Partners - Epilogue

He could not begin to imagine how she felt. Despite the way she referred to her father, he could tell it was in jest and that she loved him. The news report the following day painted a better picture of what went down and about Ms Abel. A week later, in an interview, she announced how she intended to make her father’s businesses legitimate, her intention to take the Abel family out of organised crime, and her own desire to leave this chapter of her life behind.

As he dropped the paper after reading the article, on one hand, he couldn’t believe it; it seemed almost surreal. But he was out of time pondering the turn of events in her life. He was running out of money, and it didn’t seem like she would be calling him any time soon. He would have to start looking for new jobs.

***

He was busy planning a heist for one of the smaller bosses when there was wild cheering. Turns out in a stroke of good luck, one of their major rivals’ boss met with a car accident after a night of debauchery. A few weeks later, after they had booted him out of his deal, even though everything went according to plan, he found out that his former employers were busted by the cops. The case was pretty much airtight, and there was little possibility of those involved seeing freedom any time soon.

*** 

It was almost six months since that fateful day when he saw her interview again in the papers. She had launched a series of companies that leveraged her former skills, from private security, to upmarket restaurants and clubs, to shipping. The officials seemed more than happy to ensure the daughter didn’t suffer for the sins of the father.

On the other hand, his own prospects seemed bleak. Police crackdown on organised crime had almost wiped out his potential employers. And then E-Division activity had brought superpowered crime to a minimum. As he sat back, looking at the cracked, discoloured ceiling of his rundown apartment, he wondered to himself, ‘Perhaps crime really doesn’t pay.’