The King's Deception

Epilogue

Malone finished his story.

An hour had passed.

Pam had sat at the table, in the quiet kitchen, and listened to every word, her eyes moistened with tears.

“I wondered why I never heard from Antrim again. I lived in fear, every day, that he would show up.”

He’d wanted to tell her all of this for some time. She should know the truth. But he and Gary had agreed to keep it to themselves.

“I learned why you suddenly decided to tell me the truth about Gary,” he said to her. “Antrim confronted you in that mall. He saw Gary and knew. He surely threatened to tell me himself. You had no choice.”

She said nothing for a time.

“It was bad that day in my office. He made it clear he wasn’t going away. I knew then you both had to know the truth. So I told you first.”

A call he would never forget.

“Gary was so different when he returned from you that Thanksgiving,” she said. “He apologized for the way he’d been. Said he was okay with everything. Told me that you and he had worked it all out. I was so relieved I didn’t question anything. I was just grateful that he was okay.”

“It was just that the ‘working out’ almost cost us.”

The concerned look on her face confirmed that she understood what he meant. Both of their lives had been in jeopardy.

“Blake was a terrible man,” she said. “When we were together, back in Germany, I just wanted to hurt you. To lash out. To make you feel the pain I felt from your betrayal. It could have been anybody. But stupid me chose him.”

“I might actually understand that, except you never told me that you had the affair. So how was I hurt? Instead, you only hurt yourself, then lived with the consequences inside you.”

And they both knew why that happened. She’d never been able to let go of the fact that he’d strayed. Outwardly, she forgave him. Inwardly, the shock of his cheating festered like a cancer. Occasionally it would rear its ugly head during an argument. Eventually, her lack of trust destroyed them both. Her confessing at the time that she had done the same thing might have changed all that. Maybe their marriage would have ended right then.

Or maybe not at all.

“My anger was so strong,” she said. “But I was nothing more than a liar and a hypocrite. Looking back, we really never had a chance to stay together.”

No, they hadn’t.

“Seeing Antrim that day in the mall brought it all back. The past had finally come to reclaim what it had lost.” She paused. “Gary.”

They sat in silence.

Here was a woman whom he’d once loved — whom in some ways he still loved. Only now they were less than lovers, but more than friends, each knowing the other’s strengths and weaknesses. Was that intimacy? Probably. At least partly. On the one hand it bred a measure of comfort. On the other, a level of fear.

“Blake attacked me the day I broke it off,” she said. “He’d always been aggressive. Had a temper. But that day he was violent, and what really scared me was the look in his eyes. Like he couldn’t help himself.”

“That’s the same thing Kathleen Richards described.”

Richards had called him a couple of months after everything happened and visited Copenhagen for a few memorable days. They emailed a little after that, then lost touch. He’d sometimes wondered what happened to her.

“I never wanted Gary to know that man. Ever. He meant nothing to me, and I wanted him to remain that way.”

“Gary saw firsthand what was important to Blake Antrim. He heard what Antrim really thought of him. I know it hurt, but it’s good he heard it. We both now understand why you kept him to yourself.”

“He’s your son all right,” she said. “Never once has he ever let on he knew anything about his birth father.”

He smiled. “He’d make a great agent one day. Let’s just hope that line of work doesn’t interest him.”

“Part of me hates that Gary saw Blake as he truly was. I don’t want him wondering all of his life if that’s what he’ll become.”

“He and I discussed that afterward, back in Copenhagen. I don’t think he has that worry. Like you said, he’s a Malone. In every way that matters.”

“Is Blake still there, in that underground chamber?”

He nodded. “His grave.”

Stephanie had told him that no gold star would be added to the wall at Langley. That honor was only for heroes.

“And the truth of Elizabeth I stays secret?”

“As it should. The world is not ready for that piece of history.”

He watched as she considered the enormity of all that had happened. He’d learned more of the story from talking to Gary, then to Stephanie a few weeks later. A confidential, cooperative investigation between the Justice Department and the British Home Department had revealed all of the details of Antrim’s and Mathews’ activities.

Quite an adventure from a simple favor.

“My flight to Denmark leaves in three hours.”

He’d come to the States on book-buying business and stopped off in Atlanta for a few days to visit with Gary. He’d never anticipated having the discussion they’d just had, but was glad everything was out in the open.

No more secrets lay between them.

“You can stop beating yourself up,” he said to her. “All of this is done, and has been for a long time.”

She started to cry.

Which was unusual.

Pam was tough. That was her problem — too tough. Combine that with his own inability to deal with emotions and they’d made for a challenging pair. Their marriage, which included much happiness, in the end failed. Finally now, after so many years, they both seemed to realize that placing blame mattered little. All that mattered was Gary.

They both stood from the table.

She stepped to the counter and tore off a couple of paper towels to deal with her tears. “I’m so sorry, Cotton. So sorry for all of this. I should have been honest with you a long time ago.”

True. But that was past, too.

“I almost got you killed. Hell, I almost got Gary killed.”

He shouldered his travel bag and stepped to the door. “How about we call it even.”

She threw him a perplexed look. “How is that even possible?”

Asked that question three years ago he would have had no answer. But a lot had happened since he left Georgia and moved to Denmark. His life was so different, his priorities changed. Hating an ex-wife was not only meaningless but counterproductive. And, besides, he’d come to realize that he was half to blame for all the hurt anyway.

Better to let it go and move on.

So he threw her a smile and answered with the truth.

“Actually, we’re more than even. You gave me Gary.”