Fourteen Months
Chapter 16 - Fourteen Months
The judge gave Vincent fourteen months.
Not home confinement.
Not probation.
Prison.
A minimum-security federal facility followed by two years of supervised release.
The courtroom reacted more than Vincent did.
He stood beside his attorney with both hands visible.
No watch.
No tattoos hidden except by sleeves.
The prosecutor spoke about cooperation.
The judge spoke about power.
About how fear created by reputation could become a weapon even when a defendant did not personally raise his hand.
Mave listened.
That mattered.
The judge also spoke about the danger of romanticizing cooperation after years of benefiting from crime.
Mave almost smiled.
She liked her.
Vincent addressed the court.
“I spent years believing that because I was less violent than the men before me, I was different from them.”
His voice was calm.
“I was different in degree.”
He looked toward the judge.
“Not in responsibility.”
Mave’s throat tightened.
Vincent continued.
“I allowed threats because they were efficient. I allowed illegal freight because it financed businesses I called legitimate. I watched people around me become afraid and called it order.”
No mention of Mave.
Good.
“This case began unraveling because a woman who worked for me noticed thirty thousand dollars where it did not belong.”
A few heads turned.
Mave looked down.
Vincent did not look at her.
“She was doing her job.”
That was all.
Not my secretary.
Not the woman I love.
Not the person who saved me.
A professional doing her job.
The judge imposed sentence.
Afterward, Vincent had ten minutes before marshals took him.
Mave met him in a small attorney room.
He stood when she entered.
“Hi.”
She laughed once.
“Your timing is terrible.”
“I’ve heard.”
Silence.
“What happens to Costa Logistics?” she asked.
“Employee board. Rosa stays CEO.”
“Your shares?”
“Most are being sold into the employee trust over five years.”
“You’ll keep?”
“Ten percent nonvoting.”
“Enough to be rich.”
“Annoyingly.”
She smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
“Fourteen months.”
“Yes.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Yes.”
Good answer.
Vincent looked at her.
“I am not asking you to wait.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“You should build whatever life you want.”
Mave’s eyes filled.
“That is dangerously close to sounding noble.”
His mouth moved.
“It is mostly fear.”
“Of what?”
“That if I ask, you’ll say no.”
There.
Human.
Mave nodded.
“I don’t know what I’ll want in fourteen months.”
“I know.”
“Stop.”
“Sorry.”
She laughed through tears.
Vincent became serious.
“Mave.”
“What?”
“Thank you for making me answer accurately.”
Her chest tightened.
“That was expensive.”
“Apparently.”
A marshal knocked.
Time.
Vincent looked at her.
Did not reach.
“Can I hug you?”
The question hurt more than if he had simply done it.
Mave stepped forward.
“Yes.”
He held her.
No cameras she knew about.
No men watching from a ballroom.
No danger.
Just two people who cared about each other at the wrong moment.
Mave pulled away first.
Vincent let her.
Fourteen months began.
Mave did not put her life on hold.
That would have turned his sentence into hers.
She resigned formally from Costa Logistics.
Rosa tried to recruit her as chief operating officer.
Mave said no.
Then yes to a consulting contract three months later.
Independent.
Market rate.
No employee badge.
She opened a small logistics-compliance firm with two clients and a secondhand desk.
HARBOURLINE OPERATIONS.
The name meant nothing criminal.
She liked that.
By month six, she had seven clients.
By month nine, twelve.
She specialized in companies whose owners said things like, “The books are probably fine.”
They rarely were.
Michael stayed in New York.
Not with Mave.
Near enough.
He asked for dinner.
She declined.
He asked again a month later.
She agreed to coffee.
Forty minutes.
Then an hour.
They did not become father and daughter because blood demanded it.
They became two people testing whether a relationship could exist without rewriting abandonment.
Sometimes it could.
Sometimes it could not.
Nolan pleaded guilty to two old violent offenses.
His cooperation reduced the sentence.
Mave visited once.
He looked older without the threat around him.
“I’m sorry I used you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t expect forgiveness.”
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
Leo became head of independent security for the employee-owned Costa Logistics.
His contract had one clause Mave insisted be added.
No surveillance of employees without documented cause, legal review, and notice where possible.
Leo called it the Mave Amendment.
She hated the name.
It stayed.
Elaine’s employee trust expanded.
Mave appointed two independent trustees, then removed herself from voting control.
The fund paid injury benefits.
Training.
College grants.
Mave accepted no personal distribution.
Not because she wanted to prove she was pure.
Because it had never been her money.
At month eleven, a letter arrived from Vincent.
He had written before.
Short letters.
Books he was reading.
Complaints about instant coffee.
No declarations.
This one was different.
Mave,
I keep thinking about the night at the gala.
Not the stranger.
Not the threat.
The way I pulled you against me before asking.
At the time, I thought danger made the question unnecessary.
It did not.
I am learning that urgency does not erase consent. It only makes asking harder.
I wanted you to know I finally understand the difference.
No request.
No I miss you.
No please write.
Mave cried anyway.
She answered.
Three words.
I believe you.
Vincent did not reply.
Good.
At fourteen months, his release date arrived.
Mave knew it.
She did not go to the facility.
Neither did Leo.
Vincent had asked for no audience.
He left in a gray suit carrying one duffel bag.
Mave learned this from no one.
Because no one called.
The entire day passed.
Then two.
Then three.
Vincent did not contact her.
At first, she was relieved.
By day four, she was irritated.
By day six, she was furious at herself for being irritated.
On day seven, a plain envelope arrived at Harborline.
Inside was no letter.
Just one business card.
VINCENT COSTA
CONSULTANT
MARITIME RISK & COMPLIANCE
On the back, handwritten:
You said not to come unless asked.
So I’m asking permission to ask for coffee.
Mave laughed so loudly her assistant came running.
Then she looked at the number.
Same as always.
May you like
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
For once, the next move belonged entirely to her.
