Chapter 45

If there was one thing Valeria admired about the elites, it was this ability to keep to time. When there was a function and the elite had to show up to grace it, they usually came late, no doubt to draw more attention to themselves, but when the elite society held a function strictly for the elites, there was a certain level of punctuality that was showcased and every late arrival was a direct insult.
Valeria arrived the dinner  minute before 7:00PM, she was dropped off by a limousine and she no doubt got the stares of many, her pregnancy was their first attention and then her curves and dress. It was slightly provocative for someone that was pregnant. Her shoulders were exposed and the neckline dipped a little too low. Her heels were a comfortable four inches and she trotted in them gracefully, accepting the doorman's hand as he held her up the step and led her to the security who was to clear her up. Immediately, all she had to do was tap her ear slowly and Martha's phone rang, seconds after, the Senator's wife appeared and let her bypass protocol and get into the building. She walked by Martha just as she entered and left the woman staring at her in confusion.
"Mrs Houston, it's a pleasure to have you grace us with your presence despite your condition" a certain elderlyman said and kissed her knuckles as approached. The elderly man had been paid $3,000 by Valeria the previous night to do just that.
Martha did as instructed and gave her a seat next to the door, her table only had one lady who infact wasn't a member of the Congress neither was she a wife of a senator as protocol permitted, she was all a part of the scheme.
Just as it was a few months ago, nothing that night was left to chance. The fact that one security guard had been replaced at the back entrance early that evening because the original staff fell ill was not a coincidence. The staff Van that broke down inside the compound and the cleaners had to take another van to their respective homes wasn't a coincidence either. The lights in the hallway leading to the bathroom would flicker at 7:42PM that evening and a certain repair man that wasn't a staff would be conveniently found in the bathroom hallway and be told to fix the light bulbs, also, an extra cleaner lurked in the shadow to spill three full gallons of water in the bathroom and make the original cleaners too just to tidy that up. While she would be in the bathroom stall, waiting for instructions.
It all was part of an elaborate scheme, one that Valeria had worked out herself and was proudly seeing it unveil.
At exactly 7:30PM, Valeria was called to play the piano and she did just that. She was a good pianist, something he had learnt or a certain impersonation twelve years ago and a skill she wasn't particular in love with, but she played and she played beautifully because that was what she did best - pretend, become, act. As she was playing, the audience rose to a standing ovation, unknown to them that her fingers were infact merely in sync with the gone and beneath her skirt was a soft recording of a famous piano piece, amplified by the single miniature speaker that served for her purse that evening.
Still basking in the glory, a scream erupted in the hall, a cleaner was holding a wrapped up baby, covered in duct tape and with a large note on his body.
"BABY BROWNSON JNR".
Valeria saw when Martha rushed to the scene and grabbed her baby and when the phones and cameras began to click away. The press had somehow found their way inside and it become a frenzy as the Congressmen and every other attendee gathered around to see what had happened. Valeria slowly rose from the piano, waiting to see the joy on Martha's face and she did see it, the old woman was instantly transformed with the wide smile on her face, her tears of joy flowing.
Valeria looked to Moses and saw him smiling directly at her, her Chinese bead still clutched in his tiny hands. Valeria looked up and her eyes locked with Martha's, she saw the gratitude in them and Martha simply nodded her thank you. Valeria nodded right back and picked up her purse as the security men began to order a lock down of the building to search the whole premise.
The baby was safe, she was done.
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TWO WEEKS LATER.
Valeria was seated on the seat of a gold plated Lamborghini, a twenty carat gold necklace on her neck and her favourite diamond wrist watch on her left wrist. She was sporting a red pixie cut, her eyes smoky and her lips a deep red. She'd just left the cemetery where Nick was buried and had dropped a gold bar and four car keys on his headstone, he deserved it. On Pete's headstone too, she'd left a cheque of $400,000,000 and a yacht key.
Their loot was cleaned, it turned out that Brownson had already cleared their loot before demanding to see Moses again, it was simply a case of delay in information on their side. Two days after the conference, she had received a call by their contact and the man had said their stack was cleaned out, he'd tried reaching Pete but his line was off. She'd said they'd be coming and then she'd showed up, took the loot, sold the ones she could and drove two Ferraris into the sea in tribute to Nick and Pete.
Now, as she drove to her home two days old home in Miami, she was ready to start over, begin again and hope that even if life was as lonely and as long as predicted, she had a handgun, gas and her wits to go on the journey.
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THE END