Babel Novel
Chapter 2189
Rose hailed a cab and set off on the two-hour drive to the cemetery, a far cry from the orderly graveyards back in H Country. The local resting places were a tangled maze of memories and monuments. Every year, like clockwork, she would visit, always with Penn as her guide. But this solo trip had her meandering before she found the slightly askew headstone she sought. Inscribed in neat, cursive English - "Here Lies Yvette Albinia."
Crouching down, Rose began pulling weeds from around the grave, her movements gentle and reverent.
Mike, in disguise, could've passed for any of the local homeless, hunched over on a battered lawn chair not far from the grave, surrounded by empty beer bottles. But the truth was, he hadn't touched a drop. His eyes, sharp as a hawk's, were fixed on Rose.b2
Knowing she would be visiting the grave, Mike had planted a tiny bug behind the headstone. But as Rose remained silent for a long while, he started to doubt himself. Had she discovered the listening device? Finally, he heard her whisper, "Mom, I'll make the right choices just like you did. Next time I come, I'll bring good news."
After speaking, she wiped the dust off the headstone, stood up, pressed her palms together in a gesture of prayer, bowed thrice, and then, with a deep exhale, left with a determined stride. Mike sat up, his cover still intact.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
After leaving the cemetery, Rose climbed into a rideshare - another piece of Mike's orchestrated puzzle. She remained quiet during the ride, scrolling through reviews of local diners before setting her phone aside and gazing out the window, lost in thought.
By day's end, Mike felt he had come up empty-handed.
Frustrated, he called Rosalynn to report.
"The right choice?" Rosalynn echoed the words Mike relayed. "And what kind of good news might that be?"
"I heard her mention to Mr. Lange that she wants to excel at Bane Corporation. Could that be the choice she's talking about? And the good news, naturally, her success there?" Mike didn't sense anything amiss with her words at the time.
But Rosalynn found it strange.
"She said she'd make the same right choice as her mother," Rosalynn mused darkly. "Frankly, that Yvette woman led a muddled life; I can't say I ever saw her make any 'right' choices."
After Betsy's death, her younger sister Yvette dropped out of school almost immediately, got mixed up with a couple of bad boys, ended up pregnant at a tender age, and was eventually abandoned before Natalie found her.
"Ms. Gabriella, I'll keep an eye on her! If there's something off about her, she'll slip up eventually," Mike said, trusting Rosalynn's instincts without question.
If Ms. Gabriella suspected something, it was his job to uncover it. After Mike finished speaking, silence hung on the line.
"Ms. Gabriella?" he called out tentatively, waiting for her to break the silence.