Everything was falling into place and David couldn't imagine an ending more perfect than this.

He was going to pick up his little flower later today and remove her from the clutches of Yves for good. She was finally going to go through therapy and become the woman that he always knew that she could be. The woman that he wanted.

He pressed the speaker button on his desk. "Elizabeth, can you make sure that Raven's room is prepared for when she comes today? I don't want her to have to wait while we clean everything up. It's going to be a long journey."

"There's someone here to see you, sir," Elizabeth replied. She hadn't been the slightest bit polite to him after he had drunkenly told her about his secret past life with Rose. He didn't expect her to give him the same level of respect but this was ridiculous. He knew the only reason why she was holding back was that he knew how to destroy her life with the flip of a button.

"Who is it?"

"I'm told it's supposed to be a surprise," she replied with a smile in her voice.

Maybe it's my little flower! Maybe she decided to come early to surprise me. His hand was shaking as he hit the button. "Send them in, please!"

"Right away, sir."

David ran around his office, making sure that everything was in order. He suddenly realized that he hadn't cleaned up properly since the last time he was in here, during his drunken tirade.

He grabbed the whiskey bottles that had spilled on the floor and threw them in the trash can. He moved the trash can from near his lounging chair to by the door where it belonged. He was going to grab some Febreeze when the door opened.

"It's so good to see you, my―" David stiffened as he turned around and saw who it was.

Ethan grinned broadly as he made his way into the office, holding a large leather briefcase. "Oh no, Mr. Hunter. The pleasure is truly all mine."

The sound of his last name nearly made him drop to his knees. Ethan knew. But David couldn't just jump to conclusions. He decided to play dumb for now. "Mr. Stroud. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"It reeks of alcohol in here," Ethan observed before sitting down in one of the many armchairs that David had scattered around his office. "Did you not clean up from the last time?"

"I wasn't expecting anyone in here so soon," David hissed through his teeth, continuing to clean up the mess on the floor. "Can I help you with something?"

Ethan smacked himself on the head sarcastically. "Where are my manners? Yes, actually, you can. But you'll want to be sitting down for this."

David made his way back to his desk where he slowly sank down into his chair. He knew what was coming but he wasn't ready for it. He didn't know if he ever would be.

"After you told me that you were a police chief, I was intrigued. It's not often that you meet a police chief that retired as early as you did." Ethan leaned back into the chair. "I wanted to know more about you but I didn't know where to start. I didn't even know your name."

David said nothing. He wanted to wait and see what Ethan came up with. The confidence oozing from every pore on Ethan's body was making him nervous. But sometimes people were confident and they were dead wrong.

"I went to go and visit Virginie in the hospital after I was done at Robert's place," Ethan continued. "You remember Virginie, don't you? The girl who you claim to love but shot in cold blood?"

"That was an accident!" He barked. "She knew who my real target was."

Ethan rolled his eyes and continued with his story, ignoring the question. "But at the hospital, my brother gave me an interesting story about you. He told me about how you had a sexual relationship with Virginie when she was a teenager in a brothel against her will. That's when I knew I made a huge mistake by letting you go. You see, I had let you go because I know this agency does a lot of good things for the world. I've heard about you from the few criminal connections that I still do have and they say that you're a straight shooter. You only take jobs that benefit the greater good. I thought the shooting was a momentary lapse in judgment. We all have them. Maybe not as enormous as yours was, but we still do have them.

"I decided to do some research. I knew it wouldn't be hard to find information about a police chief who single-handedly shut down an enormous child trafficking ring and then mysteriously disappeared. From a quick Google search, I got your name and all of your information. I also know that your old department is looking for you. There is a warrant out for your arrest. Do you know what that warrant is for?"

"I haven't got the slightest idea," David lied.

Ethan smiled without showing his teeth. "You say that. But if you didn't have a warrant out for your arrest, why did you run? You didn't announce your retirement or leave of absence from the force. You disappeared."

"As I have said many times, the creation of this agency was paramount to anything else that I was doing at the time and I needed to―"

"Save it for your lawyer," Ethan interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. "As I was saying, I have a friend in the Baltimore PD who was there around the time when you were still chief. They told me all about the multiple counts of molestation and statutory rape. About how multiple officers saw you trying to have sex with Virginie and you tried to dismiss it. You had to run. You couldn't face the music." He threw his head back and laughed. "This entire place is a shrine to your guilt. It's kind of amazing, actually."

"So you know information that's public knowledge? What are you going to do about it?" David shouted.

"I'm glad you asked that," Ethan replied, moving to open his briefcase. "What am I going to do about it indeed..." There was a pregnant pause as he was looking through the documents in the briefcase. "I knew that pedophiles sometimes keep trophies so I decided to hack into your computer system. And do you know what I found?"

David opened his mouth but no sound came out. His trembling shook his chair.

Ethan slammed a thick folder of photos on David's desk with a look of disgust on his face. "I found thousands of pictures of child fucking porn, you sick freak!" David attempted to look away as Ethan opened the folder but Ethan grabbed his chin and forced him to look. "Don't act like you're not enjoying this. You're going to look at what you've done, you piece of shit."

It was pictures of him that he had saved in a folder named "recipes" having sex with young girls, most of whom were Rose. There were photos of Rose naked, sleeping, and on top of him. He liked to look back at them because he often wished that she was that young again. Things were so much simpler.

"You don't understand!" He pleaded desperately. "I love her!"

Ethan shook his head sadly. "That's not love."

David ripped himself from Ethan's grasp and scrambled to look for his gun as Ethan began chuckling.

"If you kill me, Jabari will forward a copy of your hard drive to the Baltimore PD and they can come here and shut this place down."

David fell to his knees in front of Ethan and sobbed. "What do you want from me? Do you want money? A free mission? Protection? I'll do anything."

"You only have one option, Mr. Hunter," Ethan offered. "You will come with me and turn yourself into the police so that you can never harm Virginie, my brother, or anyone else, ever again."

"If I refuse?"

Ethan sneered. "You think that's a viable option? Face it, David, your days of being a free man are over. Your sins have caught up with you. It's finally time to pay the devil back what you owe."

David sniffed as he rose up and held his hands in front of him. Ethan put David's hands behind his back and slid the handcuffs onto his wrists. "David Hunter, you are under arrest for the rape of Rose and the possession of child pornography. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you."

Lord, please forgive me for my sins.

✕

It was a long ride to the headquarters of the Baltimore Police Department. It was just as David remembered it. A large, grey, boxy building in the middle of the city, bustling with excitement. He couldn't remember how many times he had passed through those glass doors to talk to a detective or captain about a big case. Now he was the big case.

He kept his head down as he was pushed into the building by Ethan. As they walked, officers stared.

A young brown-skinned woman was at the front desk and she stared at the pair with bewildered eyes. "Can I help y'all with something?"

Ethan pushed David into the desk. "Put your head up and tell this nice lady why you're here."

David looked up at her and kept his gaze steady. He took a deep breath. "I am David Alexander Hunter, former Police Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department and I am here to turn myself in for the charges of molestation and statutory rape."