisted into a terrifying mask of pure, unadulterated hate. He aggressively raised his elegant cane, pointing the tip directly at Sarah.
“Get them!” he screamed furiously to his waiting men on the ridge. “Destroy them!”
Suddenly, the entire area was flooded with blindingly bright, high-intensity police spotlights.
“Stand down immediately!” a massive voice amplified by a police megaphone boomed with absolute authority from the darkness of the ridge. “This is the Natrona County Sheriff’s Department! You are completely surrounded!”
It was Sheriff Bill Cody. Before Leo’s men could even react, a deafening warning siren wailed from the upper ridge, accompanied by a brilliant, disorienting flash from a police stun device. The tactical deputies moved quickly from the shadows, effectively disarming the surprised and blinded crew in seconds.
Leo, blinded by the intense spotlights and entirely consumed by his rage, refused to surrender gracefully. A deputy moved swiftly, securing him tightly in restraints before he could cause any further harm. The arrogant operator staggered backward in absolute shock, the fight completely drained out of him. He collapsed heavily onto the metal grating of the bridge, staring blankly at the empty space where the diamonds had fallen.
Sarah collapsed weakly to her knees, sobbing with overwhelming relief. It was finally over.
Two hours later, Sarah sat quietly in the open back of a warm ambulance, a thick shock blanket wrapped tightly around her shivering shoulders. The massive dam was completely swarming with local police, federal agents, and busy paramedics. Caleb was seated on a stretcher nearby, actively being treated by a paramedic.
He was going to be absolutely fine. The medics assured them his injury was highly manageable. Sheriff Cody walked slowly over to her. He looked deeply tired, holding his uniform hat loosely in his large hands.
“You holding up okay, Sarah?” he asked incredibly gently.
“I think so,” she whispered softly. “How did you possibly know to come here?”
“We didn’t entirely know,” Cody admitted with a sigh. “Mr. Henderson frantically called us. He said your mother—said Margaret had a highly specific panic protocol hidden in her legal will. If she passed away, and if you didn’t physically check in with him within exactly twelve hours, he was strictly ordered to send a highly encrypted email directly to the FBI containing precise coordinates and a massive, detailed file on a dangerous man named Leo Varga.”
Sarah smiled warmly through her lingering tears. Margaret. Deeply paranoid, incredibly brilliant Margaret.
She had obsessively planned for absolutely everything. She had even planned for her own inevitable passing. She had even planned for Sarah’s totally understandable hesitation.
“The federal agents are definitely going to want to talk to you extensively,” Cody said, looking cautiously toward the men in dark suits actively escorting Leo Varga and his crew to the transport vehicles. “Particularly about those missing diamonds.”
“There absolutely are no diamonds,” Sarah said firmly, looking directly out at the raging river. “I completely threw them all into the deep water.”