CHAPTER THIRTY #3
‘Oh, yeah. The part where my family activated my dormant helical disease on purpose to boost interest in the Freedom System. And where my grandfather arranged for my sister to do the same to others through her new supplement injection, scheduled to launch publicly later this year. I don’t know if you knew, Gemma, but those meetings you’ve been traveling the world for, pitching your new product with samples – Dominion’s numbers might not have risen without it.
That international expansion for the Freedom System wouldn’t be in play.
I guess you never tried the supplement yourself. ’
The room erupted into chaos. Jacinta screamed as an officer grabbed her wrist. She tore free long enough to rush at me, fury in her eyes. I braced myself, but when she reached me it was to pull me into a hug. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered, her voice cracking. ‘I did it for –’
She didn’t get to finish – the police pulled her away. I blinked back a surge of emotion. I wasn’t expecting that. Gemma yelled as she was carted off, I didn’t know tumbling from her lips again and again. I clenched my fists, watching everything unfold.
I did the right thing.
Mayor Whit and his wife slipped out through a back door. He knew once the police read the files, he’d be in handcuffs too. His name was there in the report, along with a few hundred other politicians across the country.
The video looped on the screen, the files and reports overlaying Nova being healed.
‘You did it,’ she whispered to me.
‘We did it.’ I wrapped my arms around her. ‘We controlled the narrative.’
‘No. We told the truth.’
I sighed and tipped my face to the stars.
It was done. I was proud of myself, proud of Nova, proud of the new future we’d just helped create.
Two months ago, all I wanted was to surf and escape the overbearing weight of not feeling understood in my house.
Now I knew why. We were too different. And they underestimated me to their own detriment.
Officers handcuffed Grandfather. He hadn’t looked away from me.
His gaze brimmed with anger, resentment and disappointment.
As a kid, I’d hated letting him down. I’d wanted his smile with his signature wink.
Now, I held his lethal stare and soaked it all in until they shut him in the back seat of one of the cruisers.
I’m sending my grandfather to jail.
The police didn’t drive off immediately. Grandfather sat there alone while they huddled and took statements. The time allowed me to sit with what I’d done. I had so many questions, and no closure.
I squeezed Nova’s hand. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘Are you sure?’ She glanced between me and Grandfather.
‘No,’ I admitted, ‘but if I waited until I was sure, we wouldn’t have broken into his office.’
‘Now that would’ve been a tragedy.’ She sighed. ‘You know he can’t hurt you any more, right? He has no power over you.’
‘I know.’ I took a few steps, then stopped, making sure I was strong enough to have this conversation.
I wasn’t healed. As cocky as I was tonight, I wasn’t in denial about my feelings.
This would take time and therapy to get through.
I might not ever understand why my family did what they did.
But I had to ask. I walked up to the cruiser and its officer, and cleared my throat.
‘I just need a minute.’
‘You know I can’t do that, sir.’
‘I don’t need you to uncuff him or let him out. I can talk to him through the window.’
That was good enough for the officer. He moved to the driver’s side, lowered Grandfather’s window, then stepped back to standing guard, giving us the space to talk.
‘Here to show off more of that Fox swagger?’ Grandfather didn’t look at me.
‘Why did you do it?’ I asked quietly. ‘After everything. All the philanthropy and giving back, everything you shared with me about growing up in the South Alta limits. You kept the cure from the very community you used to be part of. You kept them in pain and used them to grow your empire.’
I shook my head, not hiding my tears. They didn’t change how proud I was of myself. No one could erase that. I let them fall because I refused to hide behind the manufactured Fox facade any more. Grandfather had been my hero.
‘Oh, now you’re sad.’ He sneered. ‘Are you feeling regret? Do you realize what you’ve given up? I told you – I’m not going back. Everyone else be damned, I’m. Not. Going. Back. Eyes forward.’
‘Everyone else be damned, huh? Mom used to say you can’t help those who don’t help themselves. Is that what you were trying to teach me? What you wanted to instill? The poor choose to be poor. Addicts choose to be addicts. Their suffering is their own fault just because you managed to make it out.’
‘Nice to see you waking up, grandson.’
I shook, containing my flash of rage. Not rage – disappointment.
He was gone, so far gone. He wouldn’t change, wouldn’t come around to understand why I’d done what I did.
He was lost and in handcuffs, where he deserved to be.
‘No. It’s nice to see you in the place you made for yourself.
’ I turned back to him, my shadow falling over his face.
‘Behind me. Your legacy replaced by mine. Eyes forward. I wouldn’t want you to miss it. ’